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.
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| Helpful map of the whole Greenwich complex |
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The Cutty Sark, famed clipper, built well into the steam age,
famous for fast runs to Australia and back, etc., in the late 19th |
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| Another relic of Empire |
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| She went really fast |
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| Entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel |
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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 |
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| Far shore exit (across the river) |
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| Far shore today |
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| Stuffed animal rides |
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| Riders: a study in contrasting styles |
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Many great old buildings in Greenwich, once the naval academy,
once the favored palaces of Henry VIII (now gone) |
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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 |
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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) |
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| Didn't we see something like this in Ha Long Bay? |
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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 |
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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 |
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| Nice scene of what the place looked like in 1835; not Turner |
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| About to enter the major complex of buildings |
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Another World Heritage Site, probably because of the Prime
Meridian thing |
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| Collection of smallish anchors |
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| A dredger, about the size of a van; with teeth; ouch! |
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| Our destination, The Queens' House |
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Royal Observatory and House of Prime Meridian not visited; we
were tired already, it was uphill, we had timed-tickets for other
things...
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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... |
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| So we satisfied ourselves seeing them a few hundred meters away |
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| But were sure not to miss the Royal Imperial Ship in a Bottle |
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| Another of those contrastive shots I so love... |
