I spent a lovely day today down in Greenwich. I took a ferry ride down the Themes from Westminster Pier, complete with mildly amusing commentary from one of the ferry's staff, and disembarked at Greenwich Pier approximately one hour later. It takes about half that time by light rail, but isn't nearly as fun, nor as relaxing.
The world heritage site of Maritime Greenwich quite blew me away. Of course, I was in my geekish element here - having a love of mapping, the whole discovery of longitude is magical to me. I was in awe at John Harrison's clocks. I would go back there just to stare at them some more - amazing machines! And the way that the measurement of time developed over the years, the charting of the stars, the discovery of new planets... yeah, it was all good!
There were also two very beautiful buildings there - the Painted Hall and the Chapel. Designed by Christopher Wren I think, and both very sumptuous inside. I almost didn't go into either but am very glad I did. I was attracted to the Painted Hall because it had an instrument to tell wind direction where you'd normally find a clock on the tower... and was totally amazed when I went inside. And the Chapel is just as pretty.
I wasn't anticipating being quite so blown by the Maritime half of the equation. But I'd even go back to the maritime museum, because I didn't get to spend as much time there as I'd like to, and I was quite entranced. The history of maritime endeavour, exploration and warfare has a whole romantic life of it's own.
So, all in all, and even forgiving the weather which wasn't at it's best, it was a lovely day. One that I'd definitely repeat!
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