Royal Greenwich by Foot

Greenwich is a borough of London known for its maritime and royal history. In Greenwich, our ship was moored in the middle of the River Thames, and Thames Uber Boats provided tender services to the pier. The included shore excursion for the afternoon was Royal Greenwich by Foot, and Tim and I joined the tour.

We spent the entire tour discovering all aspects of Maritime Greenwich, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although we had seen some of the buildings during our sail in, it was an incredible experience for me to walk among them. The history of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century architecture unfolded before my eyes in a location that was unfamiliar to me. I apologize if this post reads like an architectural history lesson.

We joined our guide at the pier and stopped first at the famous Cutty Sark, the world’s only surviving tea clipper and the fastest sailing ship in the world when it was built in 1869.

Who Knew That There Are Uber Boats

Cutty Sark

We walked down the grand axis of the palatial Old Royal Naval College, originally the Royal Hospital for Seamen. Laid out according to a master plan developed by Christopher Wren in the late seventeenth century, it was developed over many decades by him and other leading architects. This complex is among the most outstanding group of Baroque buildings in England.

Old Royal Naval College

Our next stop was even more amazing to me. Queen’s House, designed by Inigo Jones, England's first great architect, was the first Palladian building in Britain and the direct inspiration for classical houses and villas all over the country in the two centuries after it was built. Queen’s House is part of the last Royal Palace at Greenwich.

Queen's House

Queen's House Details

We continued onward and walked into the courtyard of the King William Block within the Old Royal Naval College. In the courtyard is a building designed in 1699, by Nicholas Hawksmoor, who worked with Christopher Wren. 

One of the more notable features of the courtyard is the Nelson Pediment, a public memorial to Admiral Lord Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The sculpture was designed by artist Benjamin West, who also produced the famous painting of the same name, and depicts the dead Nelson being offered to Britannia by a winged Victory.

King William Block Designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor

King William Block and the Nelson Pediment

Details of the Nelson Pediment

We passed by the National Maritime Museum, which occupies a building complex that was once the home of the Royal Hospital School. We then found ourselves on the north side of Queen’s House. I continued to be amazed at this building. From here, we could see the Royal Observatory, founded in 1675 and located high on the hill and surrounded by the Royal Park laid out in the 1660s by André Le Nôtre.

Together, this incredible ensemble of buildings symbolizes English artistic and scientific endeavor in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

National Maritime Museum

Tim at the Queen's House

The Royal Observatory Within the Royal Park 

The Royal Observatory

As we started to walk back to the pier, we stopped to see Nelson's Ship in a Bottle, one of the most photographed artworks in London. We passed by the famous Greenwich Market and St. Alfege Church, which was rebuilt in 1712-1714 to the designs of Nicholas Hawksmoor. The church is dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury who was killed on this spot in 1012 and is also where Henry VIII was baptized.

Nelson's Ship in a Bottle

St. Alfege Church

Our guide covered an amazing number of sites in just over an hour, but I want to return to spend more time in this incredible place.

We returned to our ship for our last night aboard and watched the London skyline as the sun was setting. We’ll be heading to London tomorrow for four nights on our own.

The London Skyline from Greenwich

The Sun Sinking Over London

Sailing the River Thames to Greenwich

Viking Venus crossed from the English Channel into the River Thames just after noon today. It would take us almost three hours until we arrived at Greenwich, and a former river pilot provided insightful sailing commentary along the way.

I didn’t start taking photographs until we approached the Thames Barrier. This was quite the sight to see in the middle of the river, and our expert explained that the barrier is one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world.

The Thames Barrier

We also passed the O2, an arena once known as the Millennium Dome. The dome is one of the largest of its type in the world, and the arena has the second-highest seating capacity of any indoor venue in the United Kingdom.

The O2

We admired two major historic sites that can best be viewed from the water. Sitting high on a hill overlooking the river is the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The observatory is the home of Greenwich Mean Time, the Prime Meridian of the world, and London’s Planetarium. Sitting directly on the banks of the river is the Old Royal Naval College, a grand structure that we would be visiting later in the afternoon on a walking tour.

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich

The Old Royal Naval College

We arrived in Greenwich at 3:00 pm. It’s hard to believe the cruise is almost over.

Sissinghurst Castle Gardens

I have previously mentioned that Tim and I love visiting gardens, so we had selected an optional tour for this afternoon – Sissinghurst Castle Garden in the county of Kent. It was a 50-minute ride each way, but the gardens were worth it.

Sissinghurst Castle was developed around an Elizabethan mansion, which was used to house French prisoners of war in the mid-eighteenth century. The central red-brick prospect tower still survives today, giving the estate its name, Sissinghurst Castle.

The Entrance to Sissinghurst

The Tower and Top Courtyard

Sissinghurst is a classic English country garden, and its design is romantic, unpretentious, and incredibly beautiful. Created in the 1930s by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, the gardens are maintained today by the National Trust. The gardens are divided into ten “rooms,” each styled and planted in a different way. Beautifully aligned walls and hedges enclose each space, giving one an impression of peace and seclusion.

