Greenwich and Noodles

*All photo credit goes to Tim.  Nice werk...
 
Tim and the guys will be working half days on Saturdays (8 am- 1 pm), which we kind of thought would be a bummer and kill the whole day.  However, we discovered that an afternoon and evening is really plenty of time to cram in site-seeing.  What I'm realizing is that when you have virtually no regular household tasks to attend to (cooking, cleaning, dogburts, etc) it leaves a LOT of time in your day for living life.
 
While Tim was working Saturday morning, I made it my mission to figure out what we could do and (more importantly), where we could eat.  My friend Leah spent a semester here studying abroad, and gave me a couple of pages of tips, tricks, and things to do.  Being a poor college student, she didn't eat out much, but she did recommend one restaurant: Tai Won Mein.  She said it was her favorite Chinese place in London.  I looked it up and realized it was in Greenwich, near the Prime Meridian.
 

 
 
My friend, Anne, had spent a month here studying, and told me about the Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory at the Prime Meridian.    It sounded fascinating, and I told myself I would need to spend a day there.  A whole day.  So I eliminated that option for Saturday afternoon.  I figured maybe I should go see some of the more "traditional" London sites, like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.  After all, my blog readers want to see PICTURES!
 
Tim got back around two, and said that PM (the project manager) was the only one interested in site-seeing, and that he just planned on taking a train into the city and finding something he hadn't seen before. (PM has been here several times and had seen a lot of stuff).  I said "Well, maybe he hasn't seen the Prime Meridian...". Tim called him, and we all decided that was where we were headed.
 

 

 

It took awhile to get there (its on the other side of the city), but we finally emerged from the DLR station, and were in an incredibly charming town. We wandered around and found a map, then starting hiking to the Prime Meridian.
 
 

 
 
Let me tell you something: it is a hike up to the Royal Observatory.  The actual mileage isn't that bad, but the climb is quite steep.  We got up there and poked around for awhile, then realized that they charge you to stand on the line marked as the Prime Meridian.  How they can charge people to stand on a line that spans half the globe, I don't understand.  We're cheap, so we didn't cough up the cash bank notes.
 

 
 
The museums and displays were open until 5, and we got there around 4.  This didn't leave us much time to look around, so we decided we will be heading back.  Kelly, you might love this, so maybe we can go when you come.
 

 
 
Since we had climbed a huge hill, we had a stunning view of London from a side you might not normally see.  We enjoyed the views, then decided we were very, very hungry and wanted to find Tai Won Mein.  Tim found a route through the park, then down a picturesque road, and then we were there.
 

 
 
Leah, it was SO GOOD!  I think I would qualify this as the first truly good food I have eaten since we got here.  Well, the first real food.  Digestives and shortbread are pretty good, too, but you can't really make a meal of that.  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for the recommendation. 
 
Tim found another Tai Won Mein on the western side of the city, closer to where we are staying, so we'll have to check that out and see if it's really the same thing.  Seriously so good.
 
After dinner we looked around a bit more, and found a building with some stairs going down, and saw several people head down the stairs.  After much speculation and phone research, I read a sign that was posted and said "I think its a pedestrian tunnel.". PM said "Let's do it!". So we did it.
 
Down, down, down, then through a tunnel under the Thames.  When we re-emerged, we were on the other side of the Thames, and the DLR station was right there!  We hopped on and headed into the city to see the lights.
 
To be continued...