Thames River Cruise

Sat, Aug 22:  London:  Had breakfast at our little café again this morning.  Back to the hotel to regroup and then took the subway to Westminster Pier and queued up for the Greenwich boat.  Really warm today and was a little uncomfortable standing around in the sun.  But that’s better than standing around in the rain.  A nice cruise to Greenwich which is a cute little town and famous for the National Observatory and the zero meridian line.  Henry VIII was born here and Elizabeth I also.  Walked around Greenwich a little and had lunch at a little pub.  There is no waitress service at the pubs.  You go to the bar and order and they bring it to your table. I got a Caesar salad which I discovered had anchovies in it (yuk!).  Mike tried out their wings which he said were sweet instead of spicy. After lunch we toured the Cutty Sark which is the fastest sailing ship ever made.  It still holds the record for the fastest time between Sydney, Australia, and London, England—73 hours.  Got on the 4:40 boat back and stopped at Blackfriar Pub to see if there were any outside tables available.  No luck.  So we went to the little grocery store next to our hotel and bought a couple of ice cream bars to bring back to the hotel.  No champagne bar tonight—way too expensive.  Two drinks cost 18 pounds which equates to about $29.  The concierge gave us complimentary drink tickets the first time we went over there.  I’ll have to hit him up for a couple more.  A beautiful, sunny and warm day today.  Felt like the 80s.  Not sure.

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

This office building is called the Shard.

Tower Bridge

Tower of London as seen from the Thames.  That arched opening in the wall is where they would row prisoners in a little row boat into the compound where they would await execution.  It's called "traitors gate".  This complex is a prison, a palace, a place of execution and torture.  Oh, and it houses the Crown Jewels.

Cutty Sark

Cute little town of Greenwich

A model of Cutty Sark under sail.

Mike on the deck of the Cutty Sark. That's London in the background on the left.

The saloon in the Cutty Sark where the officers took their meals.

They call this building "The Gherkin"

They call this building "The Walkie Talkie".  It kinda looks like one.

Dame Helen Mirren  owns the penthouse in this building in East London.  One of many I'm sure.