Wicked in London!

August 9, 2023

This morning we decided to use our second day of our river cruise pass to head the other way down the Thames to Greenwich. (Thanks for the recommendation Richard!)

We left from the dock at the Tower Bridge. This is how it looks from the water:

The ride to Greenwich took about 30 minutes. We sat out in the sunshine and enjoyed the views along both sides of the river.

I'm going to be honest with you. I'd never even heard of Greenwich (pronounced Grenitch) before so had no idea what to expect. It has a multitude of sites to see including: The Cutty Sark (an historic sailing ship), the Prime Meridian longitude 0 (where you can stand over the line and have one foot in the eastern and one foot in the western hemisphere at the same time!), among many other historical buildings. Several of the house fronts from Bridgerton are also located here.... which I didn't know until later... but will definitely look for next time!

It is also home to the famous Greenwich Market which is where we headed.

Along the way we came across this pub (well to be honest many pubs)... but when I saw this sign I knew I would never go in! Is this a thing??? Eels in pies? I had no idea!

The Greenwich Market was originally opened in 1737 and is a covered market selling a wide variety of things. We both found the objects for sale quite interesting and managed to only buy me one scarf (the luggage is at its max) even though I know I have too many scarves already 😀 If I was at home I could have bought a LOT more lovely things from the little shop where I got my scarf!

We also decided to stop for a cold drink at this little cafe. Note to those of you not from England that you often go up to the counter to order and then take your drinks to your table. We did figure this out on our own, but one poor family with two disgruntled teenagers sat at their table for awhile waiting before finally realizing they should go inside!

This photo was taken in the streets leading into the covered market. There were many cute streets in this area!

Do you recall yesterday how I was wishing King Charles would come out for a chat... but then found out he wasn't actually home? Well today we discovered it's because he was out here in Greenwich Market keeping company with a kitty cat 😉

Photo evidence below!

Now that I've had my official royal sighting I feel like my visit is complete, and we decide to head back to the boat to head down to Westminster again.

Here are a few photos of some pretty stuff you might see if you're travelling along the Thames by boat:

When we exited the boat in Westminster it was PACKED with people... way more than yesterday. Steve whispered to me "I like London better in the rain!"

On our walk we passed through Parliament Square where there are statues of important figures like Winston Churchill, a lot of people I didn't know... and Nelson Mandela. When the bronze statue was erected in 2007 Mandela and his wife were both present.

We ended up off the beaten track at bit at a lovely pub where we had a surprisingly delicious dinner. We met some interesting people that we chatted to while we were eating including a young girl from Alaska who quit her job and decided to take two months in Scotland to work on writing a book. I love hearing about people taking risks like this to do something adventurous while pursuing their dreams. I hope it works out for her!

Below are a few more photos of pretty places we saw as we walked our way down to the Apollo Theatre in an area called Victoria... everywhere we go we find more Victorias!