A busy day!
Yesterday was a very long day as we had booked a trip on the PS Waverley:
She is the last of the ocean-going passenger-carrying paddle steamers (PS) in the world. She was built in 1946, and in 1976 had a complete overhaul and restoration to bring her back to how she would have looked when she was first built. We sailed from Tower Pier (right near Tower Bridge which opened especially to let us through!), down the River Thames to the sea where we we sailed down the coast to Whitstable on the South East Kent coast. Under the cut for a few photos of what we saw.
Our day started really early as we were meeting the coach to take us to London at 6.45am at a local garden centre (fortunately quite near to us). We were then driven up to London to meet the Waverley at Tower Pier at 9am (yes, it takes that long on the roads in rush hour which is why I always travel to London by train!).
The paddles on either side are huge!
The ship is lovely with lots of beautiful wood and the engines which turn the large paddle wheels are rather spectacular:
We were facing the wrong way initially so we had to turn around with the help of a tug boat:
Tower Bridge obligingly opened for us:
I've never been right underneath Tower Bridge (although we have walked across the top of it in the walkway:
Then it was on past Canary Wharf (the financial district)
The Cutty Sark masts at Greenwich could just be seen against dramatic skies,
..and the Royal Naval College was difficult to see against the bright skies, but if you click to make it bigger you can see the white square-shaped building which is the Queen's House (now an art gallery) and the Royal Observatory in the distance on the hill.
Onwards past The Millenium Dome - built as a venue for a huge exhibition to celebrate the Millenium (which we visited at the time) it's still one of the biggest venues in the world. The 48-acre site was going to be cleared, but in the end, it's become a venue for concerts and events and is known as the O2.
Next, we went past the cable car across the Thames. In rush hour commuters are taken across the river in 5 minutes, but the rest of the day it's a leisurely 10 minutes...
When we got to Woowich we had the opportunity to see the Thames flood barrier up close:
The barrier was built in 1982 to protect Greater London from flood water as a result of storms or high tides from the North Sea. It's easy to forget that the River Thames is tidal, and that water rises and falls along its length. In the first half of this year up until April, it had already been closed over 200 times. The likelihood is that it will need replacing at some point as the whole of the area is sinking by 1mm per year.
It was really interesting seeing some of the development along the Thames as you don't tend to see it - I like how old buildings like this pub are nestled between modern apartments:
We went under the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge which we've driven over many times! Here we are approaching the bridge in the distance. The Waverley is flying the Scottish flag as she started life sailing as a pleasure boat in Scotland until 1973 and most of the crew are Scottish. The River is nearly a mile wide at this point.
The QEII bridge doesn't feel that big when you're driving on it as the sides of the bridge are high so you can't really see the water.
As we sailed on we passed yacht clubs (this one in Thurrock)
There are lots of docks loading container ships:
And a surprising amount of wind turbines on shore!
We sailed on to Southend where some passengers disembarked and others joined us. We docked at Southend Pier which is the world's longest pleasure pier at 2.6km (or 1.3 miles).
It's so long that it has its own little railway ...
From there we headed out to sea which was quite calm so not uncomfortable - gratuitous arty shot...
As we approached Whitstable we got close to a large sea-based wind farm at Shivering Sands:
To the right in the distance is the Shivering Sands Army Fort which was built in 1943 for anti-aircraft defence. The towers have been abandoned since 1958, and used occasionally for weather monitoring and at one point were used by a Pirate radio station.
Finally, we docked at Whitstable where we had two hours to explore before we were picked up by the coach and driven home. Unfortunately, all the things I would have liked to have seen in Whitstable are shut on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (the museum, and all the antique shops!). Even some of the specialist shops I would have liked to have been to (they have a lovely cheese shop) were also closed. We'd eaten a very delicious lunch on the Waverley, so although all the restaurants were open, we didn't want to eat again at 2.30pm.
There are quirky places in Whitstable such as this pub, converted from an art deco cinema and now called The Peter Cushing (the actor retired in Whitstable).
It was nice to wander around the town and we went down to the harbour to watch The Waverley setting off for its return trip to London:
It was a good trip and we enjoyed it. We got back to the garden centre just after 6pm, so were home before 6.30pm. Youngest Cee had been adored by kitties all day while he was working from home:
We went to our Tuesday evening Pilates which starts at 8pm so we'd had time to recover from all the fresh air we'd had all day. It was a good stretchy class and we slept very well last night!
