One of the Best Views in London! | Greenwich Old Town | Greenwich Market

Good morning and welcome back to the channel. First of all, let me just show you. Stunner. Stunner of a day. You join us or you join me and Monica somewhere getting ready because we're about to head off to Greenwich for a nice little ride. Greenwich market, grab some food, grab a coffee, sit somewhere in and around the Royal Observatory with a beautiful view of Greenwich. But before that, I've got a little update because since getting back from Ipswich, it was even a bit before that we really decided, but since getting back from Ipswich, we basically kind of put the Belvedere flat, this flat on the market or we were going to, but before we did, we had a connection of ours who said that they wanted the property. So in theory, we're just waiting for a contract to be signed for someone to actually start renting this flat out, which means that Monica and I, in the UK at least, will be homeless. And we're planning on relocating. I don't know how long for, I don't know if I should call it relocating. It'll probably be six months or so. Relocating, moving, whatever you want to call it to Tenerife. And it was just this morning, we were meant to sign a contract to get a property in Tenerife for six months, but so frustratingly it's fallen through. So Monica's dropped into a little bit of a depression. So we go on the bike, cheer her up, get a coffee, and we need to get back on looking for another Tenerife property. So we're going to get ready. We're going to head off. Monica is excited because she's got her new Forma boots to try out. And they've arrived, Forma Crystal boots. These, so we paid 140 for them or Monica paid 140 pounds for them purely because they didn't have her size anywhere else in the UK. But I've seen these online. If you go online, Google Forma Crystal boots, I think you can even get for 90 pounds, which is ridiculously good value. That was the size that was hard to get, 39. They're stunning. They've got the zip there to make it nice and easy. They've got ankle support and they look absolutely incredible. I'll see if we're lucky enough to see Monica actually wearing them in this vlog, but she's delighted with them. And she says all day comfort. This is the first time I've ridden into London with Monica with nowhere to lock the bike up to, but I've now got a tracker. So this is much better or much more significant peace of mind. Now I've actually got a tracker, especially when you can't lock your bike, something knowing that if I get a ping, I can run over and look at this. Harold, I think, I think this is a British company. They make one, two fives, two fifties. They may even do a few five hundreds, but really good value. Cool. One, two, five CC bikes. It's probably too cheeky for me to actually sit on. No, no, you can't. That looks brilliant. And a nice manageable seat height. If you're on the probably five foot six or something like that, that would be perfect. It looks incredible. Yeah. It looks like it's probably, what do you think? I think that looks like a Yamaha engine. Usually these do like might do. They do a version of a Yamaha Suzuki made under license. So it'd probably be a classic old 1980s Yamaha engine made under license for Harold. Cool bike. Very cool. Have you noticed also how clean the bike is? The first clean, I think in two and a half months, I actually got some comments from people saying, Freddie, this is getting stupid. Now you've got to clean the bike and please at least readjust the chain because the chain was actually dropping like that, even when not under pressure. So chain done, bike clean, straight out of the show. Quite a few people have given a good tip. Don't lock your helmets to the floor. And I tried putting them or locking them up to the seat, but the chain's not long enough. So I have to go on the floor, but I've tried to angle them. So if a dog pisses all over them, hopefully it won't actually go in the helmet. Oh my God. So we're just going into the old town of Greenwich and it's one of my absolute, I've got to stop saying absolute favorites. It's a lovely spot in London. Monica loves it as well. We've got all of the old observatory, the old Greenwich maritime stuff and a really good market that's on pretty much, I think every day of the week. It's just a beautiful spot nestled inside London. You get a few of these places like Blackheath we went to, Hampstead Heath, a few really nice little gems in and around the London area. A few places in London that maintain that old charm and Greenwich is definitely one of those. It feels like its own small town or village within London. Such a great place. Looks like it's bars of soap. It's all fudge. I wish, I wish you could smell the smell of that. It smells unbelievable. Going to go for the hot dogs, but frustratingly, there's almost nowhere to sit here. So either sit on the floor or walk and eat basically. And then we'll go for coffee back there, get a table. After losing the property in Tenerife, Monica now is on a mission. This has been Monica for the past 20 minutes, on a mission to lock in another property, hopefully today, because it is so time consuming looking for properties, dealing