Three Zissises in London (Part Two: Greenwich)

One of the great parts about having people visit is you get to become a bit of a tourist in your home city. This comes in handy if there's still a bunch of your city that you haven't yet seen. Like Greenwich.
Quick history lesson. Greenwich is best known for three things: The Cutty Sark, Greenwich Mean Time, and the palace, which is the birthplace of many Tudor sovereigns including Elizabeth I. Unfortunately for us, the Cutty Sark is undergoing massive refurbishment (apparently due to a fire in 2007, which happened during "conservation". Way to go.), the ultimate aim being that tourists can walk right under the thousand tonne 19th century merchant vessel. Bags not first.

But first you have to get to Greenwich, and we did so by walking under the Thames river. Here's that:

We took a guided tour around the palace area and up to the Royal Observatory. The palace, like so many palaces, was fairly lovely, and I got a teensy bit obsessed with pillars.

I got more obsessed with this staircase outside Queen Anne's House (here pictured, built from what I can gather was for her own amusement. Y'know, dinner parties and stuff), and because you are my captive audience (emphasis on "captive"), here it is:

Other (non pillar- or stair-related) snaps from around Greenwich:Here was where three bridges were built to ferry people down to the river. Why three? One for the Queen, one for the King, and one for the common folk that the Royals shouldn't have to share a walkway with:

There in the distance is the Royal Observatory, on which you can see the big red ball has descended - it rises and abruptly drops at 1pm each day. The observatory sits at the top of a hill that felt a lot higher than it looks, and it's bloody lucky we made it up there at all.

The Zissises in various time zones:

And since there was no photography inside the observatory, and I was pretty tired by the time I got there anyway, this is all the observatory shots you're getting.