We Arrive at Greenwich: 3 Hours Cruising Slowly Up the Thames

This was an excursion in itself, complete with narration by Viking Resident Historiam Mike Seigel in the Explorers Lounge. This evening I'll recount our "Royal Greenwich by Foot" excursion at 1 p.m.

Upon awakening at 8 o’clock, we were already in the estuary, creeping slowly — I’m guessing under 10 knots — upstream on a totally flat surface. Here’s a panoramic photo I took of the Kent shoreline — also very flat! — from our stateroom veranda:

After a light breakfast of Meusli and fruit for me and oatmeal with berries, turkey bacon and fruit for Rita, I went up to the Explorers Lounge at the front of the ship ro listen to Mike Seigel’s narration. In addition to still photos, I shot this video to give a feeling of what his narration was like.

In that video, Mike explained about the Thames Barrier coming up, and I shot a couple photos of it. It closes (rising from the river bottom) when there is a threat of rising sea water flooding London. Here are some photos of the Viking Sky transiting that barrier. The mast you see in the foreground is of a tug boat that was tethered to the front of our ship and accompanied us, traveling backwards, for several miles, including through the Thames Barrier, in case we needed a nudge one way or another.

Here’s a video showing the tugboat which accompanied us backwards until the ship made a 180-degree turn before getting to Greenwich. The last mile or two, the Viking Sky went backwards up the river!

Here are some other stills of the buildings and scenery we passed during the two-hour cruise to our anchorage site at Greenwich. It was low tide and rising.

There were at least 20 cranes installed at buildings under construction along the way. Here are two of them:

This is the Millenium Dome - a bit of an eyesore to many people.

THere were so many residential buildings along the Thames!

So, that was our cruise up the Thames. I’ll send this now. Look for a final posting from the Viking Sky later today….