Euro tour day 10, Greenwich

Euro tour day 10

I actually did not set my alarm for this morning and slept until 7am. After I woke up I was not sure where I should actually go first although I wanted to visit the traffic light statue first down at Canary wharf. I wanted to see it in the light although it did look really good at night daylight would make anyone appreciate it more. Just wandering around the area was really nice even though it is kind of the financial area. Things always look better during the day.

I headed to Greenwich and the Cutty Sark after I caught the DLR from the Canary wharf. Seems after I arrived Cutty Sark is getting some alterations done as in its own museum that is being built around it. I think it is funny that parts are wrapped up. I found an underwater walkway under the Thames, but I think they are working on that too. The museum doesn’t open until next year. From there I w3ent to the Greenwich maritime college where there are some of the oldest buildings around. I walked around the outside of the Greenwich museum and found something strange. There was a monument dedicated to those who fell during wars with New Zealand. This had to be during the New Zealand wars. It was a shock to see this although I do not know if it was exclusively for sailors.

The Greenwich museum explained how the naval base came to be and did explain a lot about the architecture of the area and about one of the architects, Christopher Wren. The museum also explains how much the location has changed. I did at that moment wonder where the Isle of Dogs were which I later found was actually where the Canary Wharf is now located and the name came from several sources and not really understood. 

After the museum I walked through Trinity college which had some beautiful music playing as I walked through. At this time I had a map of the Greenwich area and fouind something interesting like the trinity hospital that I wanted to look at. On the way I found the Trafalgar pub which has a tradition of supping on whitebait. This is a very old pub. I was also thinking they might have the prime meridian go through to the bank too. This wasn’t so as I walked to where it should be and nothing. I walked back and found the chapel and the painted hall I think it was called. There was a memorial that also shocked me at the chapel and that was of the Orpheus a ship that had been wrecked in New Zealand.

The next step was to head to the Greenwich observatory although I was distracted by the royal maritime museum although I knew I wanted to visit something else first. I looked at some private house that looked like a castle although it seemed to be owned by someone. The walk to the observatory was not a flat walk that I was expecting and was really hilly. I did realise that it was lucky I had not found the place at night as I would not be able to enter as the gates would have been shut. I looked at the couple of free exhibits. I entered the main observatory and took the audio tour. I was thinking at first I would not be long. The tour and the audio tour along with how the meridian became the prime meridian was interesting. I was able to straddle the prime meridian as well.

Afterwards I headed to the maritime museum where I stayed for at least 2 hours although it was starting to get dark while I was inside. There were displays about different things like about the East India Company and why it was abolished. Another room about the slave trade and a room that had Nelson’s coat. Afterwards I took a walk to the Trafalgar pub for food and they do not serve food after 4pm on a Sunday. I knew about a little pub behind the3 building and I had dinner with a beer there although i think I did feel a little drunk afterwards, but I got back to the hostel without a problem.