NAVAL MUSEUM, MARKETS, EGYPT AND THE EMBANKMENT

12/7 London

After breakfast we went to the National Maritime Museum  here in Greenwich. This museum is really well done and our first stop was the Polar Worlds. Here one can learn more about the great polar explorers such as Scott and Shackleton as well as an interesting exhibit about the discovery of the ships for the Franklin Expedition by Parks Canada.  I was enthralled to see Shackleton’s compass used abroad the James Caird to navigate from Elephant Island to South Georgia.

 

FRANKLIN 

The exhibits about Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar are so well done. You can find Nelson’s coat on display with a hole from the fatal musket shot. 

Then there is Turners painting of the Battle of Trafalgar on display.


From the National Maritime Museum to the Waterloo station to find the South Bank Christmas Market. Here we had a couple of Indian dishes for lunch and Dutch pancakes for dessert.  

We crossed over the Thames on the Hungerford Bridge and continued on to Trafalgar Square where there was yet another very very busy Christmas Market. 

We had thought about taking one of the boats back to Greenwich but the skies were cloudy and not the best day for a river journey.

We walked back to Embankment and found the memorial to Joseph Bazalgette, the creator of the Embankment and the system of drains in the city of London. Next we find ourselves in the Victoria Embankment Garden and find the York Water Gate, one of the first arched gateways into the City of London. The neighborhood behind this garden is Buckingham Street a street where Dickens lived. 

Along this area of the Embankment one can find Cleopatra’s Needle, an authentic Egyptian obelisk in London. In the early nineteenth century, the more than three thousand-year-old obelisk was transported to London from its original site in Egypt.

There are two Sphinxes, one on each side of the Needle and the base of the Sphinx on the West side you can find bomb damage from the WWII Blitz.

When we arrived back in Greenwich, we stopped at The Spanish Galleon pub which dates back to 1834. They also proclaim to have ales from the oldest brewer in London. 

Time to pack up and get ready to head home from this most interesting trip.