Sunday,

we decided to go to Greenwich,

for a walk along the River Thames,

we went to Greenwich by bus, it was tempting to go to the market,

but we had a long walk ahead of us,

we passed the Cutty Sark,

in the garden beside it a party was in full swing,

but we continued to the foreshore,

low tide at this time, but no mudlarks today,

our final destination,

not yet in the picture,

one of the fast river boats goes past, do not confuse these with the sightseeing boats, these are a lot quicker,

a little further on our goal is in sight, the O2,

all along the waterfront,

there are public houses,

in one of the allways that are just a tad away from the riverside we spotted these houses,

all with different coloured doors, who will have a green one next time it comes to having them repainted?

we passed Trinity Hospital, it is a group of alms houses between Greenwich Power Station and the Old Royal Naval College on the south bank of the River Thames at Greenwich, the inscription on the building reads 1616,

the next landmark on our walk a remaining portion of a wall,

 making as it says on the plaque, an extraordinary high tide on January 7th 1928, hopefully a thing of the past, now that the Thames Barrier is in place,

next a wall with a story,

by a strange coincidence it is a story about a boy named Stan, the work is by Amanda Hinge and titled Thames Tale, 

I normally find things lurking me after a drink or two, so this Stan and myself have a little in common!

but who is Stan in the story? Amanda writes, 'Bizarrely enough Stan wasn’t based on any one boy in particular, but when it came to installing the work with a rather eccentric and lovely Welsh builder Bill, an old man was taken to visit the wall and see the work being installed and his name was Stan, He lived in the Huguenot hospice next door and had lived in Greenwich all his life, He had worked on the docks many years ago and used to like walking along the river.'

the O2 getting nearer,

not far now, well it looked near, but was not,

we passed the Greenwich Power Station, it is a standby oil, gas, and formerly coal-fired power station on the river,

plans to revamp the 1906 Greenwich Power Station, in south-east London, have been announced by then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, six new gas engines will be installed in the building's old turbine hall, Boris said in January 2015, ‘with cleaner, more efficient and environmentally friendly new systems, Greenwich Power Station will be brought back up to full use, and go on to perform the function it was originally created for well into the 21st Century’, work to install the first two engines will begin in April 2015, and they are expected to be running by 2017,

the now disused jetty use when coal was still a fuel source,

nearly there,

but this was thirty work,

so a break was called,

'Cheers!',

at the Cutty Sark public house, Diana had my jacket on, the wind had a decided chill about it,

but jacket off for the pictures,

on the other side of the river Canary Wharf,

in the distance,

the Emirates Air Line is a cable car link across the River Thames

clouds kept the day cool,

an advertising hoarding for new homes,

a riverside jetty no longer used or needed, back in the day there were so many of them along the bankside, then along came container shipping,

if you look carefully along the shoreline in the distance, in the middle of the picture there is a dome,

and this is it when I zoomed in, it is the pedestrian tunnel at the Cutty Sark ship that we have walked from,

we are almost opposite Canary Wharf,

and from here it is easy to see the Greenwich power station,

if you do decided to do the walk, be prepared, some parts are a little underwater after a rain storm,

a large pleasure vessel makes its way up the Thames,

a close up of some of the bank buildings,

the O2 dome in the distance, in between it and us a golf driving range,

if you look carefully you will see a few people on top of the dome,

as a kid these were a common sight on the river, not so nowadays,

clear of the golf driving range netting I took a closer picture of daredevils walking over the outside of the dome, not my idea of fun!

well it is easy for the swans they can fly over it,

Citi, HSBC and Barclays, just three of the big institutions in the Warfe,

a city jet aircraft passed us overhead,

it really is not far now,

we then chanced on a photo shoot,

it was a BMW i8,

we first looked at one way back in November 2015 when we went to the Ocean Marina boat show in Pattaya,

what on earth?

now we know,

we had cleared a bend in the river, so these were new buildings for us,

a piece of a ship on display,

cutaway to show how the keel of a ship is made,

it looked remarkably strong,

it is the part that supports the bridge,

we could almost touch the O2 now,

the walkway over the top,

there are safety wires,

that you attach yourself to,

but not for me, also the cable car was looming closer, scary indeed!

I thought this was neat, each crane painted a different color,

well if they have to be painted why not?

zooming in, a strange looking sculpture at the base of the cable car tower,

we will be going there later,

but first we made our way to the O2 past some of the outlying buildings,

one of the huge ground fastings for the dome,

and here we were at the entrance,

and inside,

entry to the dome is free,

the outer walkway,

has many restaurants,

on it,

this one I guess is called Five Guys,

some even have palm trees,

to welcome a weary traveller,

when you look at the dome there are a number of yellow supporting structures appearing to hold the top up, this is one of them as it is attached to the ground,

we decided to eat at a Thai restaurant, Busaba Eathai,

inside the restaurant was nicely laid out,

we ordered a selection of dishes,

all of which were excellent,

another pose,

and we were in the square at the front of the O2,

the entrance to the Skywalk, the tickets are from £35 each, no reduction for children,

we wondered what this line was,

we soon found out,

looking back to the O2,

a strange spire going up in the sky,

and the painted cranes in the background,

I guess a artwork to make people read more books,

some of the buildings near the O2,

I am not sure what this one is, but it looks sort of neat,

we are nearing the cable car entrance,

it looks so high,

Steve dislikes heights as much as I do,

tickets purchased,

and we are on our way,

one set of happy campers are off,

as the big wheel turns,

and here is our car,

all smiles,

Diana is a bit apprehensive,

hold my hand, I am not saying who said that to who,

and we are away,

it was really high and we had not yet reached the first of the two supports,

Steve looking like I felt,

we are at the top,

as another car returns,

in the distance the O2,

we are now in the middle going towards the second support,

Diana was a little unsure,

nearly at the top and on our way down,

looking down on the Royal Victoria Dock, it is the largest of three docks in the Royal Docks of east London,

on the side we were approaching another strange looking building,

and a huge vessel

and a converted barge,

relief all round,

as we are back on terra firma,

I liked this idea,

keeping the dockyard cranes to add I suppose a bit of character to the new development and a reminder of the past,

also in the dock a lightship,

and a vessel in a floating drydock,

now for a bit of fun,

this gentleman,

has two waterjets,

attached to his feet,

but leaning forwards or backwards he can rise out of the water,

the jet ski behind powers the jets,

it all looks very tricky,

and as you might imagine you need to have a good sense of balance,

Diana looked on,

suitably underwhelmed,

on the far side of the dock,

a cable water ski area, great idea, no speed boats charging up and down the docks,

time for a coffee,

it was nice sitting outside if somewhat chilly,

then back in the cable car,

for the technical,

we were soon approaching the coloured cranes,

and the O2,

Canary Wharf behind it,

looking back to the docks,

nearly there,

smiles all round,

as we pass the high point,

and make our descent,

nearing some of the buildings we saw earlier,

I hate to say it, but it still looks a long way down,

past the cranes,

and we are down,

we also went to the Airbus A380 exhibition in the Emirates center,

the size of the engines are just so big when you see one close up,

as is the nosecone,

we all had a go at flying in the simulator,

it was just a matter of hitting the right switches,

reading the dials and landing,

the final score,

ground 4, aircraft 0,

well these things just have to be done,

but what a great way to spend a few minutes,

I just wish we had longer,

it was a long way down, as I said before the nosecone is huge,

on to the bus, passing the Catford shopping center, I love the huge cat over the sign, then home feet up, a bite to eat and we were all off to bed.