Wednesday morning greeted us bright and early but full of a good night’s sleep. The day started with leisure time at the flat before moving to The Riding House Cafe for brunch. The food was delicious, especially Susan’s chorizo hash.
With full bellies, we made our way down to the famous Liberty for their department store which is built into an old Victorian-style palace. After a brief visit in the store and surrounding shopping district (along with some residual decorations from the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee), we caught the light rail for our first major activity of the day, visiting Greenwich. Greenwich is a small town southeast of London proper, across the Thames, and is known for being the location that the Prime Meridian was set. The old observatory at the top of the hill now serves as a museum to longitude and clocks and includes a line marking longitude 0 where you can get a picture straddling the line, like everyone else. The observatory hill also provides a panoramic view of the skyline, including the nearby Olympic stadium. The base of the hill was also a construction site for an equestrian venue for the upcoming games.
Needing refreshment after our morning walk, our party wondered back to the riverside visit (near the Cutty Sark) and grabbed a midday beer and appetizer at a local pub. Once sated, we transited back to the flat for an early afternoon pit-stop before venturing out again.
Our afternoon activity was an English tradition, high tea. Our tea was enjoyed at the Renaissance Hotel near King’s Cross, which had apparently recently undergone a renovation. The building was impressive and the tea room was large and comfortable. We were amazed by the amount of snacks provided with the tea, particularly the number of treats. Sandwich sections were provided, which is common, and were plentiful but in a reasonable proportion per person. However, the treats were presented on an individual tasting platter for each tea drinker with about 10 desserts on each tray. Needless to say, we were overwhelmed and unable to finish the food.
At the completion of tea, it was getting into early evening and Susan and I needed to start planning for our early morning departure, so we called it a night early. We did enjoy a “lighter” dinner from Otto, a pizza restaurant specializing in pizzas with a cornmeal based crust. So basically, we ate and drank our way through the day. This was followed by packing and printing boarding passes before bed.
Tomorrow we head to mainland Europe (Budapest), where the more “rugged” portion of the trip begins. A big thank you goes out to the Ruperts for housing us and Craig and Teresa as well for guiding us around through London.
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