Visiting Greenwich and Cruising the Thames

Monday Evening, February 18, 2019
From Canterbury our tour bus brought us back to Greenwich, England, the place where the Eastern and Western Hemispheres divide, where time is measured from, and it is also the birthplace of some important monarchs.
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I believe this is part of the University of Greenwich.

 Our tour guide Tom filled us in on much of the history of the village and what makes it so unique.

Below is the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

The Queen's House in Greenwich, built between 1616 and 1635.

Behind the house up on the hill is the Old Royal Observatory which sits on the 0° Longitude line or Prime Meridian. It's where we get the term Greenwich Mean Time. The observatory was founded in the 1670s by King Charles II. 

When they were designing the Royal Naval College, Queen Mary asked the college not block the view of the Thames from the house.

Another View of Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

One of the clocks on the Royal Naval Academy buildings.

This slab reads, "On this site stood the Tudor Palace of Greenwich. Built by King Henry the VII. Birthplace of King Henry VIII in 1491, And his daughters Queen Mary in 1516 and Queen Elizabeth I in 1533.

You can see the marker in the sidewalk as you look at the buildings of the Royal Naval College and on to the Queens Palace and then to the Observatory.

It was only a short walk from the Naval College to the berth of one of the fastest ever clipper ships, the Cutty Sark. 'Cutty Sark' is an archaic Scottish name for a short nightdress. 'Cutty' means short or stumpy, and 'sark' means nightdress or shirt. 

The Cutty Sark is now a museum with it's hull enclosed in a glass structure so you can walk through it. The name comes from the famous poem Tam O’Shanter by Robert Burns. It is about a farmer called Tam who is chased by a scantily-clad witch called Nannie, dressed only in a ‘cutty sark’.

This ship is the worlds only surviving extreme clipper. Clipper ships are marked by three design characteristics - a long, narrow hull, a sharp bow which cuts through the waves rather riding atop - and three raking masts. 

She was used to haul tea from China, wool from Australia and in her later years, coal from Ireland.

As the sun started to set we boarded a water taxi and headed up the River Thames. 

A nice view of the Shard and the Tower Bridge.

Above is the Tower Bridge and below is The Tower of London.

What a day this was. We saw so much and learned so very much more. But now it was time to pack up and head back to Manchester then home to the U.S.A.