Day Trip to Greenwich (GREN-ich)

This town is known for the prime meridian where time starts and it divides the eastern and western hemispheres.  From London it is about a 30 minute DLR ride.  I had never taken the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) but it’s the same thing as the tube, except you are overground for most of the trip.  We arrived in Greenwich and immediately went to check out the Greenwich market.  It was pretty small and half food stands, half shops.  The food looked good but we had already planned to have lunch at a well-known tavern so we just looked around. 

For lunch we went to Trafalgar Tavern.  It is well-known because it is where Charles Dickens used it as the setting for the wedding breakfast in Our Mutual Friend.  I’ve never heard of the book but Rick Steves says so and he’s a reliable source.  The place was bumping so we definitely chose the right place to go.  It is right on the coast of the Thames River and was a nice view. 

After lunch we went to the Royal Obervatory because we wanted to make sure we made it on time for the planetarium show, and we did.  It was cool, lots of stars and planets.  I really wanted to take a picture at the Prime Meridian line but it was part of museum and therefore we had to pay 5 pounds to simply take a picture!! With that ticket we were also able to go through the Royal Observatory.  We saw John Flamsteed’s (royal astronomer) house/observatory, a giant telescope, and a bunch of clocks.  John Harrison was the person who solved the Longitude problem and there were lots of painting of him holding his H4 (the 4^th attempt at the clock).

Me and the Prime Meridian Line

Next we adventured on to the O2, an Arena (like Target).  It will be hosting the gymnastics and basketball events at the Olympics.  Here we went to the British Music Experience Museum.  They have artifacts from each era starting at 1945.  It focuses on British musicians but it also has Americans, like Bob Dylan.  I saw Amy Winehouse’s dress, the Spice Girls 2007 reunion outfits, and John Lennon’s glasses.

The British Music Experience has a smart ticket where you can save all the information and log into the site and at later date and view it. 
1. Click to go to my British Music Experience
2. Log in on the middle right side of the page
    email: mrkaminsky@wisc.edu
    password: 32991
3. Select Showcase - that's where I saved the most information
    I pretty much saved everything - scroll do the end that's where The Spice Girls are.
4. Dance video - it's a really embarrassing clip of me attempting to do The Locomotion- I was too embarrassed to go all out.

To end the night we went to a Mexican restaurant.  There comes a point when you can’t have any more fish and chips! We split giant nachos and fajitas and it was like being back in Mexico (but 80 degrees colder L )

After 4 weeks of being abroad here are some things I really miss from America:

1. Cream Cheese puffs

2. American Chinese Fried Rice – The fried rice in Europe is not what you expect so do not order it.  It is simply white rice with egg.

3. Kiddie Cocktail or Shirley Temple – I tried ordering it and I received a blank stare.

4. Not Chipotle – I walked by one the other day and hope to eat there soon J