Friday - Thames River Cruise & Greenwich

We woke up Friday but got a slow start because Bree wasn't feeling well. It was probably all the stairs on Thursday. We took off on the 87 to Westminster Abbey & Parliament Square again to take our River Thames cruise. Our London Pass got us a "Red River Rover" pass that let us get on and off the City Cruise boat tours as often as wanted. We took the tour from the Westminster pier across the river to the London Eye dock and then headed eastish on the Thames. One of the crew members gave us a commentary as we went along pointing out important pubs and historic landmarks. It was a great way to see the river and all of the buildings that came up right to it. We got out at the Tower of London pier to go to the Tower Bridge Exhibit.

We had to walk across part of the bridge to get to the exhibit on one of the towers and again got in free with our London Pass. The exhibit takes you up by lift through one of the towers and then you walk across the pedestrian walkway and back the other way. There were several short animations that showed the building of the bridge and various alternative designs that didn't make it. As you walked along the pedestrian walkway you are above the bridge and you can see much of London. The walkway is lined with plaques discussing: wildlife of London, a labeled panorama of your view, a history of bridges including some well known ones from around the world, details about the design submital process and changes to the winning design, how the bridge works and hows its changed.

From there we went down the tower, across the bridge and down below the other tower before walking to the Engine Room of Tower Bridge. The Engine Room has two rooms, each with the old Victorian-era motors that originally opened the bridge with steam. One room is still but the second is actually in motion. That was really interesting to see even though the motor was running slowly. Since Bree was hungry (again) we stopped by a Pizza Express and split a small pizza.

We headed out of the bridge and back to the pier to get on the boat and continue the way we came down the Thames River. We took the cruise to the end, Greenwich and the old Royal Naval College. Its is absolutely striking! It was designed by Christopher Wren in two parts specifically so that the Queen's House could see through the buildings to the water. We got off the boat and wandered about the grounds a little bit. The Royal Naval College moved out awhile ago so the site is shared by the University of Greenwich and the local school of music.

We found a great restaurant for a snack, the Old Brewery which is actually new but on the site of an old brewery of the 18th century. They brew Meantime Beer which is actually quite funny because Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian. Mike had a pint and said it was good. We split a large hamburger and chips before heading on.

We walked off into the rest of the college and headed towards the Royal Observatory to try to find the Prime Meridian. We had seen the time ball from the cruise, which rises and falls precisely at 1 o'clock. We had some trouble finding the prime meridian as it was shown on the map as going right through the park we were in in the back of the grounds and yet we couldn't see anything. Mike managed to find it near a statue of General James Wolfe and had a great view of Greenwich. He did find the Prime Meridian line but it was apparently only a few feet long.

From there we were heading back to the boat. As we got on we thought we were the last ones but people kept running in for the next 15 minutes. Every time the crew member on the pier went to close the gate someone would come running down the pier. We set off back the way we had come on the Thames; we heard some of the same commentary but much of it was different. As we stopped at the Tower of London pier we called Maggie to give her a heads up we were on our way back. We had dinner reservations with John and Maggie at 8:15pm and hoped to shower before going out. As soon as we were off the phone with her we started complaining that the stop was taking an unusually long time. Then the Captain came up and told us "The boat is broke! You have to get off and wait for another boat!" So as we got off we called Maggie again and asked for suggestions on the best way back given the fact that it was rush hour. She suggested the tube from the Tower of London to Victoria, then the train to Clapham Junction and then a bus to Wandsworth.

We set out with that plan in mind only to be met with horrible congestion in the tube. We hit the Westminster station first and preferred the airy buses to the stuffier tube so we headed up to catch the 87 in the reverse of the way we had come this morning. When we got out of the station we were met with a crowd of people; more than the tourists we had seen in the morning. We quickly saw that there were metropolitan police working on crowd and traffic control as part of the street was blocked off. We were trying to find our stop around the square and finally gave up. We walked a few blocks to a bus stop behind the House of Parliament that we knew would take us back. As we passed in front of the House of Parliament, we saw that there was actually a protest going on. The protesters that have been living in Parliament Square seemed to have spilled over into the street, laying down and playing hacky sack in the street. It didn't seem like it was unruly but the traffic jam it created was getting bad.

As we were standing at our stop we realized that everyone else at our stop had walked away. We also realized that the bus that would come to that stop would have to pass right through the block street; which is what everyone else realized before us. So we started walking off away from the square hoping to find a bus stop for one of the buses that would take us back to Wandsworth that wasn't blocked by the protest. We walked for awhile; trying different directions and realizing that nothing was going to connect to Wandsworth from this far off. We finally found on that would go to Clapham Junction or Vauxhall, major intersections for buses, so we could change to Wandsworth. It took some time but we finally got back to Wandsworth around 7:20pm. Maggie rang us just as we were walking up. We were rinsed, changed and fancy in the time it took her to go fill up the car with petrol.

We drove to Chelsea, through some heavy traffic, and pulled up at the Chelsea Arts Club just at 8:15pm. The entire outside of the building was covered in paintings of classic circus acts, like the bearded lady, fire eaters, acrobats, etc. John is a member of the Club and was already inside. We had to get buzzed in and check the book that he had signed us in to meet him for dinner. The entire inside was decorated as well with large curtains and statues, lights, penants and display cases all in circus theme. Apparently they were having a ball the next day as a fundraiser and do everything to the extreme. We found John and grabbed some drinks before heading into the dining area. It was quite posh and the meal was really good. Bree had pork and Mike had pike. We bought dinner for John and Maggie as a thank you for letting us stay with them for so long and feeding us every night. It was the least we could do.

We sleepily headed back home and tumbled into bed, again.