A Plethora of Photos from My Big Day Out

My last day in London and Amy had to go to work. What was the plan? Plan A was to go to the museums and galleries around Kensington starting at the Museum of Natural Science with the giant dinosaur skeletons. Amy wrote down the tube instructions for me and I was feeling confident enough to ride the tube and get out of any strife I might have got myself in if I had got myself lost. The Natural Science Museum was great- swarming with children on school trips with worksheets in hand- it was a joy to behold. Putting my school teacher hat on I do wonder though at the worth of having little kids draw pictures of dinosaurs while on a school trip to visit dinosaurs at such a prestigious venue! Give them a digital camera and move on to more deeper understandings of dinosaur activity. Never mind- I did enjoy watching the teachers in action all working hard.
I couldn't far enough back to get the whole of the dinosaur in the photo- it was quite spectacular.
And very fierce.
I couldn't help but wonder what might have happened to the dodo if well meaning British bird collectors hadn't caught and stuffed dodos as museum specimens.
Next stop was the Victoria and Albert Museum- not my cup of tea- full of a heap of old statues and stuff- I moved on at a pace. The building itself though was magnificent.
Just across the road was the upper crust houses of Kensington with a private shared walled garden- how absolutely spiffing. Kensington was the scene of a bit of a riot a couple of days before outside the Isreali Embassy as protesters made their feelings known about the bombardment of Gaza.
Then I headed off back down the tube with plans go to the Tate and walk across the Millennium Bridge but on a whim I got off by Westminster Bridge and thought I might catch a river boat to Greenwich.
Here I came face to face with some rudeness that made me fume. Firstly I needed to go to the toilet and spend a penny that turned out to be 50 pence. I only had a few coins and a £10 note. Myself and another lady didn’t have enough coins so the attendant rudely told us to get lost and go get some some cash from somewhere ( BTW money machines are few and far between, even in the middle of the capital city ). I gave my money to the other lady so at least one of us could do the business.

The next spot of bother really did send me into a lather. After choosing City Cruises as a provider of the river boat cruise to Greenwich mainly chosen on the fact the the next boat left in about five minutes. I paid my £11 and went straight to the wharf only to watch the boat pull out when I was about 10 steps from getting on! Not looking forward to a 45 minute wait for the next one I went back to the lady in the ticket booth to let her know what I thought of the fact the boat left without me- she couldn’t gave given a fat rats arse about it. I was liveid and fired off a vitriolic text to Amy at her work. Nothing to do then but hang about for 45 minutes- I did ask for my money but but she would not give it.

I fumed for 40 minutes taking a couple of photos of the London Eye from the Westminster Bridge, Then I walked back to catch the next boat and the City Cruise business was redeemed by the young lad supervising the loading- he apologised for going without me- bless him- his toothy smile and apology made the rage of the last 45 minutes completely disappear.
The cruise itself turned out to be a grand one and I saw lots of interesting things along the way to Greenwich. I didn’t realise that this part of the Thames is 60 miles inland but it is still affected by the tide.
Two British icons for the price of one.
An Argentinian family and I swapped camera for a photo opportunity.
The spire at the top of St Paul's was very striking across the London skyline.
From the river you could easily see the Millennium walking bridge as well.
I got lots of great photos of the bridge from the river as well.
This old pub had been frequented for hundreds of years.
I loved the lighting with the dark, brooding skies with the sun falling on the newly buildings.
I had a nice wander around Greenwich with little town lanes that I could imagine Charles Dickens walked down as indeed he did!
I resisted the temptations to go in for a free pint!
It was fitting that the clouds parted as I captured the place where the international dateline starts 0° 0° 0° .
It was getting dark so I had a cone of chips and a Coke for £1.95 from the Fish Restaurant. Much more like it.
Then back on the boat to Westminster Abbey for the striking of the o'clock.

I rested my camera on the bridge and got this decent photo of The London Eye which was a bit of a mission.

Big Ben on Westminster Abbey strikes 6 o'clock at night- brilliant.