We're At The Center Of The World!

Well, at least as far as time is concerned!  This weekend, we took a short holiday to Greenwich (note: silent "e" and silent "w" = "Grenich") in London. It's a beautiful city, with an amazing park, and so many wonderful things to see.

The journey there was uneventful, but long--we made it to Greenwich in two hours. We found a great deal at the Novotel Hotel adjacent to the Greenwich train station, which is just a couple blocks from some of the city's main attractions.

We made our way to The Cutty Sark, the last remaining sailing ship which transported tea from the Far East to England.  It was the fastest ship of its time, and made many maritime records.

Audrey posing in front of the Cutty Sark

When you go into the Cutty Sark, they take you through an interactive tour of the internals of the ship. We strolled through the crew's living quarters and gawked at their 3 foot long racks.  The first mate had his own room and rack, but the second mates had to share a room.  It's good to be the King, or at least the Captain, especially when you're in charge of the ship!

With the ship's most recent restoration, visitors now get to enjoy the beautiful brass hull of the Cutty Sark while standing below it--it's stunning!

Below the Cutty Sark with its brass hull

Audrey with a display of figureheads

We ended our first day of Greenwich exploration with a walk through the grounds of the Royal Naval Academy. We popped into the Painted Hall and Audrey got a personalised tour and lesson from very nice yeoman.  I hope we're making her more interested in arts and history.

We stumbled upon a crowded Chinese restaurant (finally! Chinese food!) on our way back to the hotel. We were served heaping platefuls of bland noodles with a side of bad service.

Nevertheless, we were thrilled that we could finally get some greasy noodles in our system, and the price was as cheap as we've seen for Chinese since we've arrived in the UK.  That's not saying much, though.  We're thinking of starting our own Chinese food restaurant in Henley.  Here's the plan: we'll smuggle Jenise's father over to kickstart the menu, Jenise can then take up the cooking, Audrey can work the front counter, I can clean dishes, and Dorian can throw things at people, or hit them.

Day 2 started with a trip to the (free) National Maritime Museum. If you're in Greenwich, I'd definitely suggest spending a good half day here--there are so many interesting exhibits for adults as well as kids.

Dorian in awe of a ship

A world to sail around

Arrrr matey! 

Who knew where these phrases came from?

After our quick jaunt through the museum, we took a long walk through one of the biggest parks we've seen--there was no way we could walk the entire thing.

Can you see the end?!  Neither can I, but we walked there!

At the top of the steep, long road is the Royal Observatory.  It was fascinating learning about the history of time keeping, and the history of astronomy in England.  While we were there, we had to take the obligatory shots.

So do I stay on the left, or the right?

It was a beautiful weekend, but of course it wouldn't be complete without a little hiccup--people were messing with our travel plans to get home.

What?!

After consulting Google Maps, it told us to take the 880 bus for 6 stops, then walk .2 miles, and we'd be right at the train--easy.  Two bus trips, a reload to the oyster card, and a bit of profanity later, we ultimately got to the train station.  We just had to jump on the Bakerloo to the Jubilee line heading to Waterloo.

WHAT?!?

Well, this threw us for a short loop.  Thankfully we didn't have to go towards Stanmore, we just needed to make it to Waterloo, but it was still a little unnerving.  We did get an obligatory tube shot of Audrey, though (oh wait, I think this was from the beginning of our trek out to Greenwich!).

Not falling down.

We eventually got to Paddington, and an hour and a half later we were back home.  It only took us about 4 hours to go 30 some odd miles.  That's how travel works here, so you just accept it.  With that said, we've come to the conclusion that it's about time for us to get a car.  I think we'll be shopping for one this weekend!  We'll keep you posted with how that goes.

Anyways, that, in a nutshell, was our weekend!  I'm sure that you can tell, by now, that this wasn't the witty narrative that Jenise would normally write.  She's been feeling tired as of late, and I (not Audrey or Dorian) took it upon myself to write this one.