Boarding the Viking Jupiter was smooth and organized. What a difference from other cruise lines! So many things are different (a good thing).
Today is Monday, so it must be Greenwich. The weather has been comfortable and every tour guide and Londoner have told us that we should feel very blessed. We do.
We booked 2 tours today – a morning overview and an afternoon of learning about the Tower of London.
My knees trembled at the word Tower, but luckily there were only a few steps we didn’t have to climb much. Our knees and calves still being quite sore from the Paris excursion.
Greenwich is a snapshot of English history and home to several maritime institutions. Royal Naval College is a major symbol of Britain’s seafaring heritage and the architectural centerpiece of the city. (sounds like a brochure because I copied one.)
Greenwich is also the home of the “Cutty Sark”, built in 1869 and is one of the last tea clippers and part of the British National Historic Fleet. Our tour guide, Mark, told us all about the myths and history that went along with ‘tea clipper’. I wish I could remember them all. When your guide is a local and says, “don’t tell who told you that”, you have a fun guide. We got lucky twice with guides in Greenwich.
Our guide, Steven, for the Tower of London, was quite a hoot. First of all, we were taught about the name Stephen – Britians use the ‘ph’ to spell it and Americans use the ‘v’. Unless you have progressive parents, like Steven did, and made up their own rules.
The Tower of London is a multi-purpose tower. It was used for: Securing the Queen’s Jewells, the Royal Palace, and the Prison.
Ignore the people in the above photos – I was too impatient to wait for them to get out of my way.
We were not allowed to photograph the Crown Jewell’s. Steven told us to get over it and copy them from the Internet like everyone else.
Alrighty then…
Jodi Lea's Place 