with people, stuff falls through. So hopefully we can get it done today, forget about it, move on, just work on renting out the Belvedere flat and clearing out our stuff. Fingers crossed. This is really interesting. At least I find it interesting. The red phone boxes in England, I've shown in a few episodes what happens to them and I don't know why I find it so interesting, but I saw down the road, one of the red phone boxes has been turned into a coffee shop. And this one, I should try to open it, I can't. It says it's no longer the property of BT and it says here, this kiosk is now the property of Coffee and Bean Limited. These basically coffee shops, especially in London, coffee shops are now buying these red phone boxes and turning them into coffee shops. So a coffee shop or a coffee company actually owns that red phone box. This is such an interesting spot because this here is the prime meridian of the world. It represents zero degrees. So every single time zone and every single geographical location is measured in reference to this zero degrees in the world, whether it's east or west. And every single time zone around the world is measured in plus or minus compared to this exact line in the world. And up here is the Greenwich Royal Observatory. I think, I think this is zone two, zone two or three London, but there's so much open space and it's just, if you look around here, you've got all of the old, I think these are the old naval barracks, the old naval training here. It's got such a rich naval history up there. You've got the observatory, you've got the old Greenwich town there. It's, there's too much stuff to fit in the vlog. There's so much stuff. It's a stunning area and sometimes you forget that it's zone two or three London. London in a single image. The old Greenwich Naval College right here, really old, beautiful building from when I guess the UK Britain had the most powerful Navy in the world. And behind that you've got the Thames and you see a few boats going past it. And behind that you've got Canary Wharf, pretty much one of the, if not the financial hubs of London. So you've got absolutely everything here in one picture. I have to just read this, it's so interesting. The old Royal Naval College behind me is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a world heritage site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation as being of outstanding universal value and reckoned to be the finest and most dramatically cited architectural and landscape ensemble in the British Isles. This is all free, you can walk around here happy, you don't need to pay anything, just park up the bike, come for a walk. Really nice way to spend the day, just enjoying it. It's open to everyone. So if you remember a few vlogs ago we were into, I think the video was called a ride into the Suffolk countryside, or away from it all in the Suffolk countryside, and we completely coincidentally rode past a school called I think the Royal Hospital School. And a few of the school's old pupils messaged and commented on YouTube and said I used to go to that school, thanks so much for showing it. And actually the Royal Hospital School on Instagram messaged me and just said next time go down this road it's really beautiful, gave me some tips. And a few people said that that school, the old base of that school, used to be the Royal Naval College right here in Greenwich. And then because there were lots of applicants and things, I think for a size reason, they ended up relocating it to the Royal Hospital School in Suffolk, kind of all the way tucked in the middle of nowhere, right next to the coast in a beautiful area of Suffolk. But it used to originate from here in Greenwich. What a, what a link to the two places that we've been. Interesting because this used to be a shop and there's been some new legislation passed in the UK, meaning that the government have made it much easier to turn shops into residential accommodation, residential property, because there have been so many abandoned shops and it's just really difficult to turn those abandoned shops where no one needs them for shops into, for example, a flat or apartments. But now they've relaxed the rules and you're getting a back into flats, houses, apartments, things like that. And that's what's happening here. They've just passed a planning application to turn it into apartments. See this, this sign here, this really annoys me because in London they are pedestrianising or making a lot of roads, no through roads to make it more pleasant for walkers and things like that. So this used to be a road you could drive down. Now it's banned for cars and motorbikes, basically to, to make it nicer to live in, in theory, but what it does, it makes every other road very heavily congested. And also this used to have three bollards across and they had to open it up because all of the ambulances couldn't get through and actually get to the place that they need to get to. So all of the ambulances going crazy, complaining. So they've actually opened it up and still no cars, no motorbikes can go through. Why can't motorbikes go through? I don't know. We're going to jump on the bike, actually go through up to Blackheath