London Day 4 - Monday - London Eye, Greenwich

Monday - The noise of the kids getting ready for school woke us up around 7:30. We tried to go back to sleep but that didn't work; the stairs in this lovely old house are noisy. So we got up around 9. Kathryn thought we might like to try a French breakfast, with French bread, croissants, pastries, cereal, fruit and yogurt. 

We took the train to Victoria Station, then took the Underground to the Eye of London, the huge Ferris wheel built for the Millennium celebrations.  

It moves very slowly, and they set it up on the riverbanks, so it provides a great birds-eye view that includes Big Ben and Parliament.

Afterwards we bought a boat ticket and had a snack of sausage with onions – it was OK, but not great.  Took the boat ride down the Thames.  Saw the Queen Mary ocean liner, BlackFriers and the Globe Theater. 

And Cleopatra's needle, which is a long way from home.

Then we went to Greenwich. We went to a pub for fish and chips and tea for me, and Shepard’s’ pie and Guinness for Randy. It was a nice pub, a little smoky in front but not in the back room where we sat. 

It was a pretty walk up to the observatory, uphill through a well-kept lawn area.  

From the top you can see the Millennium dome.  They charge now to enter the actual Observatory and we didn't go in; instead we walked around the lovely grounds.

We bought ourselves a pastry at the snack stand, and feed nuts from our trail-mix to a local squirrel. We walked though the town, then back to the lovely Cutty Sark. 

And nearby is the Gipsy Moth, the one the pub was named for.

We took the light rail back – it runs under the Thames, and it was packed on this trip.We went to Marks and Spencer, which is always a nice place to visit. We could buy tea and cookies there, or soda and snacks for the road, use the restrooms and exchange cash. This time I bought some nighttime face cream because the chill and damp weather was getting to me. We also sat down and had some tea. I love it that their sugar comes in little paper tubes. We did a little grocery shopping while we were there – ham and cheese, croissants and chips. We usually take the Marble Arch underground back to Brixton, but it was closed this time – possibly due to terrorists – so we took the bus home from Marks and Spencer. Then we walked down a block to a small store and bought a tonic and Guinness, and walked home around 8:30.