A day in Greenwich

Ride the Tube to Greenwich

Now that the Jubilee extension has been completed, all it costs is a Tube ticket to get out to Greenwich, the village whose Mean Time sets the world's clocks and whose Prime Meridian divides the Earth into East and West hemispheres.

The original clipper ship Cutty Sark sits moored by the ferry dock, unintentionally the world's biggest liquor ad (in 2007/08, it was udner wraps for reswtoration), while nearby sits the Gipsy Moth IV, the yacht in which Sir Francis Chicester completed the first solo round-the-world in 1966-67.

You do have to fork over admission to get into the Cutty Sark, but since December 2001, admission to the other major sights is free. This inludes the Royal Observatory, where they keep the famous clock and the Meridian line—well, the marker for it—along with historic scientific devices including the four clocks made famous by the book Longitude.

It's also free to wander the collections in the National Maritime Museum and see the coat in which Nelson was shot, bullet hole and all, along with some fasntastically beautiful old astrolabs and an indescribably cool interactive display on the Battle of Trafalgar.

Nearby spreads the Royal Naval College, a vast Christopher Wren building of 1696 (Nelson's body lay in state in Thornhill's impressive Painted Hall), which is only open 2:30 to 4:45pm.

Shagged out from sightseeing, you can sun yourself, play frisbee, or just plain nap on the vast sloping park below the observatory, full of grassy lawns and spreading shade trees.

The village of Greenwich itself is fun to wander and filled with some great pubs, though it's a trot down the Thames-side promenade to the best of them, Trafalgar Tavern, a rambling place with a small terrace overlooking the wide river and tall seats inside set against the bay windows (Dickens set the wedding feast in Our Mutual Friend here).