She is the last of the ocean-going passenger-carrying paddle steamers (PS) in the world. She was built in 1946, and in 1976 had a complete overhaul and restoration to bring her back to how she would have looked when she was first built. We sailed from Tower Pier (right near Tower Bridge which opened especially to let us through!), down the River Thames to the sea where we we sailed down the coast to Whitstable on the South East Kent coast. Under the cut for a few photos of what we saw.
Our day started really early as we were meeting the coach to take us to London at 6.45am at a local garden centre (fortunately quite near to us). We were then driven up to London to meet the Waverley at Tower Pier at 9am (yes, it takes that long on the roads in rush hour which is why I always travel to London by train!).
The paddles on either side are huge!
The ship is lovely with lots of beautiful wood and the engines which turn the large paddle wheels are rather spectacular:
We were facing the wrong way initially so we had to turn around with the help of a tug boat:
Tower Bridge obligingly opened for us:
I've never been right underneath Tower Bridge (although we have walked across the top of it in the walkway:
Then it was on past Canary Wharf (the financial district)
The Cutty Sark masts at Greenwich could just be seen against dramatic skies,
..and the Royal Naval College was difficult to see against the bright skies, but if you click to make it bigger you can see the white square-shaped building which is the Queen's House (now an art gallery) and the Royal Observatory in the distance on the hill.
Onwards past The Millenium Dome - built as a venue for a huge exhibition to celebrate the Millenium (which we visited at the time) it's still one of the biggest venues in the world. The 48-acre site was going to be cleared, but in the end, it's become a venue for concerts and events and is known as the O2.
Next, we went past the cable car across the Thames. In rush hour commuters are taken across the river in 5 minutes, but the rest of the day it's a leisurely 10 minutes...
When we got to Woowich we had the opportunity to see the Thames flood barrier up close:
The barrier was built in 1982 to protect Greater London from flood water as a result of storms or high tides from the North Sea. It's easy to forget that the River Thames is tidal, and that water rises and falls along its length. In the first half of this year up until April, it had already been closed over 200 times. The likelihood is that it will need replacing at some point as the whole of the area is sinking by 1mm per year.
It was really interesting seeing some of the development along the Thames as you don't tend to see it - I like how old buildings like this pub are nestled between modern apartments:
We went under the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge which we've driven over many times! Here we are approaching the bridge in the distance. The Waverley is flying the Scottish flag as she started life sailing as a pleasure boat in Scotland until 1973 and most of the crew are Scottish. The River is nearly a mile wide at this point.
The QEII bridge doesn't feel that big when you're driving on it as the sides of the bridge are high so you can't really see the water.
As we sailed on we passed yacht clubs (this one in Thurrock)
There are lots of docks loading container ships:
And a surprising amount of wind turbines on shore!
We sailed on to Southend where some passengers disembarked and others joined us. We docked at Southend Pier which is the world's longest pleasure pier at 2.6km (or 1.3 miles).
It's so long that it has its own little railway ...
From there we headed out to sea which was quite calm so not uncomfortable - gratuitous arty shot...
As we approached Whitstable we got close to a large sea-based wind farm at Shivering Sands:
To the right in the distance is the Shivering Sands Army Fort which was built in 1943 for anti-aircraft defence. The towers have been abandoned since 1958, and used occasionally for weather monitoring and at one point were used by a Pirate radio station.
Finally, we docked at Whitstable where we had two hours to explore before we were picked up by the coach and driven home. Unfortunately, all the things I would have liked to have seen in Whitstable are shut on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (the museum, and all the antique shops!). Even some of the specialist shops I would have liked to have been to (they have a lovely cheese shop) were also closed. We'd eaten a very delicious lunch on the Waverley, so although all the restaurants were open, we didn't want to eat again at 2.30pm.
There are quirky places in Whitstable such as this pub, converted from an art deco cinema and now called The Peter Cushing (the actor retired in Whitstable).
It was nice to wander around the town and we went down to the harbour to watch The Waverley setting off for its return trip to London:
It was a good trip and we enjoyed it. We got back to the garden centre just after 6pm, so were home before 6.30pm. Youngest Cee had been adored by kitties all day while he was working from home:
We went to our Tuesday evening Pilates which starts at 8pm so we'd had time to recover from all the fresh air we'd had all day. It was a good stretchy class and we slept very well last night!