When we returned to London, we stayed at a different hotel in the same neighborhood, South Kensington. I was fascinated by the rows of 5 story townhouses. All of them seemed to have been remodeled into apartments or converted to hotels or embassies, but I wondered what the lives of the original occupants had been like. Imagine living in such a huge home.
We had purchased a three day London Pass which allowed us to visit many of the city's attractions at no additional cost. I spent a lot of time pondering the possibilities and trying to figure out how to make the best possible use of the pass - not an easy task when you aren't familiar with the city. Several people had recommended that we go to see the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. That didn't sound especially interesting to me until I realized that we could get there by taking a boat up the River Thames (something I definitely wanted to do that was also covered by The London Pass).
We boarded a City Cruises boat at Westminster Pier. You can see a couple of the boats in the picture below. The tall tower covered with scaffolding is Big Ben which is currently being renovated.
The cruise to Greenwich took about 1-1/2 hours, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. From Westminster Pier, the boat swings across the river to the large ferris wheel called the London Eye and then sails on to the Tower of London.
There's a flurry of photographic activity when it sails beneath the iconic Tower Bridge.
After we passed Tower Bridge, the corny tourist spiel that had been playing was turned off, and a member of the crew began an amusing monologue describing the sights we were passing.
The black and white building sandwiched between the two taller buildings in the picture below on the left is the Mayflower Pub. In July of 1620, the captain of the Mayflower anchored the ship here to avoid paying taxes further down the river, and 65 passengers boarded to begin the historic journey to America. In September, more passengers and crew boarded the ship in Plymouth before it finally set out across the sea.
We passed quite a few places where channels flow off from the river as in the picture on the right.
You can see the Royal Observatory up on the hill as you approach the pier in Greenwich. The ship on the right side of the picture below is the Cutty Sark.
The Cutty Sark is another attraction covered by the London Pass, so we climbed aboard. The ship, one of the last tea clippers built, was also one of the fastest. After a brief stint transporting tea, she spent many years hauling wool from Australia to England, and later became a cadet training ship.
There wasn't much headroom in the cargo hold. Walt could barely stand up straight.
It was a busy day in Greenwich. Some sort of open market was going on. A band was playing, and children were riding toy animals on wheels.
A snack bar has been built underneath the front of the ship, and the Long John Silver Collection of Figureheads occupies the area at the rear. The figureheads are mainly from the 19th century.
We skipped the National Maritime Museum and headed across a large park to the Royal Observatory. The park was full of people and dogs enjoying the pleasant autumn day. We enjoyed the lovely view of London as we climbed the hill to the observatory.
The Prime Meridian, which passes through the observatory, is a big attraction. People wait and wait in line and some take many, many, many pictures of themselves using multiple cameras on the famous line. The picture on the right in the second row shows the Octagon Room that the famous architect Christopher Wren designed when the observatory was built back in the 17th Century. The Royal Astronomer spent much of his time here observing the night sky.
I didn't appreciate the important role the observatory played in early navigation, astronomy, and timekeeping until I wandered through the many interesting exhibits. Here's another shot taken from Observatory Hill.
The afternoon was passing quickly so we headed back to the dock. On the way we passed the world's largest ship in a bottle created by Yinka Shonibare. The bottle is over 15 feet in length and has a diameter of over 9 feet. The sculpture sits outside the National Maritime Museum.
The temperature was dropping and the wind was picking up as the sun set, but we enjoyed our return trip down the river as much as we had enjoyed the sail to Greenwich
The tall building on the left below is called The Shard. It was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano who also designed the Valletta city gate in Malta. The building is 95 stories, and there is an observation platform on Level 72.
In the picture on the right, you can see the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. We planned to visit it the next day.
These are two of the many bridges that cross the Thames. On the left is the London Millennium Footbridge which appeared in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". On the right is Blackfriars Bridge.
One surprising thing we learned on our cruise is that the River Thames is tidal and that it rises and falls up to 24 feet twice a day On our trip to Greenwich, the tide was out, but on the way back the tide was coming in so there were a lot of small waves around the bridge supports.
You can see the London Eye Ferris wheel in the picture on the right.
I think we made pretty good use of the first day of our London Pass.