Visit to Greenwich, 18 October 2018

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My brother-in-law Steve works for National Maritime Museum in London and is able to offer us the family entry to Cutty Sark, the historic vessel standing in the heart of Greenwich.



We met up with Steve and his son Bryn at Waterstones, and Steve took us to the café in the Cutty Sark. A spider has been found at Bryn’s school lately, and because of this, his school has been closed; that’s why he was able to join us.



Cutty Sark is a survivor of the clippers that crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the 19^th century. We firstly looked round the 1^st floor desk where boxes of tea were safely loaded from harbours and kept whilst being travelled. I could recognise some of the Chinese characters which are the same meaning as Japanese.



It was thrilling to stroll through the upper deck included rooms where lesser-qualified seamen, senior seamen and Captains were slept, dined and worked, and the show area where the appointed carpenters and engineers were maintaining this historic vessel. We also found it fascinating to see old carved ships’ figureheads displayed downstairs.



After having lunch at Nando, we walked on Greenwich Park. Like everywhere in Britain, many of trees and shrubs’ leave have turned gold, orange, red and yellow – they looked stunning under the blue sky. We also found conifers which had big corns.



Bryn had to go the dentist in the afternoon. After leaving his and his father, we continued walking. We decided to walk under the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. We walked down the stairs from Cutty Sark’s side, but used the lift for Island Garden’s side. We found the viewpoint; across the river, we could see Christopher Wren’s Royal Naval College and Royal Observatory beyond. On our right side se could see the round red-brick building and the Cutty Sark. We then took the DLR train from Island Gardens.

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Photos

boxes of tea
Chinese characters tell which types of tea - each of boxes contain different flavours of tea.

Cutty Sark
An appointed conservator was repairing the damaged decorations of the historic vessel - it is a very difficult job, as we can see.