The Thames River Tour and a Glimpse of Greenwich

Sunday morning we went on a River Cruise on the Thames as part of our final orientation activities.  Despite the bitter cold, it was actually a lot of fun, and I took a way a lot about London as both a city and a culture.

We started off across the street from the Westminster tube station, and got on the boat right across from the London eye and the National Aquarium.

I wanted to sit on the open upper level of the boat, but unfortunately that meant that the seats were a lot colder and also wet.  My cold legs and face would've suggested otherwise, but it was worth being able to take some really awesome pictures.  

The London Eye is actually London's most popular and most profitable tourist attraction, and they started letting people get married in some of the carriages.  You can have up to 25 other people, and it takes about 30 minutes to get to the top of it, and when you're at the very top of the Eye, they stop the wheel so you can kiss.

Probably the thing that I took away most from the tour was that London has loads of bridges.  Bridges everywhere.

Apparently, this bridge was built after the older bridge (that looked exactly like this one, but was just a few meters away from it) started corroding and then it was deemed unsafe.

From the Thames I got to see Shakespeare's Globe (arguably the highlight of my week).  The Globe is actually a recreation of the original Globe, which burned down a few blocks away from where the new Globe was built.  Titus Andronicus is playing there at the end of April and I've never wanted to see a production so badly in my life.

Typically, London Bridge and Tower Bridge get switched around (Tower Bridge is the one with the two towers) and my favorite story about London Bridge is how a guy from Arizona decided that he was wealthy enough to buy London Bridge, and London took it down block by block and shipped it to Arizona, and when it was rebuilt, the man who bought it was really mad that he had purchased London Bridge, because he was expecting Tower Bridge.  

Besides the bridges, I also learned that if you ever want to make money in London, all you need to do is invest in one of Britain's wartime boats and anchor them on the Thames, and then turn them into riverside pubs.  Apparently it's a massive trend.

The Tower of London

Tower Bridge

One of Britain's naval ships

After the boat cruise we ended up in Greenwich, which is the coolest area I've been to so far.  We wandered down to the market which is much less crowded and had better stalls than Borough Market (which I visited the day before).  

Greenwich Market definitely had an eclectic selection of food, and most of it was reasonably priced (and looked freaking delicious).

Portuguese stews

After the market, I met my friend at the National Maritime Museum, and we ended up going to a local pub for lunch.  Greenwich was definitely an awesome area, and I'm looking forward to visiting again in the warmer weather.