May 2- Boat Ride to Greenwich

We decide to walk to the Prince Albert Pub at the other end of Battersea Park for lunch. In our opinion its not as good as the Mason Arms, but we were charmed by the fact that they let dogs come inside with their owners. Harper would love it here! Then it's off to Westminster Pier, where we hop on the boat to Greenwich. We find out that the river is pronounced Temes, not Thames. The guide on the boat is funny and knowledgable, pointing out all the sights along the river. Its a cool misty day, thank God, I was boiling yesterday. On our latest journeys we've froze in Hong Kong and been sweaty in London. I guess it's hard to be prepared for any kind of weather on a vacation.

Once we arrive in Greenwich we head to the Maritime Museum, but are unimpressed. Then its up the hill to the Royal Observatory. Its worth the 7 pounds to take your picture on the prime meridian. I find zero longitude thrilling in a way, like its the place where everything begins, even though its just an arbitrary spot on the globe. I like the small exhibit about time and longitude, the misty views of London in the distance, watching the stadium going up for the equestrian games this summer.

Then we walk down the hill to the little town. Greenwich is supposed to have a good craft market, but we can't find it until after its closed for the day, oh well. Instead we opt to have a coffee in a cafe and plot our course to the Indian restaurant where we plan to eat tonight, which is outside of Lewisham, a small town south of Greenwich.

We decide to take a taxi there, which turns out to be a good idea since its a couple stops on the DLR and then a bus and we can't figure out which bus we need to take. The restaurant, Panhir Gurkha, serves Indian/Nepalese food, yummy and artfully presented. We do take the bus and train back to London though and are quite proud of ourselves for handling our transport so well. Of course, the conductor had to hold the train so we could run off and run back on since we forgot to validate our oyster cards before we got on, but they're used to bumbling tourists here, and he was very nice about it.