295 Blog Post 1

The borough of Greenwich was beautiful and full of historic buildings. Getting there, however, was a bit difficult and required using three different lines and walking around canary wharf because the DLR is not connected directly to the underground at that station. In Greenwich there are two tube stops, neither of which is extremely close to the park which is where Christy and I had our lunches. We found out later that the one we had not gotten off was the slightly closer of the two, however. We did walk the distance, and sitting in the shade a wonderful pause in our journey. The park was not as green as the pictures I have seen, but it was nice nonetheless, and had benches along the main thoroughfare as well as many shady spots under the trees. I was particularly excited to go to the Royal Observatory, and so once we had finished our lunches and sat for a while just admiring the park, Christy and I started up the long hill towards the Observatory.

The hill was not incredibly steep, but it was long so when we passed a sign saying, "Royal Observatory Garden" we walked inside for a quick reprieve from the hill and to see if there was a shorter path to the Observatory from the garden. The garden was nice and consisted of a small patch of grass surrounded through by some paths through flowers, but no path to the Observatory itself. There was not much shade, but the stairs were pretty and there were some nice places to sit down there. Once we had completed our circuit we left the same way we came in and proceeded up the hill. We pause when we reached the Observatory before going in, as the climb had taken quite a long time and we wanted to make sure we were in the right place. Once we had caught our breath a bit, we went into the entrance to see if we had to pay to go inside and if so how much. We found that the Royal Observatory is nine pounds for students and closes at five pm, while the planetarium that is close by is seven pounds and also closes at five pm. To look for somewhere to have class we walked down the stairs to the astronomy café, which is in the same building as the planetarium. The café itself was quite small, but it had a nice outside patio which could suffice for class. Our exploration of the Observatory and surrounding buildings done we walked out to a beautiful view of the city from the top of the hill which sloped down to the National Maritime Museum.

 We started down the opposite side we had come up, which was much steeper but also much shorter, and walked to the National Maritime Museum. As we passed by the museum we saw a ship in a bottle and managed to capture some nice pictures. The National Maritime Museum also costs about nine pounds, but is an interesting place and the outside architecture means that even just walking around the outside provided a nice sight. On the way back to the tube station we passed by a little shop that carried a bunch of different maritime souvenirs. The shop was really cute and had a mix of older mementos and fancier objects along with more touristy objects. As we left the shop we could see the Cutty Sark from the corner, but as we were getting tired we decided not to explore it and instead headed home. We passed Greenwich Market, which would be a really nice place to have lunch or dinner in addition to many cafés. We also passed by the Fan museum, but didn’t look too closely into it, so I have no idea whether it costs money to go in. Getting back to the flat was just as confusing as getting to Greenwich, again with the switch at Canary Wharf being the thing that turned us around. However, our experience was fun and I am excited to take everyone to explore.

 My recommendations:

Two options to get there:

1)      Take the tube to Blackfriars find the pier, and then take the 9:35 MBNA Thames Clipper to the Greenwich pier (don’t know how long the ferry will take)

2)      Take the district line to Westmister, then switch to the Jubilee line to Canary Wharf and then switch to the DLR line to get to the Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich station (more confusing and not as fun, but probably shorter)

Options for what to see

1)      The Royal Observatory and gardens. The gardens do not cost anything, but require walking up the longer hill to the observatory. I would like to have class here, but am unsure if everyone wants to stay in the grass for class. The Royal Observatory does cost nine pounds, but the Prime Meridian runs through the middle.

2)      The National Maritime Museum: interesting naval history, but also costs 7-9 pounds

3)      The Cutty Sark: An old clipper ship that you can see from afar, but costs money to go into the museum

4)      The Royal Naval College/Hostpital: can be seen along the river

5)      The Queen’s House: we did not necessarily find it, but it is in the park

Options for class

1)      Greenwich Park: Really pretty park with lots of wide spaces to use for the group

2)      Royal Observatory Gardens: again, outside and in a specific portion of the park

3)      The Astronomy Café: close to the Observatory and either inside or outside

4)      One of the various cafés around Greenwich could be used as well, if it started raining or was too hot