Parks & Recreation | krismasinlondon

Happy Thursday! The tube strike is over (until next week) and it’s T-1 day until the long weekend! Since it’s a rainy evening and my parents and brother come back into town tomorrow (they are currently making CJ’s Beatlemania dreams come true over in Liverpool) before heading home to Vancouver on Monday, I thought it would be a great time to get back into writing about the many adventures that we have been on since my family have come to visit! I’m feeling a little out of practice writing again, so bear with me 🙂

On the Saturday of the Easter long weekend, we headed out to Greenwich for the day to do some exploring and get away from the massive crowds that were dominating the streets of downtown London. Our mission: a cruise down the Thames, lunch in a cute pub, and soaking in some history and some sun! While it wasn’t warm, the sun was shining that day and we accomplished everything we had set out to do!

To anyone wanting to head out to Greenwich or Canary Wharf and aren’t short on time, I highly recommend taking the Thames Clipper down the river for a scenic tour of London instead of cramming onto the tube, and DLR out in that direction. While it may take longer, the sights are breathtaking, there’s seats to sit on, AND there’s coffee, and beer if you so feel like it!

With an unobstructed view of Westminster from the dock, to passing under Tower Bridge, and a sea level view of Traitor’s Gate, a cruise down the Thames on the Clipper was a bargain at £6.80, AND you get a 10% discount with your Oyster card!! I’m not too sure what bells and whistles you get on the other river cruises operating in the same area, as when we went to ask one of them about what the difference was, they really couldn’t tell us and didn’t seem like they wanted to sell us tickets, which was a good thing since they were £14 EACH!

My Favourite View

Heading towards Tower Bridge

Just About to Go Under

The Shard

I got my swim trunks, and my flippyfloppies

Traitors Gate

After our 45 minute journey, we disembarked in Greenwich. First stop, the Cutty Sark! My outdated London guidebook must have been published right before prices skyrocketed! The book said tickets were £5.00 but when we got there, £13.50! As awesome as I’m sure it is, I think I got the gist of it by walking around the outside. So after a quick trip around the gift shop and peeking through the glass to look at the bottom of the boat, we were on our way to find some lunch!

Cutty Sark – Bottom View 🙂

Cutty Sark – Top View 🙂

Bellies full from tasty pub grub and a pint, it was time to check out the Maritime Museum. The building itself is a work of art, as well as the lush green space surrounding it!

The reason I wanted to go to the Maritime Museum was because I had read that there were some items from the Titanic. I searched high and low in that museum and did not find these items. That’s not to say the museum was disappointing, I’m just not a huge fan of Maritime Museums; however, I was impressed by the sizes of the Figureheads that were taken from the bows of different ships.

I kept trying to imagine what the figureheads would have looked like on a ship and loved seeing the wear and tear caused by the salty ocean water crashing against the ship as it sailed through the seas! Yes, I am a geek 🙂

After the museum, we walked up to the Royal Observatory in the hopes of seeing the Prime Meridian but unfortunately it was just closing as we walked up. So instead we enjoyed the views from the top of the hill! And what spectacular views they were!

After a busy day, it was back on the DLR and Tube (per CJ’s request :)) into the city for some tea and cakes, and then back to the hotel for the family and home to bed for me 🙂 Definitely looking forward to exploring Greenwich some more, especially after reading that it was popular with the Tudor Family AND Henry VIII was born in Greenwich! Next time I will be taking a visit of the Queen’s House and The Royal Navy College!!

My first visit to Hampstead was a very nice surprise! I had no clue that such expansive green spaces existed right in the city and within walking distance of where I live! Although we did take the bus, which was good considering we went on a super long walk through muddy fields and and puddles. It was a lot of fun!

Our mission was to head to a pub for a traditional Sunday roast after a nice walk through Hampstead Heath. This was my first visit to the park and the views of London were incredible! You can actually see the Shard and London Eye from the top of the hill! Unfortunately I forgot my actual camera (as usual) and so my Iphone pictures don’t do the views justice at all! We also walked past Kenwood House which used to be an estate for some extremely wealthy people back in the day but is now an impressive art gallery that is free to the public! (I love free!)

Since it was a sunny day the park was packed with groups of people out for a Sunday stroll or run. I felt pretty pretty pathetic getting winded after walking up the hills while other people were running but at least I was out!

After walking through the park and getting lost a couple times along the way, we walked through a couple very high end streets in the neighbourhood where Porsches and BMW’s are the norm. The houses were impressive!! Many of them with blue plaques stating what famous person used to live in each house and when. I’ll have to brush up on my British history since I didn’t know any of the names.

We all had definitely worked up an appetite by the time we had reached The Spaniard’s Inn, one of London’s oldest pubs. Once the local haunt of such iconic authors such as Dickens and Keats, it also played a cameo in Dickens “Pickwick Papers”. Since I’m a bit of a Dickens geek, I LOVED the fact that I could have been sitting in the same cozy back room that Dickens had sat in while drinking a pint of his favourite beer and imagining what tales he would write next.

Aside from the famous guests, the Spaniard’s Inn was the ultimate in cozy pubs! It had a huge fireplace in the back which made the entire pub smell like burning wood and Christmas 🙂 The ceilings were low, and dark wooden beams and pillars gave the pub an old time atmosphere that is exactly what I love about London pubs! I am amazed and in awe each and every time and it never gets old!

I had my first proper Sunday pub lunch complete with roast beef, yorkshire pudding, veggies, roast potatoes and gravy! Although a little on the high end of the price scale, it was worth it!! Huge portion and delicious! I also discovered a new beer “K IPA” which I picked only because of the letter K but it was delicious!

After we were all pleasantly stuffed, it was time to head home! It was a great day exploring a new area in the city and I will definitely be back! I also got to meet two new really awesome people 🙂

Now it’s breaking bad marathon time!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Kristal