Check out the Notting Hill pub Harry took us to many years ago. We find it on Campden Hill Road. too early in the day now, but marked down for future reference.
By tube to connect with Dockland Light Railway. when we get off to change at Bank St they're announcing delays on the Central line, which we've just left, as there's a person under a train at the west end of the line. This is not an uncommon occurrence, usually suicide of course.
We're off to Greenwich again. This time we have an agenda, but it takes us a while to reach the National Maritime Museum. On the way, we detour through the Old Royal Naval College. The painted hall is impressive trompe d'oeuil, looking three dimensional, and dates from the beginning of the 18th century, or at least the painting does. there's a small room off the painted hall where Lord Nelson's coffin lay before the official lying in state.
But the greater interest today is in what's going on outside the Naval College. As we're heading towards the college we first spot a man in the distance crossing a square wearing pre Vatican II ecclesiastical robes. Then we see a great many trailers as well as people in period costume. And finally, most impressively, an absolutely enormous statue, much larger than life size, of an elephant. It's a film shoot, of course. Turns out they're shooting Les Miserables. Though how the elephant fits in....
Then to the National Maritime Museum and the agenda. J is looking for a large model of the Uganda, a ship that he took students on for one year's Mediterranean cruise. It was later used in the Falkland War as a hospital ship - andwe did see the model on a previous visit. But everything is in flux here and Olympic oriented, and the Uganda is no longer on display.
I've also come with a question. My 6x great grandparents emigrated fro Germany via Rotterdam in 1709. This was part of a scheme for acquiring labourers in the New World on behalf of the English navy. The reward was English citizenship. Between leaving Rotterdam and sailing to New York, the emigrants spent the winter of 1709 in England. There were three caps - at Deptford, Camberwell and Blackheath, and I'm hoping to learn their locations. The short answer is "lots of luck."
So we drift along to some of Greenwich's other charms. The halcyon Bookshop has most of its books selling for a pound. At first we assume that the shop has been abandoned, misled by sacks of books blocking the aisles and heaps of them cascading onto the floor. But no, it's open, and we browse for a while through the unsorted shelves. Then, a few doors up the road, there's the Junk Shop. It's a series of tiny rooms, on two levels, with an uncountable number of old things. Some possibly antique, many period or collectible, some more or less junk. And there are thousands of them, from books to jewellery to kitsch to poison bottles (for holding poisonous contents, one assumes). Fascinating.
We finish up at Goddard's pie shop, now officially open, having chicken and mushroom pies with mash and gravy. Can't hold the desserts. Are the pies the same as we remember? Is the plate smaller, the scrubbed wood tables gone? Not sure, but the pies are good and at similar price to the ones we remember.
By tube to connect with Dockland Light Railway. when we get off to change at Bank St they're announcing delays on the Central line, which we've just left, as there's a person under a train at the west end of the line. This is not an uncommon occurrence, usually suicide of course.
We're off to Greenwich again. This time we have an agenda, but it takes us a while to reach the National Maritime Museum. On the way, we detour through the Old Royal Naval College. The painted hall is impressive trompe d'oeuil, looking three dimensional, and dates from the beginning of the 18th century, or at least the painting does. there's a small room off the painted hall where Lord Nelson's coffin lay before the official lying in state.
But the greater interest today is in what's going on outside the Naval College. As we're heading towards the college we first spot a man in the distance crossing a square wearing pre Vatican II ecclesiastical robes. Then we see a great many trailers as well as people in period costume. And finally, most impressively, an absolutely enormous statue, much larger than life size, of an elephant. It's a film shoot, of course. Turns out they're shooting Les Miserables. Though how the elephant fits in....
Then to the National Maritime Museum and the agenda. J is looking for a large model of the Uganda, a ship that he took students on for one year's Mediterranean cruise. It was later used in the Falkland War as a hospital ship - andwe did see the model on a previous visit. But everything is in flux here and Olympic oriented, and the Uganda is no longer on display.
I've also come with a question. My 6x great grandparents emigrated fro Germany via Rotterdam in 1709. This was part of a scheme for acquiring labourers in the New World on behalf of the English navy. The reward was English citizenship. Between leaving Rotterdam and sailing to New York, the emigrants spent the winter of 1709 in England. There were three caps - at Deptford, Camberwell and Blackheath, and I'm hoping to learn their locations. The short answer is "lots of luck."
So we drift along to some of Greenwich's other charms. The halcyon Bookshop has most of its books selling for a pound. At first we assume that the shop has been abandoned, misled by sacks of books blocking the aisles and heaps of them cascading onto the floor. But no, it's open, and we browse for a while through the unsorted shelves. Then, a few doors up the road, there's the Junk Shop. It's a series of tiny rooms, on two levels, with an uncountable number of old things. Some possibly antique, many period or collectible, some more or less junk. And there are thousands of them, from books to jewellery to kitsch to poison bottles (for holding poisonous contents, one assumes). Fascinating.
We finish up at Goddard's pie shop, now officially open, having chicken and mushroom pies with mash and gravy. Can't hold the desserts. Are the pies the same as we remember? Is the plate smaller, the scrubbed wood tables gone? Not sure, but the pies are good and at similar price to the ones we remember.