We changed our plans for today. Originally I’d planned to visit Blenheim palace before heading back to our hotel at Heathrow Airport. However when we thought about our priorities for what we’d like to see on our last day on probably our last visit to England we decided we’d prefer to head to London to visit the observatory and museums at Greenwich, as we had not had the opportunity to visit previously. We were also a bit put off Blenheim because of their exorbitant entry charges and reviews I’d read saying it really wasn’t worth the money. One review said if you wanted to see a grand Renaissance palace go to France to see the chateaux of the Loire valley. As we’re planning to do that in a couple of days it cemented our decision to ditch Blenheim for Greenwich!
The day started well with a tasty breakfast in the hotel cafe and we set out for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Greenwich. We were about 45 minutes from Oxford when I glanced in the back seat and registered that Neil’s jacket wasn’t there..I asked him where it was…and after a blank expression crossed his face he said “In the wardrobe back at the hotel!” He’d forgotten all about it! Now Neil really likes that jacket and we had plenty of time so I suggested we return to get it. By the time we had doubled back and entered the traffic near London it was close to lunch time. We craaaaawled across south London, not only was there plenty of traffic lights and congestion but the speed limit is only 20 mph. I like the drive along the leafy Chelsea embankment and caught a glimpse of Westminster from Vauxhall bridge , but the areas south of the river were fairly gritty and less attractive. On our first visit to London I remember I’d felt like I was doing a Monopoly tour, Piccadilly, Mayfair etc. but today we were on Old Kent Road!
After the slow trip we were very glad to finally arrive at the National Maritime Museum parking which I’d pre booked. This parking lot is only available to the public at weekends, we were fortunate that chance meant we were here on Sunday. It was a short walk across the bottom of Greenwich park to the museum. We stopped to grab lunch at the cafe …and I managed to spill my entire cup of coffee after only one sip! This day was turning into a bit of a mess! However things improved after that. We wandered through the Maritime museum which started with a temporary exhibit of nighttime sky photography, then there were various galleries devoted to British exploration and Naval encounters. In one area they had the jacket that Horatio Nelson had been wearing at the Battle of Trafalgar, it had the hole in the shoulder where he’d been hit by the musket ball that killed him!
The walk up the hill to the observatory is pretty steep but the view from the top across London is great. In the distance we could see the roof of St Paul’s. immediately downhill is the Queens House and the Maritime Museum to the left. We paid our tickets for the observatory and made a beeline for the Meridian marker, stood with one foot in the Western hemisphere and another in the East.
There are some really interesting exhibits in the Observatory, relating both to the Astronomers Royal and their work and also to the development of time measurement , with accompanying gorgeous clocks.
In one room there was a globe showing the current time ticking away in various meridians around the world, we’d times our arrival perfectly and watched as the time in Sydney ticked over into midnight !
By now it was after 3 and we needed to head back to Heathrow to return our car. Our route back was slightly different and took us past The Oval. A county game must have just finished (early!) as there was a stream of people leaving the ground.
At the airport we checked in to the Crowne Plaza at Terminal 4, very conveniently connected to the terminal via an enclosed air bridge. We finished the evening with drinks in the bar and a nice meal in their restaurant, it was a good choice for a morning flight from T4. In the bar there were two screens showing one of the European championship Soccer games, England playing Slovakia. All eyes were on the screens! The atmosphere was subdued at first when England were down 2 – 1, but there was a few cheers and claps when they equalised and drew ahead to win.
Tomorrow we return to France for our last few days