2023 - September - Greenwich and the Thames Path

Everyone knows Greenwich. We all heard about this place in English class or when we were talking about meridians in geography class. This imaginary line has been running along here since the prime meridian was established in 1884.

But what I personally didn't know at all is that there are also former royal palaces and the 73-hectare Greenwich Park here.

We were therefore very surprised and really impressed by the great facilities that are located right on the Thames during our trip. So we took a relaxed look at them first.

Directly behind the palaces, a little further along the river, you will almost automatically come across the Trafalgar Tavern. It is impossible to miss it because it is decorated all over with flags. We definitely recommend stopping here, it is a real attraction. Even the toilets are worth seeing and are sparkling clean!

After this highlight, here's another tip: The Thames Path runs right next to the tavern. We discovered it by chance and were tempted to walk a long way along it. It is part of the National Trails, the national English hiking trail network.

At this point it runs through urban areas, although you are completely alone here at times. Always along the river, you have a great view of the other bank with the many tall bank and office buildings. The hiking trail is really varied, sometimes it goes through dense vegetation, other times (due to a construction site) you have the impression of walking along a state border protected by barbed wire. We would have liked to follow it for longer, but at some point we had to stop.

We had discovered a cable car some distance away to the right of the path. The IFS Cloud Cable Car connects Greenwich with the Docklands and was only opened in 2012 for the Summer Olympics. It offers a good view from above and you can use your Oyster card to use the cable car, just like on other public transport. If you don't have one, you have to buy a ticket at the counter beforehand.

The London O2 Arena is also located right near the cable car. Its striking dome-shaped roof and many yellow struts make it a real sight to behold. You can also actually climb onto the roof, which is something we would really like to do one day.

Unfortunately, because we had absolutely no time left, we had to stop our walk at this point and take the bus back to Greenwich Park. Our actual goal was to visit the Royal Greenwich Observatory with the Prime Meridian.

Unfortunately, we arrived a little too late for entry.

Although the opening hours are stated as being until 5 p.m., the last entry is at 4:30 p.m.

So we could only see the Prime Meridian from the outside of the observatory. You can find it if you follow the crowd of tourists and then go through a kind of folding fence. There is always a traffic jam in the narrow alley because everyone wants to take their photo with the famous line.

What many people don't know, however, is that there is now a corrected position of the Prime Meridian, which is about 102.5 m away in Greenwich Park.

So maybe at some point there will be a new line that we will all want to stand on. But until then we can enjoy the excellent view from up here on the hill at the Royal Observatory and look out over the city.