Wandering through the gardens was a delight, and abundance of flowers was spectacular. We admired the White Garden, the Rose Garden, Delos, and the Cottage Garden, one more beautiful than the other. We walked down to the moat and saw the gazebo and the boat house.

The White Garden

The Rose Garden

Delos

The Cottage Garden

The Gazebo and Boat House

We also toured the Long Library, where Tim admired the books. There we saw a remarkable watercolor of Sissinghurst Castle in the 1760s when it was a prison.

The Long Library

On our way out, we saw the Elizabethan barn and the Oast House, a building designed for drying hops as part of the brewing process. Here, we viewed an exhibit that presented the castle’s history from the Napoleonic wars up to the hop-picking era.

The Elizabethan Barn

The Oast House

View Across the Estate

We couldn’t have had a more glorious day to tour such a spectacular garden.

On our way back to our ship, it was so thoughtful of Queen Elizabeth II to be there to greet us.

Hanging Out with Royalty

Historic Canterbury

After our scenic arrival at the port of Dover, England, Tim and I boarded a motorcoach for the included tour of Historic Canterbury. Canterbury is a beautiful city and one of England’s most important religious destinations. We were dropped off at Whitefriars Shopping Center of all places, and here we met our guide and began our walking tour of the city’s main sights.

Our introduction to Canterbury was a bronze sculpture of a lamb standing on a tall tree stump. This imagery seemed appropriate in a city with such a long history of pilgrimages and religious orders. We learned about the city’s Roman past and one of the largest urban archeological excavations ever undertaken in England prior to the construction of the shopping center. Remains of a Roman tower found during the dig are on display in a permanent exhibit, and we caught a glimpse of the wall in a window display at Whitefriars.

A Roman Wall and a Lamb

We made our way to St. George's Tower, which was originally the bell tower of St. George’s Church. The church was destroyed during Canterbury’s worst bombing raid of World War II, but the tower and clock have since been restored.

St. George's Tower

We passed St. Thomas’ Catholic Church and the adjacent St. Mary Magdalene Tower and then followed our guide to the Buttermarket. Buttermarket was the center of medieval Canterbury, and the buildings lining the square were once inns that housed early pilgrims to the city. The center of the square is marked by World War I memorial.

St. Thomas’ Catholic Church and St. Mary Magdalene Tower

Buttermarket

We didn’t see much of the city on our walking tour, but Tim and I were most looking forward to visiting Canterbury Cathedral on our own. The included tour served to get us to Canterbury.

Canterbury Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, dominates the heart of the city, and many consider it a miracle that it was not destroyed during the bombing raids in World War II. Founded in 597, the Cathedral was completely rebuilt in the eleventh century. It is one of the most important churches in England and seat of the of the Church of England and its leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The imposing Christ Church Gate entrance to the Cathedral Precincts was not so imposing today. Scaffolding and sheeting concealed the major restoration project that is currently underway. Likewise, we discovered that scaffolding surrounded the west front of the Cathedral. A look upward at the tower revealed the restoration and cleaning that had already taken place. It would be great to see the final reveal.

Christ Church Gate and Canterbury Cathedral Under Wraps

Many of the Exterior Features Were Still Visible

We entered the Cathedral through the nave, straining our necks to look upward in this magnificent space. We then moved through the Quire and Trinity Chapel, located at the east end of the church. Completed in 1184 as a shrine to St. Thomas Becket, today it is dedicated to “saints and martyrs of our own time.”

The Nave, Quire, and Trinity Chapel

One could spend hours discovering the various architectural elements, stained glass, and other details that comprise this spectacular edifice. We didn’t have that much time, but we made the most of it. We exited the church and walked through the Cloisters, a covered colonnade that encloses a courtyard attached to the side of the Cathedral.

Details of Canterbury Cathedral

The Cloister

Our visit to Canterbury and the Cathedral was a quick one, but I’m grateful that we were able to visit this historic place.

The White Cliffs of Dover

Early this morning, we sailed up the English Channel, into the Strait of Dover, and past the dramatic white-chalk cliffs that tower over it. I made it a point to be up to watch our sail in to Dover. We were so fortunate that the weather was clear, and the skies were blue. What a beautiful sight!

The White Cliffs of Dover are such an iconic landmark in the United Kingdom, and we could see the massive Dover Castle atop the cliffs overlooking the water. Built in the eleventh century by Henry II, the castle was England’s primary defense stronghold.

The entrance into the port of Dover is certainly a dramatic one.

The White Cliffs of Dover

The Cliffs Really Are White

A Perfect Morning to View the Cliffs

Dover Castle On Top of the Cliffs

Zoomed In a Bit

Approaching the Harbor

Reflections on the Water

Dover Breakwater and Lighthouse

The Entrance to Terminal 1Is a Former Railway Station