Off To Greenwich Market,

then a boat trip up the Thames,

but first a bus to Lewisham,

Diana's feet were a bit sore from yesterday, so a new pair of more comfortable shoes,

and a new hair band, one of the four entrances to the market in Greenwich, it is in the center of the one way system,

lots of local handicrafts are for sale,

you name it they have got it,

we are a bit early as some of the salls have not set up yet, but remember the market is only here on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sundays,

I have just purchased a small something from this coin seller,

lots of second hand goods for sale here,

Diana still not sure what she wants,

so many things, so little time,

now these looked good enough to eat,

which would not have been a good idea as they were soap! but it was fascinating watching the skill of the stall owner making them,

another stall holder specializing in wire work,

at last Diana has found something she likes, glass earrings and necklaces,

and a few clocks for nautical types,

then to the bottom of the hill in Greenwich park that leads to the observatory,

nearly got mugged by a gray squirrel on the way up the hill, so many people feed them they have become quite tame,

not much further,

nearly there,

and here we are, looking towards the Queen's House, built and designed by Inigo Jones (1573 - c1652) with Canary Warfe in the back ground,

the Royal Observatory, notice the big red ball on the top of the building, accurate time keeping meant the difference between knowing where you were at sea and being lost, every Captain in the Port of London would watch the ball at 13.00 hours, it would rise slowly and drop at exactly at the strike of the hour, every watch would be set to that time before putting to sea,

units of measurement are placed here,

the last bit of the walk up hill is the hardest,

and here we are,

there is a small garden at the rear of the building,

and a plaque on the wall, for the meridian,

I hope it is not to small to read,

the court yard,

this is the bit of the Meridian most people know, it is 0 degrees, Diana has one foot in the East and one in the West, if you look at any map of the world you will see this line running through it, inside we had a look at the Harrison time pieces which made modern day navigation possible by solving the problem of finding longitude,

look at Diana's hands, yes it really was that cold!

we then retraced our steps to visit the National Maritime Museum, this is the front of the building we saw from the top of the hill,

Diana dwarfed by one of the huge anchors the one on the right from the Ark Royal,

inside the museum working engines were on display,

I am not sure what these buildings are, but I do know The Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital was in this area many years ago,

unfortunately building work is going on but this is one of the outsides of the market square,

looking through one of the entrances to the market,

then it was time to eat, just enough room for the Bentley outside!

scampi for me,

and chicken for Diana, bearing in mind we are in the heart of a tourist area, the meal was just £8.00 each, 'Cheers!',

I forgot about the ice creams!

delicious,

the owner popped over to say hi, which was a nice touch, Steve and myself had eaten here just a couple of months ago,

now shall we take the car? no, decided on the boat!

the area dates back to the days of sail and tea clippers, so there are many quaint pubs in the ares,

the remains of the burnt out Cutty Sark, work is continuing on rebuilding her, but she will be a few more years in the making before it is finished and in her former glory,

next we decided on a walk under the Thames,

built in 1902 it appears it was the fashionable thing to do,

just one slight problem, there are 100 steps down,

here we are,

but, yes you got there before me, there are 100 steps up again!

next a walk along to the Thames Clipper, the London riverboat taxi service,

two to Westminster and we were on our way,

the other side of the foot tunnel,

the Maritime Museum in the background,

although difficult to see the river is very high due to an unseasonably high tide,

Diana had bought another few things in Greenwich,

the office complex of Canary Warfe,

the HSBC building towering over the others,

the river police,

and Royal Navy both have a presence on the Thames,

past Tower Bridge,

and the tower,

just look how high the water is at Traitors Gate, no chance of getting a boat under there,

then it happened, the jetty master said and I quote, 'it is a one in a million chance of this happening' due to engineering works only one span of the next bridge can be used to get the big boats upstream, but due to some scaffolding falling into the open span and the high tide only small boats could continue upstream, so off of the big boat on to four smaller boats, weren’t we lucky, a million to one chance and we got it!

still I got another shot of the pineapple building,

we moved a bit inside the boat, t had just started to rain,

but still a happy Diana, cold and wet but still all smiles,

now speeding past H.M.S. Belfast,

and St. Pauls,

the walking bridge,

we finally made it under the bridge being repaired,

then on foot past the London Eye,

we made our way along the embankment,

past the satue to the airmen of 70 years ago,

I believe it is this month that marks the anniversary of the conflict in the skies,

of course we had to have a picture of Diana in that famous icon of London, a telephone box,

then towards The Clock Tower, which is it's official name, the term 'St Stephens Tower' was coined by Victorian journalists who referred to all business conducted in the House Of Commons as news from 'St Stephens' (St Stephens Hall was the location where MP's originally sat), but know universally as Big Ben,

another tour bus goes past as Diana shivers in the cold,

Big Ben of course refers to the name of the bell inside the tower, time was getting on so home we went for a cup of tea dry clothes and to warm up.