Day 23 - Friday, July 5, 2024 - Grenwich England

By Ellen Outten

 

The Cutty Sark 

I had an early departure today. My walking tour of historic Greenwich left the ship at 7:15 and we took an Uber boat from our dock in Tilbury to Grenwich which took about 45 minutes and no crazy street traffic!

Our first stop was at The Cutty Sark ship, built in 1869 and built for speed which primary responsibility was to bring tea back from China.  Within a year of it's commissioning, the Suez canal opened which mitigated the need for the Cutty Sark.

From there we strolled (in the rain) through the streets of Greenwich making stops at Royal Greenwich park, owned by the Royal Palace.  

All the he pubs have beautiful flowers on the outside 

We also stopped at the Maritime Museum. The artwork is a scaled-down replica of HMS Victory, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. 

Our guide was a Blue Badge certified guide. He had an amazing amount of knowledge and rattled off names of kings and Queens and dates and facts without hesitation. We heard many stories about how some became king because there was no other lineage.  There was even a king of England that couldn't speak English and that's when a role of prime minister became important and more or less took over running the country 

Grenwich is also home to 0° degrees longitude as well as Grenwich Mean time being the point from which time is marked to the east and west.  It is here at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London at which all time is set.  This is where we were today at the spot where we marked 0° degrees.  Each day when the sun crosses the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory.  It's a way if standardizing and regularizing time so we all know exactly what time it is at anyone's location.

The Royal Observatory is the building on the hill in the background where all time is measured.


16th century mansion now used to display items from the National Maritime Museum's collection.

The old and the new.  16th century house in the foreground and the newest financial center in London across the River Thames.
This Queen Anne's house but was used as Buckingham Palace in the opening scenes of the TV movie, The Crown, when Churchill meets the young Queen Elizabeth.

Queen's House is a former royal residence, which presently serves as a public art gallery. It was built between 1616 and 1635.
All of these buildings were recently part of The Old Royal Navy College.  Now they all belong to Grenwich University.

The gates leading to the Thames viewpoint.

I was back on board about 11:30 am and Wayne and I had lunch.  I had a haircut on board ship, long overdue!  The rest of the day was relaxing.

Tomorrow we sail into Dover and if I'm awake, which I plan to be, I'll see the White Cliffs of Dover as we sail by them at about 6 am.

We have a walking tour of Canterbury including the church where Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury was slain and also where King Henry IV is buried.









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