Every Day Living: London: Day 2

On to day two!

It started off nicely with a little bread, butter and tea provided by our lovely landlord Nina. I learned 3 things from this. 1. English butter is very good and not kept in the refrigerator. 2. I like electric tea kettles and would have one if I drank more tea than I do. 3. English bread is better than American bread also.

Dad had to get some pounds from the ATM before we started our day.

Then we walked by some little shops on our way to...

The train station...

Does dad look official or what?!? He's got his paper and is waiting on the train.

And what's on the front page? The Paralympics! I am honestly glad now that the US didn't get the 2012 bid for Chicago. Should I have said that? Probably not. But I just don't think the Americans would have supported the Paralympics like the British are. The whole country is SO into the games. All the events are nearly full. The crowds are so friendly and cheer for the athletes. There is even 24 hour televised coverage of the events! It is great!

We headed over to the O2 Arena (North Grenwich) to watch MA play ball.

This is the huge arena where the British have their big concerts and where the gymnastics competition was held during the olympics.

The US won this game agains Mexico by a lot but I forgot exactly how much. We finally got to visit with MA after the game. We ate really good stir fry from the vendors and chatted for just a bit before she had to go back to the Village.

After the sports in the morning we headed to see Greenwich! I really appreciate how forward thinking the architecture is here. Even if it's not the most "beautiful" all the time, at least they are doing something new and exciting rather than trying to replicate something old... Cause how in the world can they re-do the old they've got?

Mom and Dad on a double decker bus!

Me on the top deck...

One more...

We went on a tour of the Cutty Sark, the fastest clipper ship of it's day. I'll do a separate post on that for you later. :) dad was SO happy to see this. He already knew all about it.

Here I am in the city.

We then walked up what felt to be like the tallest hill EVER to get to the Royal Observatory.

Then we walked through Greenwich Park and saw some horses from the equestrian events that were being held at this location. They had dirt paths all through the park for the horses to ride.

Once at the Royal Observatory we stood in the worlds longest, slowest line to see...

The Meridian Line! Here I am standing in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres!

Then we went through the observatory and museum. This is the octagon room that housed the telescopes...

Huge windows for observation.

We saw SO many amazing clocks... Many of the most important clocks in the world too!

This man, John Harrison, made many of them.

Beautiful views over the London skyline...

And on the way down, a Bentley.

And a beautiful church.

That was open.

Benjamin Waught house. Founder of the National Society for the Preservation of Cruelty to Children. Dad was impressed. :-)

On to the Greenwich Market!

Yum!!!

We saw "Louisiana Sausage" which had nothing to do with Louisiana.

It was really beautiful!

There were tons of crafts and antiques and food and sweets and drinks.

Then we ate in a little pub that had "A Great Menu".

My bottled still water... In a real glass bottle.

And maybe not "Great", but a very good carved ham sandwich with lettuce mustard and tomato chutney.

We walked to the train through a neat little neighborhood.

Ready to ride again!

Into London Bridge Station. I just can't help but think of all the millions of people who have gone through these stations... Men going to war... Coming home... Just interesting to me to think of it.