Usually when we visit the lovely borough of Greenwich we get the DLR, the overground railway from the city where you can pretend you're driving the train.
When we visited a few weeks ago, we decided to get up slightly earlier and get the Thames Clipper from Embankment Pier all the way down the Thames to Greenwich.
During Summer if you want to visit anywhere touristy in London, you have to get up early to beat the crowds, so we found ourselves at Embankment bright and early and all ready for the first Clipper of the day.
The Thames Clipper boats are a great way to see the London skyline from the water, and are half the price of the tourists boats, plus you don't have to listen to the audio guides through the loudspeakers. It's half the price and much quicker, just take a guidebook and you're ready to go!
Once on the boat it heads across the river to the Millennium Pier directly under the London Eye, giving an amazing view of the London Eye from below.
Looking back towards the Houses of Parliament
We sat inside the boat because it was a bit chilly, but you can sit out the back, or just hop up and down like I did taking photo's along the way.
Upon arrival at Greenwich Pier, we departed the boat and headed past the Cutty Sark, an old British Clipper ship built in 1869. The Cutty Sark was one of the last Clippers to be built as production on sailing ships slowed due to the development of steam propulsion.
We stopped at the Greenwich Market for a coffee and some morning tea, taking our pastries to eat outside in Greenwich Park.
It wasn't really warm enough to sit for too long in the park, so we continued our way up the hill towards the Observatory. The Royal Observatory was built in 1675 and is the site of the Prime Meridian, the Global Time standard on which every time zone in the world is based.
We stopped halfway up to admire the amazing views towards Canary Wharf and over towards the Olympic Park and the O2 Arena.
Right on time!
We ventured further into the park, past the Observatory and into the quieter section of the park.
We came across lots of lovely little squirrels, who are obviously used to being fed as they came right up close when I crouched on the ground. I don't think they were very impressed to discover I had no treats for them! I cannot confirm I may have been misleading them when crouching on the ground...
Starting to get hungry, we left the park and went in search of a pub for a Sunday Roast.
As we headed out of the park it started drizzling, luckily Bradley and Wendy had raincoats and I borrowed Wendy's very tiny umbrella to keep us covered in the last dash for the pub.
We stopped at the Greenwich Union, which has a huge selection of beers from the Meantime Brewery, which is located in Greenwich. We spent a good 10-15 minutes browsing the beer list deciding what to have before finally deciding on a Yakima Red and a Pale Ale, both delicious.
Their Sunday Roasts were also delicious, with huge Yorkshire Puddings on top, and not being able to go without actual pudding, we had chocolate mousse and ice-cream for dessert.
On the way home we caught the DLR, trying to convince Wendy on the way how fun it was to pretend to drive the overground train, and not having her believe us until we got on board. There is literally no driver, it is a DriverLess Railway, and still our favourite mode of transport in London.
Look at her excited face!
What a great day you all had.
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