The Events of Saturday, June 4, 2011

                Today began late, for the simple reason that yesterday had ended so late. After our regular morning routine, we walked the two-minute walk from our rental home to Bermondsey Underground Station, from where we rode London’s world-famous Tube for the first time. This new experience was mentally strenuous, trying to decipher the system, get on the right train, headed in the right direction, get off at the right stop, and find the best exit up to street level. The system is extremely convoluted and is currently undergoing a massive upgrade to prepare for the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics. Skirting escalator repairs and massive construction projects, we finally made our way to Notting Hill Gate, where we followed the flow of the crowd to our first destination of the day, Portobello Road Street Market.

                As we walked along this infamous street marketplace, we progressed through several different sections of the market. The first section was “new goods”, a sort of flea market – nothing like what we had expected. Next we explored the antiques section. This was more like it, with tables overflowing with ancient-looking lace, silver, and china. This was no longer a junky flea market or a garage sale. This was actually quality stuff. Soon, however, as we progressed, the market evolved back into “new goods”, “fruit and veg”, and then a flea market. The new goods section gave Lindsey a chance to peek around in souvenir shops for a T-shirt of the Union Jack flag, though she did not find one to her liking. In the food section, we passed lots of enticing unique foods, especially ethnic foods, as well as fresh produce that cost about twice as much as your average fruits and vegetables, according to Dad’s magnificent mathematical calculations. As we progressed together to the flea market, Lindsey and Abby found a fantastic deal (3 for ₤10!) for sunglasses and selected three different pairs, all of which have the British flag on them.

                Walking on and on and on, we found ourselves absolutely exhausted from the intense heat, the bright sun, lack of water, general fatigue from staying up so late last night, and walking for seven-tenths of a mile along Portobello Road. After a unanimous consensus that we were finished at Portobello Road, we consulted our GPS for the closest Tube Station. However, finding a bus station on the way, we decided taking the bus might be more convenient, given all the construction taking place underground. Yet, when we asked the bus drivers which buses would take us in the direction of Greenwich, none of them had even a clue.

                We hopped onto one bus that promised “via Queensway”, because Queensway was the name of a Tube station on the Central line, which could easily take us to DLR, which would take us to Greenwich. But, no, navigating London’s public transportation system is not that easy. We apparently rode the bus too far, but it never stopped at Queensway. When we asked the bus driver, he said we were going the wrong way, and to get off, cross the street, and catch a different bus going the other way. Doing just that, we disembarked at Notting Hill Gate and found our way onto the Tube. We ate granola bars as we rode Central line to Bank Underground Station, hoping to transfer to the DLR there. However, the map on the wall of the Tube train suggested not changing lines at Bank if at all possible due to construction.

                Therefore, instead, we continued riding the Central line all the way to Stratford, where we were then able to transfer to the DLR – that’s Docklands Light Railway, an above-ground train in eastern London. Once we had found our way to the DLR at the Stratford station, we tried to add credit to our Oyster Cards, because we were running low from all this public transportation usage. Oyster Cards are equipped with a special computer chip that tracks all your rides and deducts the appropriate amount from its credit accordingly, so when a public transportation user’s card runs low, he must fill it back up again to be able to travel. Sadly, the machine we tried to use did not accept Daddy’s American credit card, instead directing us to a ticket office. However, today being Saturday, there was nobody working in the ticket office. Amidst all this, we missed the train. So, while we waited for the next train, we sat down on a bench for a much-needed snack of peppers and chips. It was already 2 pm, and we hadn’t eaten lunch yet.

                When we boarded the next train, we had to listen very carefully to the barely-audible instructions over the intercom system. Along the way to Greenwich, the voice directed us to disembark from the train, transfer to a different platform, and board a different DLR train to Greenwich. Eventually, we ended this little traveling adventure at the Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich DLR Station. Just outside the station, we added money to our Oyster Cards, this time using cash.

                Wandering onto the grounds of the Royal Naval Academy, we found toilets and received an extremely useful map. As we wandered a bit more, we stumbled upon a lovely picnic stop on soft, not-wet, cool grass, in the shade of towering oak trees, along the riverbank, with delicious food, and even live music playing. There was only problem: it was 3:00 in the afternoon.

                After lunch, we walked slowly up the steep hill through Greenwich Park past the National Maritime Museum to the Royal Observatory, a beautiful white Italian Renaissance building with a huge and apparently well-known orange time ball on top. When we arrived, we were disappointed to find that admission was no longer free. Still, we paid the small fee, entered, and breezed through the reconstructed and rather uninteresting apartments of Flamsteed House. Ascending to the observatory atop the house and then descending to the lower floors filled with historical timepieces, Ben and Dad found the various displays and exhibits fascinating. However, the rest of us were too tired and hot to enjoy anything unless sitting down, watching a movie, or being blasted by cool air. After we’d fully explored the time galleries, we visited a camera obscura. This amazing phenomenon uses a lens and rotating mirror to cast a close-up real-time moving panorama of the National Maritime Museum. The image was projected onto a circular table inside of a dark room with several black curtains as an entrance. We could just barely make out people moving along the path in the dim moving picture on the table, but it was still very cool.

                Just outside the camera obsura, we enjoyed a fantastic panoramic view of London. Then, we straddled the Prime Meridian line (after queuing for half an hour to take our picture with a metal line in the pavement and a shiny sculpture). But something was amiss! Ben pulled out our GPS and found that it disagreed with the Prime Meridian. At what the Royal Observatory of Greenwich claimed was longitude 0.0⁰, our Gypsy reported 0.00152⁰. In the next exhibit, we found out why – some navigation systems are based on a different line 335 feet to the west. After a quick trot through the gift shop, we gladly walked downhill along “The Avenue” through Greenwich Park, and caught Bus 188. That wonderful bus took us straight home, with no trouble at all. It was even a double-decker bus, and the views were spectacular. We walked home from the bus station (it was just around the corner) and cooked up a quick dinner before heading to bed.