Jean and I hit the road for the bus stop at Bermondsey. I look at the real estate windows and realize the prices of flats one block away from the Thames drops enormously. It's a really cute neighborhood. Hmm. We get on the top of a double-decker bus and sing Joni Mitchell's "Twisted". At some point, the video we made will be here:
In Rotherhithe, we see Brunel's tunnel entrance. He built the first tunnel under the Thames in the 19th century and there's a little garden on top of the Brunel museum called Midnight Apothecary. A little red fox sneaked in and started chewing on some roots.
Next we visited the Time and Talent Garden, near the Norwegian church. Here I found inspiration for my own garden. I had a wave of homesickness, to be honest. There's a Poet's Corner sign so Jean took a pic of me.
We are heading to the Mayflower pub, where I hope to sign the descendants of the Mayflower book for Frank, Audrey and Lauren. We find this famous statue of a Pilgrim and a modern schoolboy:
Since the pub doesn't open until noon, we head across the street to the Sands Film company costume library. What a beautiful place! A lovely person lets us in - she's the cook for the workers and we get to walk through their cafe on the way to the library in back. I find costume folders from the 1920's and wonder if the dresses might be making a comeback. A beautiful desk used in a movie creates a set with glass curios and authentic objects from the 1600's.
Outside the pub, we meet two Mudlarkers, who show us the trading tokens from the 1600's they have found in the mud of the Thames. Jean and I are ready to jump over the railing and dig in, but we learn you must have a license to did in the mud! Ahh.
More walking, until we find the DLR Overground train line, which takes us on an Underground rail for a few stops until we come above ground near Greenwich. Two cops are standing outside the exit, and we think nothing of it until that night, when we learn there was a stabbing/murder right there earlier in the day.
The accents of East London are just like Professor Higgins described in My Fair Lady. Hoxton, Covent Garden, Lissom Grove, in the city center but nothing as strong as Cockney or other East London tones. So cool!
It's raining now as we approach the Greenwich Royal Observatory. We duck inside the gallery with the Painted Ceiling and an older guide grabs us and gives us 30 minutes of story-telling. He tells us to go Skittle bowling under the chapel across the way, so we do!
The hike up the hill to the Royal Observatory in the rain was rigorous, and the clouds were a bit too low to really appreciate the view, but what I did see was incredible. Years ago, I read Longitude, a book about the race to create a compass that would work at sea when the clouds made star navigation impossible. I saw all four of James Harrison's longitudinal clocks and it was incredible to think how he melted the bronze and created such perfect movements with the gears. The first three were huge, and the winning fourth one looked like an extra-large pocket watch. It was thrilling!
We took the boat bus back to Tower Bridge, waving at Ian McKellen's white house with the pink trim. Time for a play!
