In the mean time
No book meme this week I'm afraid but have a picspam instead.
J and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary over the last few days (never celebrate on just one day when you can make it several more). We are going away next month but we decided to do some nice things to mark the actual occasion. On Monday we went to Greenwich, which we'd been meaning to revisit for a while.
The last time we went to Greenwich was to hear a concert in which ghost_guessed was performing. On that day the rain poured down in torrents and it was hard to see anything through the murk. Monday could not have been more different, in fact it probably met my definition of a perfect summer's day. We wandered round, decided against the Cutty Sark and headed for the Old Royal Naval College instead.
I'm not sure if it was Greenwich Palace where Sir Walter Raleigh laid down his cloak so that Queen Elizabeth I could walk over a puddle, or even if he really did that at all, but he seems to have acquired a statue in Greenwich.
I didn't know but apparently these steps are where George I first set foot on English soil. Not sure if that was a good thing or not.
Greenwich is now a World Heritage Site and it's easy to see why with architecture by both Sir Christopher Wren and Inigo Jones. The slab in the front of the photo commemorates the old Royal Palace of Greenwich, of which nothing now remains but the Queen's House. It's the white building behind the statue and is now part of the National Maritime Museum.
From a different angle. The Painted Hall is the domed building on the right and the Chapel is the domed building on the left.
When we came to the concert the Painted Hall was being used for a wedding reception!
It took Sir James Thornhill 19 years to paint and I could see why. I don't know if it's just been recently restored or wasn't previously open to the public but I don't remember going in there before and I've been to Greenwich several times. The paintings aren't really to my taste but the impact is amazing.
I'm not sure if the figures in the roundel are George I and his mother Sophia, Electress of Hanover, or George II and Queen Caroline. The one thing I do know is that it isn't George I and his wife Sophia Dorothea of Celle as he kept her locked up for adultery. The Hanoverians could define the term "dysfunctional family".
After the Painted Hall we went to the Chapel, which is lovely.
After that we took a break and went and had lunch at the Greenwich Union pub, which I highly recommend if you like beer. I don't actually like beer but they had some Belgian fruit beers on their beer list that even I could drink. They also let you taste before you buy, which J particularly appreciated :)
As it was such a lovely day we decided against the Maritime Museum in the afternoon, though I did pause to say hello to an old friend as the Ship in the Bottle has found its way to Greenwich from Trafalgar Square.
We weren't planning on going into the Observatory but we did climb the hill to see the view, which was stunning.
We came to Greenwich nearly 30 years ago with J's parents, which is probably the last time we went to the Observatory. It was while we were looking at the view that J realised that when we were here with his parents most of those buildings wouldn't have been there. From the Dome in the East to the Shard in the West it's all new (I've cheated slightly as the Shard is behind a tree in this photo but it is clearly visible from the hill).
I love the contrast of the old and the new. You can even see Anish Kapoor's "whirly thing" in the Olympic Park from here.
We decided to take the leisurely route back home and get the boat to Westminster. There must be a price war going on between Thames boat companies as the fare was rather less than we were anticipating. I completely suck at taking pictures from a boat but I can never resist. This is a view of Tower Bridge and the Shard which also includes the now infamous Walkie Talkie building, currently employed by Transport for London to shoot death rays at cars which people have been foolish enough to bring into London.
From the very new to the very old: Traitor's Gate from the River.
And finally the London Eye. There was an absolutely great shot of the Shard through it but alas, someone's head was in the way. As I'm firmly convinced that the Shard is based on the Tower of Orthanc taking a photo of it through the Eye appealed to me, but unfortunately it was not to be.
On Tuesday, which was our actual anniversary, we went to Littlehampton and had lunch in our favourite seaside cafe. The wine was nice, the crab and chips delicious, the sun sparkled on the sea and we decided that however much we liked being with other people we liked being with each other best :) It's quite good to know that's still the case after 30 years!
J and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary over the last few days (never celebrate on just one day when you can make it several more). We are going away next month but we decided to do some nice things to mark the actual occasion. On Monday we went to Greenwich, which we'd been meaning to revisit for a while.
The last time we went to Greenwich was to hear a concert in which ghost_guessed was performing. On that day the rain poured down in torrents and it was hard to see anything through the murk. Monday could not have been more different, in fact it probably met my definition of a perfect summer's day. We wandered round, decided against the Cutty Sark and headed for the Old Royal Naval College instead.
I'm not sure if it was Greenwich Palace where Sir Walter Raleigh laid down his cloak so that Queen Elizabeth I could walk over a puddle, or even if he really did that at all, but he seems to have acquired a statue in Greenwich.
I didn't know but apparently these steps are where George I first set foot on English soil. Not sure if that was a good thing or not.
Greenwich is now a World Heritage Site and it's easy to see why with architecture by both Sir Christopher Wren and Inigo Jones. The slab in the front of the photo commemorates the old Royal Palace of Greenwich, of which nothing now remains but the Queen's House. It's the white building behind the statue and is now part of the National Maritime Museum.
From a different angle. The Painted Hall is the domed building on the right and the Chapel is the domed building on the left.
When we came to the concert the Painted Hall was being used for a wedding reception!
It took Sir James Thornhill 19 years to paint and I could see why. I don't know if it's just been recently restored or wasn't previously open to the public but I don't remember going in there before and I've been to Greenwich several times. The paintings aren't really to my taste but the impact is amazing.
I'm not sure if the figures in the roundel are George I and his mother Sophia, Electress of Hanover, or George II and Queen Caroline. The one thing I do know is that it isn't George I and his wife Sophia Dorothea of Celle as he kept her locked up for adultery. The Hanoverians could define the term "dysfunctional family".
After the Painted Hall we went to the Chapel, which is lovely.
After that we took a break and went and had lunch at the Greenwich Union pub, which I highly recommend if you like beer. I don't actually like beer but they had some Belgian fruit beers on their beer list that even I could drink. They also let you taste before you buy, which J particularly appreciated :)
As it was such a lovely day we decided against the Maritime Museum in the afternoon, though I did pause to say hello to an old friend as the Ship in the Bottle has found its way to Greenwich from Trafalgar Square.
We weren't planning on going into the Observatory but we did climb the hill to see the view, which was stunning.
We came to Greenwich nearly 30 years ago with J's parents, which is probably the last time we went to the Observatory. It was while we were looking at the view that J realised that when we were here with his parents most of those buildings wouldn't have been there. From the Dome in the East to the Shard in the West it's all new (I've cheated slightly as the Shard is behind a tree in this photo but it is clearly visible from the hill).
I love the contrast of the old and the new. You can even see Anish Kapoor's "whirly thing" in the Olympic Park from here.
We decided to take the leisurely route back home and get the boat to Westminster. There must be a price war going on between Thames boat companies as the fare was rather less than we were anticipating. I completely suck at taking pictures from a boat but I can never resist. This is a view of Tower Bridge and the Shard which also includes the now infamous Walkie Talkie building, currently employed by Transport for London to shoot death rays at cars which people have been foolish enough to bring into London.
From the very new to the very old: Traitor's Gate from the River.
And finally the London Eye. There was an absolutely great shot of the Shard through it but alas, someone's head was in the way. As I'm firmly convinced that the Shard is based on the Tower of Orthanc taking a photo of it through the Eye appealed to me, but unfortunately it was not to be.
On Tuesday, which was our actual anniversary, we went to Littlehampton and had lunch in our favourite seaside cafe. The wine was nice, the crab and chips delicious, the sun sparkled on the sea and we decided that however much we liked being with other people we liked being with each other best :) It's quite good to know that's still the case after 30 years!