Greenwich Scenes

We spent most of the day, August 15th, in Greenwich. To see all the sights there, attentively, would take more than a day, in my estimation, and you'd have to be way further into seafaring and navigational stuff than we are; so we limited ourselves to walking around a bit and then doing the Queen's House and then the National Maritime Museum. 

Helpful map of the whole Greenwich complex

The Cutty Sark, famed clipper, built well into the steam age,
famous for fast runs to Australia and back, etc., in the late 19th

Another relic of Empire

She went really fast

Entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel

Built in the late 1890s, still in use; originally to get workers to
the docks more efficiently (than the ferries); this was before the
age of Work From Home; the lifts were out of order, and the
whole thing was marked "for essential travel only" so we demurred;
besides, it's 80 feet below the Thames

Far shore exit (across the river)

Far shore today

Stuffed animal rides

Riders: a study in contrasting styles

Many great old buildings in Greenwich, once the naval academy,
once the favored palaces of Henry VIII (now gone)

The Greenwich Hospital, from a design by Wren; in the far
distance is The Queen's House; Wren's design became two
buildings rather than one, since the then Queen (Mary II)
ordered that the view from the Queen's House to the river not
be obstructed

Across and down the river...places and rides we probably won't
get to on this campaign (they've not stood the test of time)

Didn't we see something like this in Ha Long Bay?

Back to things that have stood the test of time;

well, perhaps the quiz of time: the Trafalgar Tavern,

famed inn and public house at Greenwich

Not many pubs of have life-sized bronze statues,
but this one does: tip on how to identify statues
of Nelson: the empty right sleeve of his coat

Nice scene of what the place looked like in 1835; not Turner

About to enter the major complex of buildings

Another World Heritage Site, probably because of the Prime
Meridian thing

Collection of smallish anchors

A dredger, about the size of a van; with teeth; ouch!

Our destination, The Queens' House

Royal Observatory and House of Prime Meridian not visited; we
were tired already, it was uphill, we had timed-tickets for other
things...

Besides, the whole meridian thing is totally arbitrary; it could have
been anywhere (well of course it had to be somewhere in the British
Empire, especially after Waterloo); we've crossed the line many times;
I even tripped over it once on the beach in Almunecar...

So we satisfied ourselves seeing them a few hundred meters away

But were sure not to miss the Royal Imperial Ship in a Bottle

Another of those contrastive shots I so love...