So many high spots!

Yesterday we decided to go to Greenwich for the day.  Part of our journey was another wonderful trip……..

……. on a Routemaster.  We got off at St Pauls Cathedral and……

…… walked across the Millennium Bridge and then getting the tube to Greenwich.

Our first stop was the Cutty Sark.  Neither of us had been round her for a very long time so we were keen to see the latest renovations.

The new presentation is very dramatic and getting down beneath the ship is very exciting.

Doug can remember being here in the saloon when he was about five and it was an odd feeling 40 years on!

From the Cutty Sark we walked up to Royal Naval College where we had a look around the Painted Hall and the Chapel.  

It was in the Painted Hall that Nelson laid in state before his funeral. 

We also visited the Queens House which now houses the most stunning collection of art – including much of the Ministry of Defence Collection.

For James, who likes Turners work, the highlight was his enormous painting of the Battle of Trafalgar.

After the Greenwich “experience” we walked into the town and to Goddard's Pie and Mash shop.   The most amazing value for money and very tasty. (We didn’t fancy the jellied eels that usually go with it”) and the home made puddings were great too.

In the evening, after the usual ‘getting back to ‘Chance’ for a wash a brush up’ we went to see Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap”. Neither of us had seen it before so it was a great treat and very well worth seeing.  The little St Martins theatre is novel with not much legroom in the seats but we thoroughly enjoyed it.  The performance was number 25,224, the longest running theatre show now in its 60th year!  Afterwards we went for a few drinks again in town, and got back to the boat again at midnight…

Today we got up (reasonably) early and went straight to Westminster Abbey to be there for the Queen’s arrival for the service of thanksgiving for the last 60 years.  Remarkably, out of the thousands of people there we bumped into Debbie and James from nb ‘Lois Jane’ and we joined them for the next 3 hours of waiting and watching on top of a wall.

We saw most of the great and the good but of course, the star of the show was the Queen.

Here we are.  Thanks to James and Debbie we got an incredible vantage point right outside the main entrance to the Abbey.

Wills and Kate got a great reception from the crowd – seen here leaving after the service with Princess Ann, Captain Timothy Lawrence and Prince Edward.

After the service Doug and Debbie were interviewed live by BBC News 24!

After their performance Debbie and Doug needed a drink so we all went round the corner to the Westminster Arms to celebrate.  As it happened, David Dimbleby came in for a drink as well after his live commentary of the event.

After the first high spot of the day we left James and Debbie to enjoy the rest of their day and went to our second high spot – the Shard.

Due to the clear weather conditions we got some of the best views from the Shard since it’s been open, according to the very helpful guides. 

The whole experience was worth every penny of the £25 entry.

The atmosphere on the 72nd floor is amazing.  There are two viewing floors, the upper one being in the open. 

After this second high spot we couldn’t think of a third so we had a spot of late lunch in a lovely old pub near London Bridge.

Yet another amazing day!