Woke up early, but failed to plan properly to post the last blog bit, so didn't get off to Regent's Park and the London Zoo until nearly noon.

Stopped off at Baker Street and got a glimpse into the tacky world of Sherlock Holmes memorobilia.

A quick trip to the inner circle revealed no park theater today, so we may try for Thursday to catch Shakespeare in the Park (A Midsummer Night's Dream).

Sadly the Gorilla and Chimpanzee enclosures were shut down for renovations until 2007, so Red River Hogs, African Hunting Dogs, Warthogs, Okapis, Zebras, Giraffes, Ibises (Sacred and Scarlet), Meerkats, Otters, Lemurs, Penguins, Hornbills, Butterflies, Pelicans, a host of bugs, fishes, Spider Monkeys, Emus, Bactrian Camels, Pygmy Hippopatamuses, Brittle Stars, Anemones, Starfish, and lizards had to suffice.

Though we tried, we failed to find the Serpentine in Hyde Park (instead, we managed to miss most of the park completely, and just walked up Park Way).

Thwarted, we retired to The Champion on Bayswater for a few well-deserved pints. We each had a Bombadier, Amber had a Greene King IPA, and I had another whose name entirely escapes me [Edit It was Pedigree, and it was entirely forgettable]. Indian food at the Mahal for dinner, and we nearly caught the cinema, but chose to wait until the air conditioning was repaired.

Ahh, Greenwich, center of time. Middle of the world. Longitude 0º 0' 00".

Also, wet, clammy, spitty rain. All day.

Took the train from Charing Cross this morning to Greenwich to take a look at the Cutty Sark, the National Maritime Museum, and the Royal Observatory. I've just (finally!) finished (well, within 50 pages) Quicksilver, and it's fun to be able to start matching up places from the page to real life.

Yummy scrummy Indian buffet for lunch, followed by a traipse around the Cutty Sark and Greenwich Pier. Interesting that a cut-rate Scotch is named after a tea- and wool-carrying ship, but you learn something new everyday.

After visiting the Cutty Sark, we took in a couple of pints of Young's Extra Smooth Bitters at the Gipsy Moth. Quite nice.

The Maritime Museum was fun. Three floors of pretty cool exhibits. The models, in particular, were very keen, though I'd like someone to explain the different levels of rate. Several were marked third rate through sixth rate with no accompanying documentation.

By the time we'd finished at the museum, we only had an hour and half to get to and explore the Observatory.

Note for future travelers to the Royal Observatory: Hire a horse to take you up the hill. Your feet will thank me.

Further note: They don't actually offer them, and finding them will be an adventure unto itself. Nevertheless, trust me, or rather, my feet.

The Observatory was especially interesting to me, as I've just finished a chapter in Quicksilver where Daniel Waterhouse, upon witnessing the new Revolution, takes a quick spin around the Royal Observatory before hiring a boat to take him ship shopping for the New World.

Octants, sextants, quadrants, astrolabes. If we lived closer to water, I'd love to spend more time sailing, and learning celestial navigation. Part of the allure is the esoterica involved, part is the heavy, solid brass instrumentation.

Followed up our history lessons with a few more pints of Shepherd Neame's Bishops Finger and Master Brewer in the Spanish Galleon pub.

Dinner at a Thai noodle bar, then back to the room to crash heavily.