Thursday 17th July - London Thames embankment, The Whisky Exchange and lunch

On Thursday James & Julia, Mary-Ann and I all went by car to North Greenwich tube station beside the Millenium Dome, now called the O2.

North Greenwich Tube station

The Millenium Dome (The O2)

We walked across  the square alongside the and saw this beautiful building and then a giant stainless steel spine 30 or 40 metres tall?

It was only when we walked a bit further and saw the orbit markings on the paving that we realised that it was the gnomon of a giant sundial!

On the left is the gnomon and on the right the mid-winter mark.














From there walked to where we wanted to catch the river ferry to Westminster, but it was not due to leave for a while so we caught the tube to London Bridge tube station instead - pity, as seeing London from the river would have been great.

From there we went to the south bank of the Thames and walked along the pedestrian walkway under the trees - beautiful on a hot day. Eventually we arrived at ...

Feijoas @ $3.00 each

Kiwi Fruit @ 80c each

... the Borough Markets where you could buy any fruits, vegetables, meat or fish that you could think of.









Down a side alley we came to an amazing cheese shop.

Further on we came to an alley with the entry into "The Whisky Shop"  with some of the most expensive whiskies that I have ever seen.

How's this for $35 000!
We came to several other interesting sights on the way to our pub lunch.

Fountain players on a hot day!

Then we came across the Golden Hind and a lone piper down on a Thames beach!

The Golden Hind

A piper - Andalusian Pipes

Eventually we came to the "Tate Modern" a huge art gallery which was previously a power station. From there we were only a few steps from the pub "Founders Arms" where we were to have lunch and meet my maternal cousin Anthony and his wife Angela for the first time. We had a great chat about our family heritage.

Here are Angela, Mary-Ann, Anthony, Julia, James and me. The lunch was very nice but too much for us!

At about 3:00pm we farewelled Anthony and Angela and made our way down to Westminster and Big Ben passing all these London landmarks:

Tower Bridge

Big Ben

Boadicea; queen of the Iceni.

Suspension bridge 2

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... and progressed to the Westminster underground to go back to the car park.

We went to Maidstone to pick up a car that James had rented so that he could go and pick up Ian, Kristy and Emi from Heathrow while Julia and us went back to Sheppey. The Avis Car Rental was set up in an old and beautiful church!

On the right the old doorway at the back.

At about 10:15 James arrived back with Ian, Kristy and Emi .