Cloudy again. Shocking.
Had breakfast at the flat and decided to blow off our trip to Charles Darwin's home, Downe House.
There is no organized, direct transportation to/from this English Heritage Site, and the trip would entail one train, change to a second train, then change to a bus, then walk the last 15 minutes. Total trip time around an hour. And an hour back.
I could never figure out if we could use our Oyster card all the way or not, so the trip might cost us another 30 GBP or so, just to get there. It was way beyond Zone 9.
Oh well, add it to the growing list of things we didn't get to do...
Instead, we decided to just hang out around the Thames and walk along the river, sorta the "Bankside Walk" idea from Rick Steve's book.
Caught a train to Westminster and popped up to the surface amid a veritable sea of humanity.
I'm sorry, but there are just too many people in London, and most of them act like tourists. Our next trip is going to be on a tropical island somewhere with an absolute minimum of other people.
We crossed the Westminster Bridge and walked north along the South Bank of the Thames, past the London Eye.
We wanted to ride the London Eye, but here it was 1pm and it wasn't moving, so I walked into the office and asked what's up? A worker said she didn't know why it wasn't running, then said they were doing maintenance.
Ok, let me guess. It's not running because they are doing maintenance. See? That wasn't too hard, was it?
Hey, maintenance is a good thing. Take all the time you need, people.
The South Bank is beautiful. A really broad promenade with musicians, pop-up restaurants, magicians, dancers, you name it, it's going on.
Amazingly, it wasn't raining.
We hadn't had lunch yet and saw a Wagamama so we popped in. This place is really great. They should open up more stores in the US.
Continued walking east along the Thames and stopped now and then on a bench just for the hell of it. Gotta do that on vacation now and then.
We are not Type-A travelers where we have to get up, get out, and see everything possible. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, well, c'est le vie, or however they say it in Cockney.
The Tate Modern Museum is in this area, so we stopped in to the (free) museum for awhile. Sometimes, I just don't get the "art." I have a feeling I am not alone in that.
There is a roof-top restaurant and bar on the 6th floor of the Tate Modern and most guidebooks say it's a great view and decent food, so we went up there to see if we needed reservations for dinner Thursday.
Turns out they close when the museum closes, and the museum closes at 5:30pm each day. So, "dinner" is not really an option at the restaurant. I'm sorry, but this seems a little stupid to me, one of the few things that didn't make much sense during our trip to London.
After Tate, we kept walking east along the Thames and the path starts winding along narrow alleyways and inland a bit. Seems like everywhere you turn in London, there is some historical landmark of some kind. No exception here.
Eventually, we wound up at the London Bridge underground station and so caught an eastbound Jubilee line train back to North Greenwich. Packed like sardines.
The wife remembered that there was a GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen) inside the O2 Arena, so we went into the O2 to look around and found it for dinner.
The O2 seems only about half full. There are many 15 restaurants in there, all on the east side of the Arena. The whole Millenium Dome concept (what the O2 was originally called) just never lived up to expectations. Kinda sad. At least it's well-positioned for future growth in the area, if that continues.
Caught a bus back to the flat and ... zzzzz
Had breakfast at the flat and decided to blow off our trip to Charles Darwin's home, Downe House.
 |
| stock photo |
I could never figure out if we could use our Oyster card all the way or not, so the trip might cost us another 30 GBP or so, just to get there. It was way beyond Zone 9.
Oh well, add it to the growing list of things we didn't get to do...
Instead, we decided to just hang out around the Thames and walk along the river, sorta the "Bankside Walk" idea from Rick Steve's book.
Caught a train to Westminster and popped up to the surface amid a veritable sea of humanity.
I'm sorry, but there are just too many people in London, and most of them act like tourists. Our next trip is going to be on a tropical island somewhere with an absolute minimum of other people.
We crossed the Westminster Bridge and walked north along the South Bank of the Thames, past the London Eye.
 |
| stock photo |
Ok, let me guess. It's not running because they are doing maintenance. See? That wasn't too hard, was it?
Hey, maintenance is a good thing. Take all the time you need, people.
The South Bank is beautiful. A really broad promenade with musicians, pop-up restaurants, magicians, dancers, you name it, it's going on.
Amazingly, it wasn't raining.
We hadn't had lunch yet and saw a Wagamama so we popped in. This place is really great. They should open up more stores in the US.
Continued walking east along the Thames and stopped now and then on a bench just for the hell of it. Gotta do that on vacation now and then.
We are not Type-A travelers where we have to get up, get out, and see everything possible. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, well, c'est le vie, or however they say it in Cockney.
The Tate Modern Museum is in this area, so we stopped in to the (free) museum for awhile. Sometimes, I just don't get the "art." I have a feeling I am not alone in that.
There is a roof-top restaurant and bar on the 6th floor of the Tate Modern and most guidebooks say it's a great view and decent food, so we went up there to see if we needed reservations for dinner Thursday.
Turns out they close when the museum closes, and the museum closes at 5:30pm each day. So, "dinner" is not really an option at the restaurant. I'm sorry, but this seems a little stupid to me, one of the few things that didn't make much sense during our trip to London.
After Tate, we kept walking east along the Thames and the path starts winding along narrow alleyways and inland a bit. Seems like everywhere you turn in London, there is some historical landmark of some kind. No exception here.
Eventually, we wound up at the London Bridge underground station and so caught an eastbound Jubilee line train back to North Greenwich. Packed like sardines.
The wife remembered that there was a GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen) inside the O2 Arena, so we went into the O2 to look around and found it for dinner.
The O2 seems only about half full. There are many 15 restaurants in there, all on the east side of the Arena. The whole Millenium Dome concept (what the O2 was originally called) just never lived up to expectations. Kinda sad. At least it's well-positioned for future growth in the area, if that continues.
Caught a bus back to the flat and ... zzzzz
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