Greenwich
National Maritime Museum

Cruising down the River Thames to Greenwich with the whole family will make a great London Day Trips day out. London has a few classics east and west along the Thames from Westminster Bridge close to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Downriver, a ferry ride taking about an hour from Westminster Millennium Pier will take you to Greenwich, where you can view some of London's finest waterfront vistas. Don't forget your camera on this ferry ride because the best views are from the river.

The Royal Naval College is one of the London Museums you can't afford to miss, and borders close to the National Maritime Museum which is a splendid ensemble of domes and pillars. Alongside the National Maritime Museum is Queen's House, a splendid house, England's first classical Palladian building and the architectural ancestor of Washington, D.C.'s White House.

Nearby are the masts and rigging of the famous Victorian tea clipper Cutty Sark, which is next to the tiny yacht Gipsy Moth IV, owned by Sir Francis Chichester who made the first solo circumnavigation of the world in 1966-67. Looking toward the county of Kent you'll see the hill of Greenwich Park and you'll also see the Royal Observatory straddling the famed Meridian Line. This whole complex was designed by by Inigo Jones for a house for King James I's wife, Anne of Denmark.

As a matter of interest; the international date line is located here at Greenwich and worthy of note, the National Maritime Museum has the world's largest maritime historical reference library with about 100,000 volumes including books dating back to the 15th century. Althrough its displays, exhibitions and outreach programmes the Museum also explores our current relationship with the sea and the future of the sea as an environmental resource.

The Royal Observatory with its world time zones and global positioning system, the Museum has a unique collection of subjects, including history, science and the arts, enabling it to trace the movement of people and the origins and of course the consequences of empire.

The goal of the Museum's work is to achieve, for all its users at home and overseas, a greater understanding of the British economic, cultural, social, political and of course the maritime history and its relationship in the world today. Lord or Admiral Nelson would have felt at home here

The collection of the National Maritime Museum also includes of course artifacts taken from Germany after World War II, including several ship models and paintings. The online resources include upcoming events and exhibitions covering every aspect of the sea, in peace and war and galleries of sea-related material.

I should mention here that the Thames Barrier is close to here. The Thames Barrier is a large flood control structure on the River Thames, constructed between 1974 and 1982 at Woolwich Reach. The Thames Barrier has been raised more than 20 times since its completion in 1982 to prevent the possibility of London flooding.

The Millennium Dome is here and well worth a side trip to view this vast structure. The National Maritime Museum will take the best part of your day, so take your time and return by ferry back to Westminster Millennium Pier. My surgestion at this point would be to head for Harrods for late afternoon tea.

Continueing along the river Thames you'll see more superb gardens with their own amazing designs forming a maze, sprawling the mighty Palace of Hampton Court, the most wonderful Tudor building in Britain. King Henry VIII really embellished it for his beloved second wife, Anne Boleyn, and later executed, and some even say her ghost walks here.

Click to leave Greenwich for London