Cruising the Thames

We went to take the Thames river cruise out to Greenwich. The day was nice when we boarded the train to London, but it got increasingly more gray. Once we got in line for the boat, the rain started and all of the passengers huddled in the sheltered area downstairs. The sun came out, we ran upstairs, got excellent (but wet) seats, and had a glorious ride down the river on a sunshine filled day.

If you expand this picture, you will be able to see both the name, and the weather vane. The name is 'The Mayflower' and the weather vane is shaped like the ship - which set sail from very near this spot in 1620.

A little further down stream you pass the Captain Kidd restaurant. Near this point was where they passed judgment on pirates. They would take them down to the sand during low tide and stake them out. They'd leave them long enough for the tide to come in twice, just to be sure. They didn't like pirates.

These are river barges, converted to house boats.

This is a very famous spot, where Charles Dickens set Oliver Twist. This is where Bill Sykes was hung, and Fagan lost his money.

I think this is the most beautiful bridge I have ever seen. In the second picture, you can see it is being painted. On the right side of the piling the blue is darker than on the left side.

Remember what I said about pirates? This is a sea worthy, exact replica of The Golden Hind. Captained by Sir Francis Drake, it was the first English ship to go around the world. This replica also was sailed around the world, so it really is an exact replica. Well the truth is, it was a pirate ship originally called The Pelican. It was just doing it on behalf of the queen. They captured so much Spanish treasure that Queen Elizabeth was able to pay off all of her debts. They changed their name mid-sail to the Golden Hind, some say because they were up to their 'hind' in gold. Supposedly in today's money they capture 10 million pounds in gold. The Queen was so pleased, she came right out to the ship and knighted him on the spot. Obviously, 'piracy' is a matter of perspective.

The white building with the thatched roof is the recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Thatched roofs are no longer allowed in London since the great fire, but they made an exception for this one.

This is the Millennium Bridge, affectionately known by Londoners as 'the Wobbly Bridge.' As the name suggests, it was opened in June of 2000 and closed two days later when it wobbled so bad they had to close it and add stabilization.

This is one of a set of 12 beautiful columns sitting in the middle of the Thames. They used to support a rail bridge, but the bridge was removed. When they started to removed these columns, they realized doing it would destabilize the bridge next door - so here they sit forever.

Cleopatra's Obelisk. These things were built in Egypt, in pairs. In the case of this one, one of the pair is here on the bank of the Thames, the other is in Central Park.

Look carefully, at the very top of this house, you can see a window just under the roof. That is where Charles Dickens lived when he wrote his novels.