20130518 Saturday Mostly Cloudy Owen’s Pictures Dolores’s Pictures

Some sun, still cool but not terribly so.

After breakfast and dressing, we decided to go to the Observatory at Greenwich. After a lot of confusion regarding what bus line to get on (there was a “diversion” from noon to 1700 for some of the lines) we caught one going that way. But we had to connect to another, and that was tremendously confusing because the next bus stop was nowhere near the one where we left the first one.

But we were dropped into the village of Greenwich and made our way down the quaint streets to the clipper ship Cutty Sark, on exhibit in a drydock.

They've made this a very nice exhibit. There's a glass top over the bottom of the ship beginning at the waterline extending to the side of the drydock so everything below the waterline is weather proofed, but there's good visibility.

We walked into the hold through the side aft and wandered forward looking at exhibits showing what Cutty Sark did and how it was constructed (teak planks over an iron frame). You can see many of these in the pictures so I won't go through it here.

We went back aft in the 'tweendeck and back forward, then aft on the main or weather deck. We looked at the crew's berthing and the officers mess, and the wheel. The sheer numbers of lines (ropes) needed to work this ship are staggering. It was as much a technical triumph of thosed times as the computers of ours.

Finally we left and walked a good distance to the observatory. As we stood with our tickets in hand and looking for someone to give us directions, a curator came along and let us in the back gate. We attended a performance (no other way to put it) by a person period-dressed who gave a great first-person/third-person story of the reason for it, the people who made it work and the work that was done here. Just great.

We toured the rest of the place taking pictures, and taking pictures of London from the top of this hill. Then we walked back down the long path to the bus stop and road back to our streets.

We hiked to Giotto for dinner, even if a little early at 1700. We shared a bruschetta (big), then D had veal cutlet with a pinot grigio and I had veal scallopine limon and chianti. Very good, especially after having worked up a good appetite.

Then we walked back to the room where D wanted to watch a “Dr Who”. She settled in for the night. I did these computer chores, but then I'm going to pop down to the pub to see what's happening. Unless it's something really notable, that's it for the day.



20130519 Sunday Cloudy am, partly sunny pm Cool Pictures-O Pictures-D

It's a little warmer this morning ahead of a weather front that will arrive with rain late today and continue to tomorrow. That's ok if the front doesn't move with us to Ireland tomorrow.

We went to church at St Patrick's in Soho Square, as we did two years ago. Nice service.

Then we walked Oxford Street for a while, window shopping. Then D wanted to do another bus run to the end. This time we did #10 to Hammersmith Bus Terminal. All sorts of people on it. A pair in front of us could have been Russian and they were talking loudly over a middle eastern guy who talked on his cell phone the entire 42-minute trip. Behind us were some people speaking French, and who knows what else.

At the end, we wandered through the Broadway Mall but didn't see anything we need. Back onto the bus back to Oxford Street. We got off at Primark, the cheapy store I mentioned a few days ago. I bought a pair of chinos that might last the two weeks remaining, and D picked up a fleece sweatshirt. It was 16 pounds for both ($24.27).

Then we were hungry so we took a bus to Leicester Square to find a restaurant. We wandered around for a while and headed toward Covent Garden. A pub advertising a roast chicken came up so we did that. Waitress was a Canadian from BC and happy to talk with us; her mother was Irish so she wants to go there and take Irish citizenship as well. Good food.

We walked toward home (we thought) and found ourselves at St Martins-in-the-Fields on Trafalgar Square. We turned around and walked the correct direction back to our hotel.

D's putting her feet up, and probably is done for the day. I will do this then see the pub people for a bit.

Then we'll be packing for our move to Dublin tomorrow. To tell the truth, I've about had enough of the big city.

Well, we must go on. I went down to the Museum Pub for a pint, did that, and found I'd left my phone in the room. So I went back up to get it and came down to another pub down the street. I walked in and met Graham, a Scotsman I'd met in the Museum Tavern two years ago.

We chatted a bit and walked up to the Museum Tavern and started another pint. Graham was joined by Andrew from Ottawa, Ontario. They've known each other for some time. We chatted and drank and told jokes and laughed. Last call came at 2115 and they shut down the place at 2200. I left a few minutes later after having had our picture taken by the barman.

It really was a nice evening with the guys. See the last picture attached under Owen.

Then, like a dummy, I read till 0100 in order to finish the book I was reading.