End Of The Cruise And A Day In London

After Cadiz we were at sea for a couple days.

The first of these days we were in some serious fog:

 The ship's fog horn sounded regularly and it was rather neat to walk the deck and see nothing beyond,and in fact often not even seeing the rest of the ship.

The next day we watched a cooking demonstration by the Ship's head chef and got some neat recipe ideas. We then attended another British trivia show and had a really lovely conversation with some British couples and had a great evening.

The sunset at sea was awesome, too.

 We then arrived early in the morning back at Southampton, had a final breakfast on the ship,  and then began the disembarkation, which was all too efficient and fast.

We retrieved our luggage, and found our transport and headed to London. We had arranged to meet with my cousin that lives there with her family and she suggested, as it was still rather hot out, that we meet at Greenwich.

To get to Greenwich we needed to take the tube which we did successfully, finding he proper line and getting off at the correct stop.  Then we took a ride on the Uber Boat on the Thames, which is not actually booked with the Uber app.

Its a rather nice ride on the ferry, and it goes slow for awhile for a few stops, and then really picks up speed.

As it meandered along, I got a nice shot of HMS Belfast, a Town-class light cruiser with service in World War 2 and Korea and the first British naval vessel to be preserved since HMS Victory:

Picking up speed we soon arrived at Greenwich and the old Naval War College, which is now a museum and park.

Of course, there are large naval cannons: 

There's a statue to Sir Walter Raleigh in the grounds:

Inside the building is an extensive museum about the history of the Naval War College:

It was at this time my cousin and her family arrive, so my tour of the museum was cut short, especially as their young child doesn't like museums.

Heading out of the museum, we passed by the Cutty Sark, but it had a huge lineup and with impatient young child on a hot day so we moved along.

 

We then wandered through Greenwich Market, saw various shops, and had some lunch.

So we walked along the grounds of the University of Greenwich, and saw the  Royal Observatory in Greenwich, home of Greenwich Mean Time and the prime meridian.

Quite cool to see it, and we had enough time to do so.

We then walked a bit more around and then had dinner together and we headed back to our hotel. I had a good time catching up with my cousin and her family, and all that walking about wiped us out nicely.

We got back to the hotel, and then the kids and Tash went to a store they wanted to see and I wandered around London for a but and then sat and had a cask ale at a pub near the hotel.

We then got ready for our departure from Heathrow the next day, which was its own adventure.