What does a tourist do on a sunny public holiday in London when you know that the streets and parks will be filled with fun and sun seekers in this already bustling large city? After today I think the answer is to be flexible and willing to change plans. My plans started by wanting to take the 'tube' and explore different points around the city, including a walk along the Thames and take in the sights of Westminster. Well, first I was confronted at Victoria Station by a wall of fans headed to the soccer game. OK, I headed out of there and took the bus to Westminster. A short time later helicopters were hovering in the skies and there was a never-ending cacophony of sirens as multitudes of police cars swarmed past. A quick check of the trusty iPhone showed that the city centre was invaded by a large, not entirely peaceful, crowd of racial protesters, and another group, protesting the protesters, heading towards them.
Not particularly wanting to be in the middle of noisy soccer fans or a potential riot, I decided to escape to the only place I could think of - the River Thames. And not too soon. A few minutes after we has left the dock,we could see the crowds of protesters marching along right where we had been . I joined the cruise and spent a lovely afternoon seeing the sights of London from the water. The highlight of the afternoon was the opportunity to get off at Greenwich and walk up to the observatory. It is a lovely walk through quaint streets and then a lovely hillside park. The reward for your effort is to explore the place from where Greenwich MeanTime is measured. GMT is the global.time standard; the zero point for world time. And how cool it is to be able to stand right on the zero degrees meridian; and even cooler to stand with one foot in the eastern hemisphere and one in the Western Hemisphere.
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