Excursion to Greenwich

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After meeting up with my parents and John & Mary (Mark’s parents) at Premier Inn Stratford, we headed for Greenwich by Dockland Light Railway. My parents found it intriguing to see unmanned stations, skyscrapers around Canary Wharf and stylish residential houses, many of which have been converted from warehouses.



It was a lunch time when we arrived at Cutty Sark station. We popped in one of the Italian restaurants near the station. John & Mary were so kind that they treated the traditional Italian lunch to us.



The display of the majestic vessel was visible from the street where we had come out from the restaurant. I told my parents, ‘This big ship used to convey a heap of tea from the Southeast Asia via Pacific. This ship was burnt down in 2007, but has been restored recently.’ They took photos of the huge ship and admired its design. We planned to see the display of other history yacht, Gipsy Moth IV, which Sir Francis Chichester travelled all over the world, but his yacht seems to have removed and replaced with flowerbeds.



Beside the Cutty Sark, we found the red-brick building of Greenwich Foot Tunnel. We could see another red-brick building with a round roof on the opposite bank, and I told my parents that, ‘the spiral staircase shown on the display panel leads to the passage underneath the Thames and it connects to the red-brick building on the opposite bank.’



We then walked through the park surrounded by buildings of Old Royal Naval College designed by Christopher Wren. We also found the National Maritime Museum where my brother-in-law works.



We walked on King William Walk and found the entrance gate for Greenwich Park. It was a very sunny and hot afternoon. We had planned going to Old Royal Observatory. John & Mary decided to sit down on the foot of the park, not going to the observatory.



My parents and we followed the concrete path, The Avenue’ and turned left after seeing the sign for the entrance for Old Royal Observatory. My parents were interested in the Meridian (0˚longtitude) that divides the earth’s eastern and western hemispheres, which are described on Japanese textbooks. Therefore, they paid for the admission for four people. Many tourists including my parents seemed to be excited to stand on either side of the Meridian Line and were talking memorial photos. We entered the dark room where we could see the scene shot by the old lens: by directing at the foot of Greenwich Park, it showed buildings, traffics and pedestrians around Maritime Museum. We then stood on the viewpoint and overlooked the Greenwich Park, National Maritime Museum, Old Royal Naval College, Themes, Millennium Dome, skyscrapers around Canary Wharf and London’s landmarks beyond. We entered Flamsteed House and other exhibition house and looked round exhibition rooms displayed with makers of chronometers (navigators’ clocks), collections of astronomical instruments, chronometers and clocks.



Afterwards, we left the observatory and walked down to the park and met up with John & Mary. Their bus was due to depart at 16:50 – it was the time to go back to Stratford.



When we arrived at Startford station, I gave them a bag of books. My mother-in-law said, ‘This bag is heavy! You’ve made your husband work very hard carrying all the way from Wood Green and exploring to Observatory!!!’ We said ‘Goodbye’ near the bus terminal.

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