Bob & Betty go British

The land where time begins

Yes, on the last Sunday of Summer Juliet, Robert and I decided to take a trip to Greenwich. Greenwich has attractions for both boys (ships, big telescopes and cool scientific stuff) and girls (pretty gardens, historical things and nice buildings). We went for a ride on the Docklands Light Rail for the first time which was a little like a roller coaster. As it was almost lunch time we found the pub called The Cutty Sark which was recommended in one of our walking tours of London books. We all had the Sunday Roast which was quite good and we watched the ships float by on the Thames. Then we walked into Greenwich park to see what there was to see. We found one tree hill then some roman ruins (which looked like a few bricks someone had left lying in the grass). We referred to our tour information and discovered that there was an old Oak tree which was known as the Queen Elizabeth's Oak. Ok, so old wasn't how they described it:

"This ancient tree known as Queen Elizabeth's Oak is thought to have been planted in the 12th Century and it has been hollow for many hundreds of years. It has traditions linking it with Queen Elizabeth I, King Henry VIII and his Queen Anne Boleyn, it may also have been a lock-up for offenders against park rules. It died in the late 19th Century and a strong growth of Ivy supported it until it collapsed in June 1991."

A new English Oak has been planted alongside the oak by Prince Phillip.

Then we moved on to the Observatory and the Prime Meridian itself. We piled into the grounds of the observatory with the rest of the tourists, took the appropriate pictures, checked out the exhibitions and tried not to spend too much money in the gift shop. I just liked taking pictures from up on the hill, especially when the sun came out. By this stage we'd had enough and headed back through the park taking pictures of the pretty buildings and the Cutty Sark. We subjected ourselves to the Indian Restaurants of Brick Lane. Juliet wanted to have a curry before she left London. We got sucked in by the second person - 30% off and a free round of drinks - and the meal wasn't too bad although the entrees had the smallest little lamb chops I've ever seen. We tried to check out the rest of Brick Lane but decided to abandon that idea when we kept being asked if we wanted another meal. We went home feeling tired but full.

posted by Elisabeth @ 9:13 PM