Though it was sunny, the wind had a chill to it, especially on the water, but Hilary, Yvonne and I spent most of the journey out on the deck admiring the view.
It was a lovely trip, and good to see London from a different perspective. Just towards the end the boat sped up as it left the inner London waterways, and we had become a little complacent about the wake, much to Hilary's delight and my chill we got hugely splashed and hustled wet legged back into the warmth of the cabin.
Once in Greenwich itself we went to the information centre and picked up a few brochures before retiring to the cafe for a coffee and a review of the brochures to plan our day. While we did this Hilary spent time in the Greenwich discovery centre which had interesting displays, but she was more interested in playing with the building blocks.
Hilary playing with building blocks
Us planning at the cafe
Our first visit was to the maritime museum, we enjoyed the toy boat display, which had some great toys from France and Germany as well as Britain, really old basic bath toys to more elaborate. We also had fun, Hilary and me, in a simulator on the bridge of a frigate in the Sydney harbour chasing a speeding launch. We did OK, I was on steering and Hilary on the throttle (I'm sure it has another name on a ship), it was fun. There was a good interactive part for kids too, with a model yacht which you could adjust the sails on,turn to different directions and aim a fan at to make it move along a bar. Quite fun. Hilary enjoyed unloading a small boat of supplies with a crane, making sure she kept it balanced.
Captain Cook's Endeavour and the original crew and supplies.
a cool light house light, though the picture doesn't do it justice.
From the museum,which we only managed to do about half of (but we wanted to do otherthings too) we walked up past the Trinity Music School to the Royal Observatory and Meridian Line.
Hilary outside the Trinity Music School
The front of Trinity Music School
It was nearly 2pm and we hadn't had lunch so we sat outside the planetarium eating chicken and salad sandwiches and rock melon in the sun. The buildings are interesting, so is the view, down over Greenwich Park to the Thames and beyond. We had a quick look around the planetarium, more exhibits than telescopes, but some interesting interactive videos where you could choose what you wanted to learn about. I learnt a bit about black holes, reading over Hilary's shoulder.
The view down over Greenwich Park
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| Hilary learning about "space" |
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| Cool buildings at Greenwich |
We planned on going to see the Cutty Sark but unfortunately it had been seriously damaged by fire about 2 years ago and hence was closed. Hilary and I snuck a peek under or actually through the fence and managed to see a tiny bit of hull. I think that is pretty much all there is. They are re-building it and hoping to have it open again later in the year,from what we could see it is a long way off that at this stage though.
Insteadwe wandered to the Greenwich Markets which had been on our agenda, but we thought we wouldn't have time or energy for it. It was chaos, especially around the food stalls, nice smells, Hilary had a Polish doughnut filled with cream cheese (sweet, lemon flavoured). We looked at the stalls but there wasn'tmuch to catch my eye, lots of high priced artisan jewellery etc, pretty colours etc, but I didn'tget any photos because I couldn't move my arms,let alone raise the camera in the crush!!!!!
So we went to a little cafe and had afternoon tea, large cups of delicious tea for 1.25 pounds each, and a piece of lemon cake, Di had apple pie and Hilary a large ice-cream. Poor Yvonne nearly had kittens when I moved the tablenext-door toour one into a better position for a photo, she said the proprietor's face was priceless, and for many moments after kept collapsing into giggles, I think at my audacity. Really?that is so normal, move the table to where you want it, move it back when you've finished? What's the problem there?
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| The cafe where we had our tea and cake |
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| Us having tea and cake and ice-creams. Camera set up on next table. |
Anyway, after our tea we caught the Docklands Light Rail back to Bank and then the tube back to West Finchley. A really tiring day, but lovely, we exhausted poor Yvonne I think but she did have an enjoyable time. She has lived in London (same house) all her 77 years and had never been on the DLR or to the Observatory at Greenwich, and she loved the boat trip which she hasn't done for years. It was great to be able to give her a lovely experience, she has been so good to us on this trip and our others. She loves our company (who can blame her) and we are good guests, but by golly it is wonderful to have free accommodation in London, just a quick walk to the tube.
I am pretty tired I think and as a result my tummy is misbehaving. I'm having trouble balancing being sensible with my desire to get as much done as possible. I'll need to slow down though because i am having trouble retaining any food. As a result I've lost 6 kilos in 4 weeks away. At this rate I've worked out I should cease to exist sometime in early February 2012. So I'll get as many photos of me as possible while I can.....
The day before yesterday we had the morning at Finchley and then I had a wonderful afternoon by myself. I did invite the others (honestly) but I must admit I actually enjoyed having just myself to be responsible for, and I could do what I wanted in my own time. I took the tube to Angel Station and then walked for a few (about 5-6 I think), miles beside the Regent's Canal. It had the potential to be stunning,beside the water, with gorgeous colours, reflections, bright sunlight, fascinating boats, lots of people watching. It was stunning in places but marred slightly by the scum, dead Canada goose, dead cat/fox/dog (no longer identifiable) and dead eel, hundreds of plastic and glass bottles, cans, plastic bags floating around in the brown water. I did enjoy the power walk though, and had the bonus of coming across Camden Markets which were a throng of activity. I enjoyed watching the boats negotiating the locks too, and seeing the Londoners enjoying the sunshine beside the canal with a beer.
The markets at Camden Town
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| The African Hunting Dog at the zoo, from the canal tow path |
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