Day Seven: It's About Thames

The most important part of today actually didn't start until 5 pm, when General Conference was broadcast live. (A bi-annual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints broadcast from Salt Lake city, with two sessions on Saturday and two on Sunday). We got home later than anticipated and will have to watch a recorded version of the 1st Saturday Session, but we valiantly stuck it thru the 2nd session from 9 pm to 11 pm! I love the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson! I gain so much comfort and wisdom from his advice and counsel. 

Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) believe that God has ordained 12 apostles and a Prophet on the earth today, just as in biblical times.  This is a picture of Thomas S. Monson, the current Prophet. Like Moses, Peter and Paul before him, he is responsible for teaching God's children on the earth, and leading His church.

We started our Saturday morning bright and early, determined to get a jump on the day a little sooner than we have heretofore, as we had a long list of things we wanted to accomplish, and a couple of very important clocks to see! Of course, one can't just walk by the Tower of London on a bright sunny day without pausing to snap a picture! We had to walk by the front entrance of the tower to get to the Tower Bridge Pier for our first adventure of the day, a hop-on, hop-off Thames River Boat cruise. (You can join us on the first leg of the journey by clicking here.)  It was a hot, sunny day, about 80 degrees, so while it got a little overly warm at times, for the most part it was just perfect! The Thames, like the Missouri, is a shockingly ugly river, a silt-filled, dirt-brown color that stays all churned up due to the tidal forces acting on the river. However, it does not smell bad, something that previous readings had led to me to expect. One of our future tourist destination came up rapidly on the left, something that is left out in the cruise video, the HMS Belfast, a relic of WWII that is open for tourists to crawl all over. You can even play with the guns.  Our guide was quite hilarious in describing how 'not fun' it was, but Richard's eyes had lit up like a kid at Christmas-time.

HMS Belfast

Admission to the HMS Belfast is pretty pricey, at 12 pounds, so we're waiting to visit on the week we have the London Pass (a six-day ticket that gets you into most of the major attractions free after purchasing the pass). Our problem was locating a week that wasn't filled with classes, presentations by consulting firms, or other commitments that we could spend touring in it's entirety, in order to get our money's worth. One of Richard's courses is  a block course, so look for a flood of pictures and touristy stuff starting on Halloween!

We got off the River Cruise at Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and stopped to take some fabulous photo shots for travel wall. We didn't try to tour either of them today, as, to be honest, I was mostly just interested in their outsides. :)

Richard stopped to Grab a hot-dog on the bridge, and let's just say, London cannot even begin to compare to Chicago.

The primary reason, other than for pictures of Big Ben, that we got off on the stop we did was to be able to use our tickets to ride the London Eye...the gigantic Ferris Wheel that sits on the south bank of the River Thames.  However, this place, like all the others we had been thus far today, was JAMMED with tourists and not a few locals. We decided that spending the glorious sunshine standing in a 2-hour line did not sound fun, and, feeling the luxury of a ten-week stay, decided to ride the London Eye another day. In fact, maybe even ride it at night, as we had so many picture of the London skyline by daylight already. So we re-boarded the ferry at the London Eye pier, and headed south to Greenwich.

We retraced the leg of the Thames we had traveled north on, reaching and then passing our initial boarding location at Tower Bridge. Lots of people got off here, so with some unorthodox maneuvering we were able to snag some of the prime seat locations sitting right on the edge of the boat with our feet almost dangling off into the water, facing the west bank of the Thames. Whenever a faster boat caused a wake it splashed up onto us, which made for a more exciting than planned ride. We couldn't really hear the guide on this leg, so we just enjoyed the scenery, mostly of old wharehouses and wharfs turned into luxury housing.

We passed directly underneath Tower Bridge, which made for some really fabulous pictures at a unique perspective. You can see the incredible detailing and sculpture that make it such a remarkable work of art.  Richard also managed to catch a quintessential red double-decker bus crossing the bridge. Also included below are some shots of St.Katharine's Docks (where we live) from the water.

 

 We got off the River Cruise at Greenwich, a quaint little area in London that is considered a 'suburb,' but is really just an outgrowth of the city by now. However, the fact that there are not really any commercial or government buildings, and it's main business is tourism, does make for a very quite area of London, when it's not tourist season.  Which, based on the crowds, it definitely still was today!

 In addition the picturesque buildings and shops, Greenwich is also home to the Naval College, Queen's House, Royal Maritime Museum, Royal Observatory, and, of course, the Greenwich meridian. We only had time to walk by the Queen's House and Naval College, choosing to spend our time inside the Maritime Museum. Which Richard, as you can see, absolutely LOVED and I also quite enjoyed. It was decent, as museums go, but nothing to go ga-ga about.

 After leaving the Maritime Museum, we headed up through Greenwich park to the top of a VERY steep hill, where stands the Royal Observatory.  The inside of the observatory was closed by the time we got there, but that didn't really matter, because we still got to stand on the Greenwich Meridian, and take some amazing pictures of the London skyline.

The 2nd important clock to see! It keeps the official time, on the wall just outside the Royal Observatory, and next to the Greenwich Meridian

The Royal Naval College at Sunset, just as we were leaving Greenwich, before arriving at the pier.

We left Greenwich on the last boat back up the Thames to Tower Pier. We approached Tower Bridge from the southerly direction just as the sun was setting, so, once again, here are yet more pictures of this landmark.

We had a bit before the 9 PM session of conference started, so we decided to take the tube to Whitechapel and visit the Argos store to retrieve my ordered hair straightener and hair dryer (so I can stop looking quite so 'rugged' in all these pictures!) Unfortunately, the Argos was closed by the time we got there.  But I was really glad Richard came and I didn't attempt to go it alone, because the infamous Whitechapel area of the Jack the Ripper murders is still pretty sketchy at night! (lots of graffitti, random groups of men loitering about, etc). Discouraged and hair straightener-less we returned home to watch conference and felt encouraged and energized by all the wonderful messages shared by the apostles and leaders of the church. We were fighting to keep our eyes open by the end of it, but it was a marvelous conclusion to a very busy day!