A self-guided Greenwich England walking tour, a leisurely plan for the tomorrow. We will find wifi and post recent blog posts so you all can know the events of the last few days. Come with us on the walking tour of this world famous destination.

“The ma.l.in purpose of the Observatory was to measure and monitor time and the most famous aspect of the Observatory from this purpose: The Prime Meridian. At 0 degrees longitude, the Greenwich Meridian marks the point where all time around the world is measured. The Prime Meridian was established in 1851 and gained international use by 1884. A stainless steel strip in the courtyard marks the line and since 1999 there has also been a green laser that shines down 0 degrees.” To help people synchronize their clocks to Greenwich Mean Time, the Astronomer Royal in 1833, John Pond, had the time ball installed on top of the Observatory. The ball drops daily at 1 pm all-year-round.

We will see the Greenwich Foot Tunnel (joins the two sides of the Thames River), the Millenium Dome (opened 1 January 2000), and the Cutty Sark (built in 1869, retired in 1954, was once believed to be the fastest freight ship in the world. Damaged by fire in May 2007 and undergone 35 million pound restoration, now open to the public).

It is 630 am on Monday 10 June 2019, we are backing up along the Thames River. We see industrial buildings first, then commercial business high rises and now rows of dense residential areas. Background is very tall towers, bank and other business names. A single jogger in the rain. Sea gulls a plenty circling around our ship. Very tall, very grey, lots of glass and golden cranes bending over the roof tops. Brown river water, slowly we creep along to our parking spot. Palm trees on rooftops, balconies and dog walkers. It is all very curious! Single walker with umbrella along the walkway across the river. Our balcony is on the water side as we park this cruise ship. According to a map, about 6 to 8 kilometers from downtown centre of London! It will be interesting to explore this area today. Big tug boats and sea gulls gathered and surrounding our ship this morning as the docking procedure continues … it is now 7:10 am and we still seem to be continuing to move in a backward motion, slowly inching our way along. Another single walker across the river. 7:30 am and we are stopped, the tug boats have left us now.

Joggers, cyclists, dog walkers and folks out walking with umbrellas. Residential area with a lovely river-side walk way. Ducks / geese with long necks floating by over by the wall. Planes overhead. We are tied up now to huge buoys in the river … apparently to expect a tender system provided by the city (not using Azamara small tender boats). According to the information desk yesterday, the tender system runs all the time as we are parked, docked, tied-up until the ship departs with new guests tomorrow.

Security advises we must go through immigration on the ship, with London England officials by showing our passports and attending face-to-face with their team coming on board. Our scheduled time is 9 am …. still a few hours to rise and watch the process. Today’s project is also to find a suitable drive into London Gatwick for our ride to airport tomorrow as we will be leaving early in the morning. One more sleep. I am coming home!