2012 Holiday To London-NYC-Niagara - Day Ten

Reasonably early start this morning - headed down to the Greenwich Observatory, which was a bit of a walk from the station and not well sign posted, for a look. Entry was a bit expensive for what it was even though it was £15 for the three of us. The camera obscura was fascinating and the prime meridian was busy which made it difficult to take a photo. All the time pieces within the observatory have great history behind them but it was a tad boring.

The Greenwich Prime Meridian

Walked down the hill to the Maritime Museum, just to see the buildings, before rounding the Cutty Sark and purchasing lunch. Ventured down the tunnel to the Isle of Dogs, interesting it was, before catching the district light rail to Bank.

The Cutty Sark

Had enough time to visit Westminster Abbey, the missus wasn't sure about entering due to the expense, but a family ticket was the same price as for two adults, only £32. Fascinating building, with audioguide (Jeremy Irons did the English version), but it did creep the missus out a bit as there were so many people that had been buried there.

Northern entrance to Westminster Abbey

Visited St Paul's Cathedral, missus was tired by this stage (3:15) and wasn't sure if she wanted to enter as it was going to be much the same as the Abbey. But I made her enter. It is a magnificent building. The Boy and I went all the way to the top for a wonderful, albeit windy, view. Had to get downstairs to have enough time to view the crypt - very different to that of the Abbey. Using our 2-for-1 offer entry for the family was £19.40. Another wonderful building to visit.

Panorama shot from atop St Paul's Cathedral

Had dinner at Organic Planet in Torrington Place whereby I picked up lasagne and roasted potatoes for £3.99, before we got back to the hotel. Pleasantly surprised that the meal was quite nice. Clean up for everyone before I journeyed out to the fountain at Piccadilly Circus to meet Tomasz and his fiancee Pat for a drink. Tomasz is a blogger from Perth with whom I've conversed over many years but never met. Across the street from the pub was a Korean restaurant and, although they'd had dinner, they were very hungry and sat down for a meal. Great to finally meet them after our contact through blogging and Facebook for many years. We decided that we'd meet in Perth at the il Padrino Cafe for pizza early next year.


Pat and Tom and me
 
Hotel at 10:45 - time to ring my auntie as I had promised to before leaving London. Spoke until midnight. Can't believe that we are leaving - didn't get to do all that was planned.

Some observations about London in Sept:

 - The most widely spoken language seems to be Spanish, then Italian, German, Slavic, French and Scandinavian languages. There are a few English speakers about also.

- No flies are visible.

- Almost no service with a smile (except at our hotel).

- No-one thanks the bus drivers.

- Nobody seems to run red lights but almost everybody will cross the road against the signal. Late at night that is a bit of a problem as the bus drivers had plenty of opportunites to run idiots over.

- No sunscreen is required.

- Crowds take a lot of dodging and weaving to get through.

- Locals are quite helpful if you ask them for directions.

- Not too many fat people were in the centre of town and many of the people were tourists.

- British women have lots of makeup, are generally skinny and quite a few are tall.
Photo Album Vol I
Photo Album Vol II
Photo Album Vol III
Photo Album Vol IV (Final)