Friday Was Diana's Day Off,

so glad rags on,

all ready to go,

and we were out, today I am only making one post as there are so many photographs, about 200 of them!

we were going to take the 10.15 London Bridge train, but it was cancelled, so Victoria it was then, next the tube to London Bridge, but first a photograph of the new sweet outlet at Victoria,

and a pose,

we were soon at London Bridge,

and making our way to Hay's Galleria,

well it is not often I am in the photographs, 

we made our way,

towards the river side,

passing the NAVIGATORS, 

by David Kemp, which we have featured before,

looking back towards the sculpture,

behind me the River Thames, now at low tide,

looking across the river the Walkie Talkie building, which we had dined in with Steve and Kai,

looking up river the London Bridge water taxi pier,

just as I clicked the shutter a pesky pigeon flew past,

so trying a again H.M.S. Belfast, which we had visited many yeas ago, back in September 2010 as it happens,

the river police doing their rounds,

the Belfast is still closed due to the lockdown, but work is going on,

getting ready for the opening the ship is being repainted and made ready for the start of the UK's summer season, virus permitting,

we had a stroll,

towards Tower Bridge,

well I just had too,

have two photographs taken,

only one for Diana,

the bridge at low water,

the reason for our visit was that as soon as we knew tables could be booked Diana made a reservation for us, at the Horniman,

we were a tad early, so plenty of time for taking a few photographs,

and posing,

along with a selfie,

we were soon seated, it was a good job we booked, a coffee for Diana, I started on the red,

'Cheers!',

macaroni and cheese for Diana large fish and chips for myself,

eyes down and tuck in!

we decided against a dessert, meal finished we made our way to the water taxi pier,

there would be one along in 10 minutes or so,

which gave us a chance to look around,

so far we were the only passengers in the waiting section,

it had started to get a little cold,

as we waited for the taxi,

but at least it was not raining which was forecast,

the galleria from the jetty,

if you take a water taxi, these are the stops,

we would be going from London Bridge City, to Greenwich,

and there it was,

the boat is in fact a catamaran,

as the boat pulled up,

we queued up,

waiting to board,

just the two of us,

we almost had the boat to ourselves,

there were about 8 people on board, and six of those were the crew!

we pulled away,

passing the galleria,

which is opposite H.M.S. Belfast,

and there she is,

one of the water taxis passes by going upstream,

the Shard in the background,

looking down on the Thames,

we made ourselves comfortable,

as we sped downstream,

and speed it did,

we passed what was one the council building,

the tower in the distance,

in no time we were at our first stop,

and away,

I zoomed in at the maximum the lens would allow,

picking up speed,

we were soon under Tower Bridge,

and making our way downstream,

as I mentioned,

we were spoilt for choice,

as far as where to sit,

if you like a river view with boats on the water,

these river fronted flats are for you, I dread to think how much they are,

Tower Bridge now in the distance,

a panorama from the rear of the boat,

just a pity it was not a blue sky,

we started to increased speed if such a thing was possible,

as we passed Thames Tunnel Mills,

Diana all smiles as usual,

you could almost water ski behind the boat,

we passed smaller rivers emptying into the Thames,

another pier,

we did not stop,

nobody to get on or off,

a blocked off tributary I guess,

at last blue skies making the red ensign stand out,

in no time we had arrived at Greenwich,

home to the Cutty Sark,

which we had been past many times before,

we made our way into town,

to the covered Greenwich Market,

it was surprisingly empty,

no doubt due to the lockdown,

so now is the time to visit,

if you want to avoid the crowds,

this is the famous public house feature in Now You See Me, a film we mentioned in a previous post about in one of our many trips to Greenwich,

the alley by the side of the pub,

we made our way out of the square,

and crossed the road to see a disappointment,

one shop I enjoy looking in is Nauticalia, as its name suggests it deals with nautical items, but it appears it has been killed by the lockdown, what a shame,

a quick pose,

and we were on our way to Greenwich Park,

we started our walk up the hill,

not many people here today,

we wanted to look at the cherry blossom,

and there was lots of it,

time for a rest,

well it was a steep hill!

some of the camellias were out in bloom,

red,

white,

and pink, or maybe a light mauve?

half way to the top of the hill,

the Meridian Line,

toilet break!

looking back down the hill,

we were now in the cherry blossom avenue,

so many trees in flower,

I think we had chosen our time here just right,

so many flowers,

with hardly any petals yet on the ground,

so plenty of poses from Diana,

the good news,

was that it not being the weekend,

there were not many people here,

look at all of those blossoms,

I took a couple of panoramas,

one looking away from the blossoms,

and this one with Diana in white in the middle of the avenue,

a few more,

for the album,

and one from me,

we made our way from the park, past the lodge,

and on to the heath,

it was a nice thought, but it was way too cold for a ice cream,

but here is a bit of fun, like Crystal Place there is a fair here,

you never know we might call back to one of them,

we walked over the heath past the church to Blackheath Village,

many years ago every Friday Duncan, Steve and myself would meet in the restaurant at the end of this row for our Friday night meal and drink up, so many old memories walking down here again,

Diana had to stop at Oliver Bonas of course, it took a while to get home, bus after bus was full, the problem is that the government want people to go back to work and school, but the guy in charge of London transport insists on keeping his buses at only 35% full, so huge queues and as we saw a couple of days ago, frayed tempers from the public,

 arriving home it was feet up in the evening for a comedy, Down Periscope, great fun indeed, it appealed to both of our sense of humour, then one from New Tricks which was late, next for us we were off to bed.