and then around at the top of Blackheath, there's a car park at the top of Greenwich park, overlooking everything. So we'll ride over there now and have a look. And also the route we would have gone, it's the exact route where they now say no cars, no motorbikes. So I guess you have to get off the motorbike, push it through and then get back on, I guess. That's the fourth road where you can't actually turn into the road because of these new pedestrianised things. I don't get how to get around London anymore with these things. So I've literally had to get off the bike, push the bike through those pedestrianised things, get back on and turn it back on. I don't get it. London, to be fair, it's very, very good. Almost everywhere you go, there are motorcycle bays clearly marked and they're pretty much always free or maximum a pound a day. So to be fair to London, it's very bike friendly. Anyone coming here on their bike, I'll put, as I usually do now, an exact location of this motorcycle parking. So it's the best spot to park at. If you're coming to visit Blackheath half a mile that way or Greenwich right here, it's a brilliant spot. Coffee shop there, great views. This is the place to park. This is one of the finest views in London, I think. I know, I know. You need to stop that. I was about to say Millennium Dome, it was called that about 20 years ago. O2 Arena, Canary Wharf, you're going to see everything. Stunning spot. I wanted to point out all of the famous landmarks that I know, but Monica said you know them already. Let me quickly try. O2 Arena there, Canary Wharf there, the Mayor's office, which is called the Gherkin, right there. The Walkie Talkie, which is the funny one that slopes out like that. The Shard, one of the tallest buildings in Europe, I think, when it was built. St Paul's Cathedral. I think this is the best view of London, not from a skyscraper, so the best view from a natural point in the whole of London. Tell me if I'm wrong and I would love to know if there's a better one than this because we should definitely visit. Just received an email, the contract for our Belvedere property has been signed. So now, contract's been signed, that's done. From about, I've forgotten the date, I think it's the 10th of September, we have to be out of the Belvedere property. The property rental in Tenerife has fallen through, so as it stands, on the 10th of September we'll be homeless. We have to, in that time, MOT Lafayette, because it runs out in November while we'll be in Tenerife, empty the entire Belvedere flat, but we don't know where to empty this stuff to because we won't have a property. I have to make sure the bike's roadworthy, I have to get the trailer out of Monica's Mum's allotment where it's been for the past seven months. It will be, well, it was almost unroadworthy when I left it there, so I dread to think what it looks like now. I'll have to sort everything out, switching over the paperwork and everything for the flat, and we are off to Devon in about five days time, as well as possibly one more trip as well. So this next month is going to be very interesting, but do you know what? I wanted some excitement. This is excitement. Unfortunately, it was just before, just before I started doing these YouTube videos, I had a test for three days of one of these Caterhams, and I've never had so much fun in a car. I think it's probably the absolute closest you can get to the thrill of a motorbike. They are just superbly fun cars. I don't think I've ever had so much fun in a car, and if I had the money, you know, I may consider getting one of these. Although if you're taller than me, forget about it, because wow, they are cramped. Just about to head off, but gear for the day. Exclusive helmet, Rage Shiny Black. This, this is such a good summer riding jacket, RST Kevlar jacket, £120. Go online, you can even find it for closer to £100. Really cool, nice. This is size large on me, and it fits perfectly. I'd hugely recommend this. It's a great value, cool looking shirt. Jeans, Rocca Roccatec. Expensive, but super quality and single layer, genuine single layer throughout the jean, and they're the coolest jeans that I own. With Steel Martin, very nice Italian boots. Someone actually said about these that Steel Martin are good, but the leather is thinner, and they don't feel as sturdy as the likes of an RST or TCX. So I thought, no, come on. Yes, they are. I went to feel them. Yeah, they probably are a little bit thinner than some of the other boots, but I still love them. Gloves, Frottlesnake. Frottlesnake, forgotten the model. I'll write it there. Really nice gloves, especially for the summer. And that's it. We're about to head home, but I actually, there aren't many places in London that I would specifically recommend for a biker to come and visit. You've got Bike Shed and a few other places, but this Greenwich, amazing for a day trip with a bike. Park up here, enjoy the town. It's all easy walking distance. Blackheath over there, great little spot. But thank you so much for coming along with us today. We'll definitely be keeping you updated with how the house hunt goes. Please do give the video a like, subscribe to the channel. See you in the next one.