I had not scheduled for bus routes from Old Street, and had come equipped to carry a bus pass and Oyster card, and was also unaware that I had used its credit fully; hardly an auspicious start. Numerous buses also were not in service proper, displaying Rail Replacement on their boards, and life is not enhanced by bus drivers not knowing either English or other destinations or landmarks of other routes. So I used the trip down as overdue exercise and finally joined the DLR at West Ferry, and got out at Island Gardens, and made my way towards the river bank and the entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. It was just beyond there that I caught my first sight of HMS Illustrious – on the far bank beyond the Cutty Sark. It was in London to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic.
As I watched, rowers came down from their boathouse with their boats for their morning's workout on the Thames. This gives scale to the size of Illustrious, since they were less than half the distance to this vessel. I watched for a while from this viewpoint, but realised this side of the Thames was less than ideal because of the angle of the sun, so I hurriedly walked beyond the Foot Tunnel entrance, taking a few more glimpses from this bank of the Carrier and other sights, before returning to the DLR station and taking one more stop to Cutty Sark and joining the early visitors to Greenwich, and the station's eponymous Tea Clipper. This also the other end to the Foot Tunnel. At that time I was unaware that there was an opportunity for me to get aboard the Aircraft Carrier, and by the time I learned of this the queue was similar in length to those that had once greeted an opening of an Apple Store or the launch of a new iPhone! I had no desire to wait for several hours in a long phalanx of families for the privilege.
Eventually I returned to the centre of Greenwich and the opportunity to revisit St. Alfege's church which was famous for the grave of Thomas Tallis and the splendid interior architecture featuring a magnificent Trompe l'oeil arched window. Many years ago I had taken black and white photos of the building for some client or other and met the vicar who had been using an air rifle to deter pigeons from nesting atop the pillars of the church's fine portico! To think that back then I had to use additional lighting in the form of expendable flashbulbs and high speed black and white film to record the scene, and now was able to take high quality colour photos handheld!
I made my way to the DLR station and while waiting took some shots of its interior before returning my car near Old Street Tube and was greeted by sunlight on a splendid piece of London architecture, so unpacked the camera once again to record what I saw, before taking the opportunity to have a sip of hot coffee and phone Adam Woolfitt to see if he was in, he was and we had a chat about how he was getting on with some lens reviews and the public beta of Lightroom 5. The front facade of his house was resplendent in the welcome sunshine as were some of his flowers, which I decided were too good to miss as well, before I even entered! I stayed only till the start of the Barcelona Grand Prix, before returning to my car, ostensibly to go home, but it dawned on me there were some other London friends I had not seen for a while. They were more than happy to see me, and we sat and chatted in their garden and I was plied with a tasty sandwich, fruit and drink before the weather changed and the forecast showers arrived. Eventually I took my leave and did finally set off for home and the post processing of the photos I had captured. The end of a most enjoyable sunday in London.
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