London: St Paul's, Greenwich, Tower Bridge, new camera

Alarm went off at 8am, and I staggered down the ladder at about 8.30, feeling crap. We had cereal and I had a cup of Tesco’s tea for breakfast and rugged up to face the day at about 10am. This wasn’t all laziness – we couldn’t get an off-peak tube ticket before 9.30.

We walked to Tottenham Court Rd station and caught the tube straight to St Paul’s. I had never been so close to it and it was impressive. We had photos on the steps, and then went inside to find that entry was £9. No thanks! We saw all we could from the side entrances and made a note that evensong was 5pm. We walked around the outside and got some good views and more photos.

We spotted a tourist office and went in. A woman told me that the Globe Theatre was not running tours in winter (ha! how wrong was she?!), and we got a theatre guide and a stack of other brochures. We went back to St Paul’s station and got some yummy Danish pastries for morning tea. From there, Jess wanted to see the Bank of England for some strange Mary Poppins reference. We went to Bank station, and since time was getting away and we could get straight on the Docklands Light Railway, we decided to go straight to Greenwich.

We got a direct tram to the Cutty Sark station just over the river and got off. We walked through an arcade thingo and came out at the water. The Cutty Sark is permanently moored as a museum and is also used for functions. It’s huge and it’s a lovely feeling seeing the masts and rigging from all over the town.

We walked through the Royal Naval College, designed by Wren, and called in at the beautiful chapel. It has an amazing original (restored) organ. We went past a skating rink and walked away from the water towards the Royal Observatory. After taking a photo or two behind us, we made it up the hill in time to see Charles Todd’s time ball move all the way up the pole at 12.58 and then drop with rather a wobbly trajectory back to the bottom, at 1pm.

We went and saw the meridian and had our photos taken next to it. We also went into the camera obscura and when people weren’t walking in and out letting light in, we could see a revolving image of the scene around the observatory. We went in the museum part and saw the instruments they used and saw pictures of Charles Todd’s Astronomer Royal. The current Astronomer Royal is trying to create public learning centres to impart knowledge about astronomy.

We went up into the main dome and saw the gigantic telescope. Amazing. Then down to the shop and Jess bought Clint a birthday present – an instrument that’s used to calculate the time from the angle of the sun. It’s very pretty and very shiny. On the way down the hill we took more photos and then headed through the town proper to have a look at the markets. It was the wrong day and they were very boring.

We got back on the tram and went as far as Westferry so we could change trams for Tower Gateway. Once there, we split up and Jess went to the Tower of London and I went to Tower Bridge (after eating our sandwiches). I walked over the bridge and checked out the gargoyles (damn, I didn’t have a camera). On the other side I had my application letter for Southampton printed at a copy shop and walked around the corner to post the whole thing.

I walked back over the bridge and to the tower. I took a photo with my phone and called Jess. She wasn’t finished, so I thought I would nick up to Oxford St and find Jessops and back to the tower for 5pm. It took longer than I thought by the time I changed trains at Embankment. I asked all my phone questions at O2 (bastards!) and they directed me to Jessops in New Oxford St.

I found a good bag and decided on the black camera model because the silver bag was too big. By the time I did this it was 5pm and so I called Jess and she got a train to meet me at Tottenham Court Rd. We headed back to the hostel (finding it first time this time). I dropped off my new camera, and went back out to meet Rachel at Bond St station – we had coffee at Starbucks in Borders on Oxford St.

Back at the hostel, Jess and I cooked our Thai vegetables for dinner. I have no idea what we did for the rest of the night, but I think I had a slightly earlier night than the previous one. I played with my camera, read the instructions, and charged it.