Noel's Adventure(s): February 12: Greenwich

Today we caught a tube to the Thames riverboat services area near Westminster. Our guide met us there, and we took a big boat on the river to Greenwich. It was a very nice way to see the city. I was able to get a very different view of lots of big landmarks, like the London Eye and Tower Bridge. The only problem was that it was freezing! The boat tour probably lasted about 50 minutes, and we disembarked at Greenwich village. Greenwich is one of the farther villages of London, kind of outside the big city part. It felt like a little town. We walked through the market and towards an area that was once Greenwich Palace, then a naval complex and now belongs to several collages. We went inside The Painted Hall, which is a big building were banquets were (and are) held with a beautifully painted ceiling, and saw where Horatio Nelson lay in state in 1806 after he was killed in the Battle of Trafalgar. We then went into a church on the other side of a lawn from the Painted Hall, which was commissioned by one of the more flamboyantly decorative kings. The place looked like a doll's house church, designed by an eight-year-old girl. It was all yellow and light blue and cream swirls and curly-cues, which was kind of funny because the stone outside was decorated with things like Neptune, the sea god, looking particularly fierce and fishy. At the end of a long path down a lawn from the two buildings is the "Queen's House," which is apparently a very important architectural masterpiece. I wasn't too impressed. The reason it's remarkable is that it's literally a rectangle with symmetrical windows, painted white. It was designed by Inigo Jones, a super-famous architect hereabouts, for Anne of Denmark, wife of James I, in 1616, to incorporate classical, simple, symmetrical design rather than the usual Tudor-style redbrick buildings. Instead of going inside, I went to the Maritime Museum, but some friends did and they said it wasn't much inside either, where it's been converted to an art gallery.

After wandering the Old Royal Naval College area, we hiked over a park that will be used for the equestrian events of the 2012 Olympics, and up the big hill where the observatory sits. The view from the top of the hill was pretty spectacular. In the distance, we could even just make out the outlines of the Olympic Stadium. I went inside the Observatory and stood on the Prime Meridian, which marks the boundary between the hemispheres. That was fun.

Then, we headed back to the market for lunch and shopping. I had packed a sandwich from a shop down the road, a chicken and avocado smushed up salad on a fresh baguette for £2, best deal ever! My friends all chose different stalls to get their lunches, so we had Caribbean rice, sushi, Thai, and a "Louisiana-style grilled sausage" (back home, we call those hot dogs). We wandered the market for awhile. I got a brightly-colored silk wrap-skirt to wear dancing when I get home, and some cheap dangly earrings for fun. I also found a lovely silver ring that matches a necklace Erin loves. I got a fresh, handmade churro from a vendor at the edge of the market. He filled half with caramel and half with chocolate. It was the best churro I've ever had. After the market, a friend and I found the National Maritime Museum, and explored for awhile. We were looking for the clothes Horatio Nelson had been wearing the day of his death, but they weren't on display that day for some undisclosed reason, which was incredibly disappointing, but we did get to see the waistcoat he wore during the Battle of the Nile, which he ordered never to be washed, so it still has grease stains from his ponytail wax. After that, we headed home by boat and were back in time for dinner.

In front of the London Eye, just before the tour

Big Ben

We're on a boat like the one in the background

I really, REALLY hope it doesn't fall down! (By the way, the old London Bridge got bought by and American and re-installed in Arizona. This is the newer, ugly, utilitarian concrete bridge that replaced it.)

This is a new building called "The Shard." When finished, it's supposed to look like a shard of glass sticking into the sky. I think it will be the tallest building in Europe when it's done.