Happy April

April has arrived in London -- and, in fact, the last few days have begun to feel spring-like. We're not counting on anything and are sure we'll have a couple of last wintry blasts before the real spring weather, but it has been nice just the same. Today, Sunday, April 3rd saw us taking a long walk from Trafalgar Square, along the northern bank of the Thames (on the Thames Path), all the way to the Tower of London, where our sore feet (and empty stomachs) insisted on a stop for lunch.

We then had the idea to take one of the river cruise boats farther downstream to Greenwich, the sight of the Royal Observatory and a number of historic British Navy institutions -- the old Naval College and Hospital and others. One of the buildings is now the National Maritime Museum. Also there is the Cutty Sark -- one of the latest-built (and fastest) of the famous clipper ships. She was a "tea clipper" involved in the competition to be the first ship each season to bring tea from the new Chinese tea crop to London. The owner whose ship brought the first tea cargo of the season could demand a premium price and a single such voyage could make his fortune -- making the quest for speed a fierce competition. We concluded that getting a late start, as we did, arriving at Greenwich after 3 pm was not the way to enjoy the Greenwich sites. So we've made a plan to return at a later date. To see some of the sights from our Thames walk go to http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/465445.