Day 1: Sleep is for Business Class Travellers.

The Boeing 787 was designed with numerous innovative features to make travelling easier on the people inside. Wireless system control allows for a taller cabin that is less uncomfortable for tall people. Composite materials allow for higher cabin humidity to keep people's sinuses from drying out. Better ambient lighting allows for improved sleep/wake cycles on long flights. Unfortunately, Boeing then sells this airplane to companies who cram as many seats as possible into it, which renders all of these improvements useless. We did not fly a 787 to London, but it wouldn't have mattered if we did. Flying coach means you get to try sleeping in an upright position, which I find impossible without a hangover and something... else. Since I had neither of these, this meant that I arrived in London at noon local time with a few hours of my eyes closed and a cup of airplane coffee keeping me going.

Nonetheless, my mom and I set off to see the Prime Meridian today, via a boat trip down the Thames. We started from Victoria Station, walked to the river, and then discovered that the nearest ferry dock was up past the houses of Parliament and Big Ben. We arrived there, but not before taking numerous pictures of the ornate stone exterior of the building, with its centuries-old figures of kings, and the gothic splendor of Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, the pictures we took of Big Ben didn't turn out so well, as cell phone cameras don't do so well against gray skies. Having reached the ferry, we boarded the boat and set off down the Thames.

The trip down the Thames from Westminster to Greenwich takes you past several notable London landmarks like the London Eye, Cleopatra's Needle, and of course, the Tower Bridge. But most importantly, it showcases the interesting jumble of architectural styles that is London. There are many buildings that have the kind of intricate brickwork and masonry that defined the buildings that people built for hundreds of years here. There are also a lot of buildings from the postwar period when architects were still figuring out how to turn steel and glass and concrete into something people would want to use, with varying degrees of success. Finally, there are buildings that have sprung up in the past 20 years, all rounded edges and glass facades and computerized designs. All of this somehow works together to create a city. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than as you cruise beneath the Tower Bridge and see the modern skyscraper known as The Shard rise up behind it, like a third tower sent by aliens to keep it from falling down.

We reached Greenwich, but were a bit too late to go up to the main courtyard where the Prime Meridian is. Instead, we took pictures on a walkway below it with a smaller display. We were also too late to see the famed Painted Hall at Greenwich College, but we weren't too late to have pies and mash at a little hole in the wall that had been serving them since 1890. While they were good, cheap, and filling, they certainly weren't helping the reputation the British have for not being chefs on the level of the Italians or French.

After Greenwich, we went back to the place we will be staying, and then out to a pub for a pint of beer, British style. This will be discussed in my next post.