Sunday 4 August:
Caught the tube to Westminster and then a river boat down river to Greenwich and the Thames barriers. It’s not ‘til you see the barriers in real life that you realise the size of it. When we passed, one of the barriers was in the defence position. Not sure why, perhaps for testing. Cost to build it was about half a billion pounds and it has already been used more than 100 times.
We travelled under the millennium bridge that was closed only a few hours after it was opened because the rhythm of people walking over it caused it to sway very uncomfortably. (There was no problem with the bridge, it was how the Londoner’s walked!). It was braced and reopened.
Greenwich was very busy with a food display, music in the park with a beer tasting/sales and people just enjoying themselves on the sunny day. We spent a while sitting under a tree listening to some great 60s rock ‘n roll. The maritime museum is in one of the old naval college’s buildings, so we looked through the museum and caught the boat back to Westminster. Took about 1 hour from Westminster to Greenwich and another half an hour or so on to the barriers. you realise just how much the river turns back on itself when you see buildings that were on one side of the boat appear on the other side later on downstream. There has been a huge amount of development along the river since we were last in London, with most of the old warehouses converted into expensive apartments. Some development though doesn’t appeal to us at all. The river cruise was a great way to see London from a different perspective and very relaxing.
Monday 5th August:
We caught a double decker bus (had to
while in London) to a point along the Regents Canal, called Little Venice, and went for a ride on a touristy narrow boat to Camden Lock and back, passing through the London Zoo. Unfortunately we were too low to see anything. Informative commentary along the way and a last chance to be on a narrow boat. Trying to hold on to the holiday. Still had a couple of hours before we left for the hotel at Heathrow, so we jumped on the tube and went to the London Canal Museum. Shut on Mondays. Walked to the British Library and had a look at some of their collection including original Beatles lyrics, original compositions by Bach and others, one of the 4 original surviving copies of the Magna Carta and many original books dating back to the 14th century.
After this, we went back to the hotel, collected our luggage and took the tube to the hotel at Heathrow. Had a great “Beef & Reef” meal at a pub 15 mins away and now back in the hotel, repacking ready for a 6 am getaway from the hotel tomorrow. Plane leaves at 9:15am.
Feeling quite sad about leaving.
Caught the tube to Westminster and then a river boat down river to Greenwich and the Thames barriers. It’s not ‘til you see the barriers in real life that you realise the size of it. When we passed, one of the barriers was in the defence position. Not sure why, perhaps for testing. Cost to build it was about half a billion pounds and it has already been used more than 100 times. 
We travelled under the millennium bridge that was closed only a few hours after it was opened because the rhythm of people walking over it caused it to sway very uncomfortably. (There was no problem with the bridge, it was how the Londoner’s walked!). It was braced and reopened.
Greenwich was very busy with a food display, music in the park with a beer tasting/sales and people just enjoying themselves on the sunny day. We spent a while sitting under a tree listening to some great 60s rock ‘n roll. The maritime museum is in one of the old naval college’s buildings, so we looked through the museum and caught the boat back to Westminster. Took about 1 hour from Westminster to Greenwich and another half an hour or so on to the barriers. you realise just how much the river turns back on itself when you see buildings that were on one side of the boat appear on the other side later on downstream. There has been a huge amount of development along the river since we were last in London, with most of the old warehouses converted into expensive apartments. Some development though doesn’t appeal to us at all. The river cruise was a great way to see London from a different perspective and very relaxing.Monday 5th August:
We caught a double decker bus (had to
while in London) to a point along the Regents Canal, called Little Venice, and went for a ride on a touristy narrow boat to Camden Lock and back, passing through the London Zoo. Unfortunately we were too low to see anything. Informative commentary along the way and a last chance to be on a narrow boat. Trying to hold on to the holiday. Still had a couple of hours before we left for the hotel at Heathrow, so we jumped on the tube and went to the London Canal Museum. Shut on Mondays. Walked to the British Library and had a look at some of their collection including original Beatles lyrics, original compositions by Bach and others, one of the 4 original surviving copies of the Magna Carta and many original books dating back to the 14th century.After this, we went back to the hotel, collected our luggage and took the tube to the hotel at Heathrow. Had a great “Beef & Reef” meal at a pub 15 mins away and now back in the hotel, repacking ready for a 6 am getaway from the hotel tomorrow. Plane leaves at 9:15am.
Feeling quite sad about leaving.
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