Ok, so the weather wasn't exactly great over the bank holiday weekend - but then we shouldn't expect too much should we? It is early April after all. And Friday was beautiful. Luckily we'd checked the forecast and knew that it would probably be our only outdoor fun day, so we were up early and out of the house - and in Greenwich at a perfectly reasonable 11am.
I've got two tips for you if you are planning to visit Greenwich by car.
1) Get there early, the car parks fill up.
2) Take LOTS of change. Parking is £2.50 per hour and the machines take £2, £1, 50p and 20p coins only. No cards no notes.
If you are anything like us you will want at least 4 to 5 hours there, and once you've paid for your parking you can't return to your car to add more.
Cutty Sark
The Ship is looking fantastic again. I haven't seen it since the fire but looking at it now you wouldn't know how much damage had been done. It's also nice to see that a new glass pavillion is being build around the dry dock that the ship is in - which I assume will be the new museum/visitors centre. It looks almost done, which is good because it apparently reopens on 26th April. A string of new restaurants have also sprung up along the riverside here, although they will have a job to compete with the Old Brewery, part of the Discover Greenwich site, which we found to be excellent.
Discover Greenwich
The Discover Greenwich Museum is interesting, and free.
Les Miserables Movie set in the Greenwich Royal Naval College
To be fair we didn't really know what was going on when we got to the Royal Naval College, but we found out later that the courtyards around the buildings are standing in for revolutionary Paris, as the sets are for Les Miserables the Movie...
The large statue of an elephant would have been a give away, if only either of us had seen the play, or read the book.
The dome of the painted hall
I'd never been into the Painted hall before, but I'd recommend it - it's fantastic. It was apparently build originally as a dining hall, but then never used because it was too good!
The Painted Hall
A Collection of anchors in the grounds of the Martime Musuem
The Naval College from the Martime Museum
A model of the Queens house when it was a part of the Palace. Hosued in the Queens House gallery.
A detail of the handrail of the Tulip Staircase.
A standard view, bur impossible not to take.
The roadway under the Queens house.
The Naval College and Maritime Museum from the Royal Observatory
24 hour clock at the Obsevatory
Les Miserables prop details
The Cutty Sark and trhe entrance to the tunnel under the Thames.
I'm pretty sure we'll be returning to Greenwich soon. I'm looking forward to seeing Cutty Sark again and its new visitors centre built around the ship looks like it will be fantastic and we didn't set foot in either the Martime Museum (which is still free) or the Royal Observatory (Which isn't).