Maiyegun's Diary: My London Diary 2015 (PART 2): 5-nights, 6-days family break to the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London

Tuesday 5 January 2016

My London Diary 2015 (PART 2): 5-nights, 6-days family break to the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London - by Badero Olusola

Stephanie and Myself on the River Thames, Tower Bridge behind

We arrived Victoria coach station around half six in the morning and got to our hotel in Deptford by 10:00 in the morning. After a long 9hrs journey from Glasgow to London, we checked into our hotel and had a very long sleep.

I was the first to wake up and grabbed the laptop for information about our area. The Greenwich Information Center website was of immense support. We got know about the famous "Cutty Sark" that was just 10 miinutes walk from our hotel.

www.rmg.co.uk/cutty-sark

According to wikipedia;

"Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. Built on the Clyde in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development which halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion.

The opening of the Suez Canal (also in 1869) meant that steam ships now enjoyed a much shorter route to China, so Cutty Sark spent only a few years on the tea trade before turning to the trade in wool from Australia, where she held the record time to Britain for ten years. Improvements in steam technology meant that gradually steamships also came to dominate the longer sailing route to Australia and the ship was sold to the Portuguese company Ferreira and Co. in 1895, and renamed Ferreira. She continued as a cargo ship until purchased by retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman in 1922, who used her as a training ship operating from Falmouth, Cornwall. After his death, Cutty Sark was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College, Greenhithe in 1938 where she became an auxiliary cadet training ship alongside HMS Worcester. By 1954 she had ceased to be useful as a cadet ship and was transferred to permanent dry dock at Greenwich, London on public display.

Cutty Sark is listed by National Historic Ships as part of the National Historic Fleet (the nautical equivalent of a Grade 1 Listed Building). She is one of only three remaining original composite construction (wooden hull on an iron frame) clipper ships from the nineteenth century in part or whole, the others being the City of Adelaide, which arrived in Port Adelaide, South Australia on 3 February 2014 for preservation, and the bleached skeleton of Ambassador of 1869 near Punta Arenas, Chile.

The ship has been damaged by fire twice in recent years, firstly on 21 May 2007 while undergoing conservation. She was restored and was reopened to the public on 25 April 2012. Secondly, on 19 October 2014 she suffered minor damage in a smaller fire."

Stephanie getting our tickets

'Fly like a bird': Stephanie feeling the fresh breeze of the River Thames

Observing the moment

On the 29th of December, we started our first holiday visit to Purley, Croydon. That is where Stephanie's sister lives with her wonderful family. We played games and I had few bottles of "London Pride" beer. It was an amazing time with the boys who were more than happy so see their cousin, Caleb. We spent all day on 29th traveling to and from Purley; we returned to hotel room by 8:00pm and this time, we had more ideas on how the London transports works.

We left the Greenwich station in the morning to Victoria - a change of train at Lewisham (pronounced "Lewsham").

While in Victoria, Stephanie and I decided to deposit our few hundreds pounds of Scottish notes - Scottish pounds are sometimes rejected in London by taxi drivers and some shop owners. Stephanie even observed the cashier in the Royal Bank of Scotland who marked our money "Scot" on the slip. Whatever that meant, we got the equivalent of our deposit in our subsequent spendings around london.

After a visit to Purley, we came back to our hotel tired but satisfied that we could spend such a good time with important family member's.

The following morning, 30th of December, we were up early and headed straight to the Cutty Sark. But something unexpected happened that later was the most memorable time of our trip.

"We wanted to see Greenwich, but we ended up seeing the whole of City of London."

See photos here:

Boat cruise on River Thames

Westminster Abbey London

Boat cruise on River Thames

Observing The moment

Other tour boat on Thames

Selfie: Boat cruise on River Thames

Approaching the Tower Bridge

The Tower Bridge

Boat cruise on River Thames

At the Greenwich Tourist Information Center, we saw the magnificent Cutty Sark in its glory - standing tall in its beauty and admiration of all. But by its side is a walkway to the tickets boxes that oversaw a river - The river we later known as the famous River Thames. We couldn't hide our excitements when told we could get to see the scary adventure of the London Eye. Stephanie was ready to pay just anything to be on the boat - we paid for everything at a spot and jumped on the boat with so much happiness and nostalgia. Caleb was sleeping and the splendour was ours to explore - We were being educated on the historical backgrounds of different buildings, bridges, monuments and everything that made London famous along the River Thames.

The London Eye

Cruise Boat at Greenwich Pier

Boat cruise on River Thames

The Police boat on Thames

The london Eye

Boat cruise on River Thames

To get on the London Eye Capsule, we had to join a long queue of other thousands of visitors. We were a bit famished from the sea sick of the Greenwich Pier to Waterloo Pier trip - smile - and decided to have a munch.

London Eye at Night

In the restaurant, Caleb was a center of attraction as every guest whose path crossed ours would stop to say "Hi" to the "Wee man" - including the waitresses serving people. But the one I wont forget in a hurry was the beautiful asian family - they had twin girls who quickly clicked with Caleb without any of us even noticing them until the Wee man started his usual giggles whenever he is happy. This act of innocent love between these kids melted Stephanie's heart that she nearly moved to tears in excitement. She took some photos but I won't share them here for privacy reason.