Whoops! I've got a long way behind with blogging my walk along the Jubilee Greenway. I've walked three more sections since my last post, and I'm in Westminster now (though it might be a while before I can carry on due to a gammy leg).
Last post I left you in North Greenwich by the O2, and I moved on again on 6 February. This was planned to be a short section, so that I would have time to look around Greenwich Park and the Royal Observatory afterwards.
Leaving the station, and heading away from the O2, I put enough distance between us to get a decent photo, though this scrubland is going to be built on soon:
The next stretch of Thames is industrial, with wharves and aggregate plants.
Looking 'backwards' gives better photos than looking 'forwards' on my route, but I can see the towers of the Old Royal Naval College silhouetted against the sky ahead of me.
I reach East Greenwich and a more residential area with lots of old listed buildings such as the Harbour Master's Office (now flats)
and the Georgian houses of Union Quay
where I find the ornate door knockers that I need for the Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt:
There is a private garden opposite the houses, with an interesting memorial:
Back to the waterfront, with an anchor to mark Anchor Iron Wharf
and a final chance to see the O2 behind it:
Down another residential street,
and past the Trafalgar pub, with a statue of Admiral Nelson:
This brought me out by the Old Royal Naval College. Sadly a film crew had taken over the area, but at least I'll be coming back here and can have another wander round in a couple of weeks without their equipment being in the way.
Next along the path is the Cutty Sark, the nineteenth-century tea clipper that was the fastest ship in the world in her heyday
and the entrance to the Greenwich foot tunnel, the twin of the tunnel I'd used at Woolwich:
It was the end of the Jubilee Greenway for today, but I had plenty more to see in Greenwich. I started off by wandering around the outside of the Naval College and taking a closer look at two intriguing obelisks
The one on the left is dedicated to Lieutenant Bellot of the French navy who perished while on a mission to find Sir John Franklin's expedition which was had itself gone missing in the search to find the north-west passage. The obelisk on the right is a memorial to the officers and men who died in action in New Zealand in 1863-4.
On to the National Maritime Museum,
with the expected statues of Sir Francis Drake and William IV,
plus the unexpected - a giant ship in a bottle:
Finally I entered Greenwich Park and started the long haul up to the Royal Observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time.
I've rarely had better views from the top of the hill. This is the Old Royal Naval College, with the towers of Docklands behind it,
and the view east over the City, where St Paul's Cathedral is now dwarfed by skyscrapers with silly names - the shard, the gherkin, the walkie-talkie and the cheese grater (I kid you not!).
The twenty-four hour clock takes some concentrating to be able to read the correct time:
and below it are the old official British units of distance:
And finally, of course, we have the Greenwich Meridian, for the obligatory 'one foot in each hemisphere' pictures.
That's it for today, but I've already walked the next section, that will take me along the River Thames to Tower Bridge.
