England: London Part Two

Stephen and Irene sent us on our way to London by train and all went well until it didn't. Sort of. The Tube we were supposed to take was cancelled and we had to find another one to Victoria Station.  With the help of fellow passengers pointing us in the right direction, we got there.  When we resurfaced, like a little gopher, we were still turned around, but we found our way to our hotel, the B & B Belgravia. Then it was time for supper and dessert.

an Eton Mess

Where does one begin in London?  There's so much to see and do, it's almost overwhelming.  As per recommendations from friends, we took a Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour, except we didn't hop off.  We rode the whole route.  After a lunch break, we took the Thames River boat tour as well. We saw all the iconic buildings, the juxtaposition of old and new and also enjoyed the beautiful day walking around.

The London Eye

on the boat going under Tower Bridge

Old and New:
The Shard and the Tower Bridge

The Tower of London in the foreground
with the modern skyscrapers behind

In the evening we went to the Admiralty Restaurant for dinner and walked back to the hotel, only to discover that our room key ( a key with a large wooden handle) was still on the table at the restaurant!  Now what!?  The concierge let us into our room, but hopefully we'd be able to retrieve it the next day and not suffer additional charges. We immediately tried to call and email the restaurant.

The next day the restaurant responded and said that yes, the key was still there. Whew! We would collect it later in the day.  

We travelled by Thames River cruises to Greenwich Pier.  This was a much more peaceful part of London with a huge green space and lovely walking paths.  At the top of the hill was the Royal Observatory.  This is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian line.  It's crazy to find a museum dedicated to the history of time and space and navigation.  It's all rather geeky, quite a bit above our heads, yet very fascinating. 

When the red ball leaves the top of the post, it is exactly 1:00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time. The BBC radio stations announce the official time signal with six 'pips', as does the CBC.  Historically, when ships were sailing out of London, they stopped to set their chronometers to this time signal for navigation.

This is the location of the Prime Meridian line, 0 degrees of longitude.  There's a long story of how the Greenwich line became the prime meridian, with the international date line (the 180th meridian) being somewhere in the Pacific Ocean and not through a continent. 

Dave's looking for the Prime Meridian,
according to his phone's GPS.

I found it! 
One foot in each the eastern and western hemisphere!

After we were all geeked-out we took the cruise boat back to Westminster Pier and then walked to the restaurant to retrieve our lost key and on to a different pub, The Silver Cross, for our final dinner in London.

now that's a fish burger!

We continued on foot, stopping to watch the ducks in St. James Park and making our way back to the hotel to pack up. 

In the morning it began to rain.  This was the first rain we'd had in England.  Time to go home, but breakfast first with made-to-order eggs and toast.  

We took the bus to Heathrow and boarded the flight.  All went smoothly and after being awake almost 24 hours, our bed at home looked very inviting.  What a great time we'd had in both Spain and England.  We'd seen so many new places and enjoyed it all.