Yae! Finally some sunshine. Although we couldn't go out early today as there was a photographer coming this morning from the local paper to do a story on nan and take a photo for two.... He was due to come at 10.00 and he did. Took a couple of photos of nan on her own and also us with here. He left about 10.30, so by the time we got out of the house it was about11.00.


We caught the train to Bond St where we changed onto the Jubilee line which would take us straight to Canary Wharf. I had that canary wharf was an interesting place to visit from a friend of Linda's.

Canary Wharf contains the UK's three tallest buildings. This photo here are not the building though.


The interesting thing about Canary Wharf is the light rail that runs between all the buildings. We caught the Light rail train from Canary Wharf to Cutty Sark station. We walked to Greenwich pier and then took a few photos looking out to the sea and the HMS Belfast.

We would have liked to see the Cutty Sark, however we knew that it had been almost destroyed in a fire during 2007. So this was out, however I wanted to take Braedon to the maritime museum and Observatory.

We walked up the Thames Walk toward the Old Royal Naval College, and this is where I took many photos. The college is the great baroque masterpiece of English architecture, and located in acres of landscaped grounds on the River Thames.















The Painted Hall reminded me a lot of Rome.
The Painted Hall is decorated with stunning paintings by James Thornhill, and is part of the King William Court. This was planned to be the hospital's dining hall. The Painted Hall was not used and stood empty until January 1806, when the body of Admiral Lord Nelson was brought here to lie in state: he had been killed at the moment of his victory over Napoleon's fleet at Cape Trafalgar.


Next it was onto the Maritime museum. Looks small from the outside however is quite big and we did not do it justice. Braedon was not as interested as I thought he would be, it depended on what area we went into. Some bits were more interesting to him than others.

We had a quick coffee in the cafeteria and a look in the shop and then it was onto the Observatory. It was already getting quite late and a walk through the grounds took us up a steep hill to the top.


Our first stop was the Peter Harrison Planetarium.

The planetarium cone is one of the single largest uses of bronze in the world. It is made from nearly 250 individual plates welded together and patinated to look like a single piece.
The shape of the cone is related to the stars and is unique to its location in Greenwich:
The north side of the cone is aligned with the point in the sky perpendicular to the Greenwich local horizon (zenith)
The sloping southern side points towards the north celestial pole (Pole star). The angle of the slope is 51º28'44", equal to the latitude of the Royal Observatory
The top of the cone is sliced at an angle parallel to the celestial equator
The planetarium is aligned with the local meridian (north-south line)

PS... Definitely a place I want to come back to and explore a bit more. Maybe even before I leave as I did promise Braedon we would catch the catamaran back to London on the Thames but by the time we got back to the wharf the last one had left. Whoops - he was not impressed so we had to catch the tube.