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Brief and Belated Greenwich Trip Report

Infrequent poster but wanted to do a Greenwich trip report (part of a London trip late Sept-early Oct).

Hotel (Novotel Greenwich): Conveniently located near the DLR station, a coffee shop, several restaurants/pubs and all the major things we wanted to see; very friendly staff. My only criticism is that the room was very warm, particularly for a woman of, ahem, a certain age. In fairness, I knew from Trip Advisor reviews that this was an issue and the weather was also a bit warmer than normal.

Old Royal Navy College: Lovely grounds and there's a very nice pub on premises. The Thames was very high and the path along the river was periodically swamped. A dog being walked by his owner refused to take another step and I'm sure was chuckling while his owner dried out his shoes on the grass later. The highlight was The Painted Hall (a/k/a “The Sistine Chapel of the UK”). This is an absolutely gorgeous ceiling, and the person who decided to install the large ottomans in the hall so that people can lie down to properly view it is a genius.

Royal Observatory: The walk through the park to reach this was very nice. Later in the day would have been prime picnic time. As it were, it was nearer to breakfast. Lots of people with dogs (Corgis everywhere!). The Royal Observatory itself is so much more than just the Prime Meridian line (but that is very cool) even if you are not a science geek. It was slightly overcast, but the views from the hill were still great.

Queen’s House: We took the path down from the observatory to the Queen’s House. I’ve not seen much about this on any traditional forum, but it is a seriously impressive attraction (and free!). There is an extensive display of maritime artwork, the Armada portrait of Elizabeth I and, what I found most gorgeous, the Tulip Staircase, which is absolutely stunning.

National Maritime Museum: I enjoyed this more than expected - a variety of interesting maritime-themed paintings, ship models and exhibits here, including the uniform Nelson wore when shot at Trafalgar. I offer with no commentary that there were many children here when we visited, but they were largely contained to the “Great Map” and other play areas.

Misc: At the street food fair near the Thames, there's a stand serving great Pimm’s cups. I’ve tried to make these 20 times and they've ranged from undrinkable to merely bad. I don’t know how you Brits do this, but hats off to you. We also walked the tunnel under the Thames to the Isle of Dogs and back. Having a pathological fear of water, I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea (blaming the Pimm’s cups here and fine, I had 2). The street fair is not to be confused with the Greenwich Market, which is a delightful warren of shops, food stalls and booths to explore. We highly recommend the gelato at Dark Sugars.

Sunday roast: We’ve never been able to make the timing work on prior trips. We went to the Plume of Feathers and it was very, very good - DH had the roast beef and I had the stuffed roasted chicken. Both came with roasted potatoes, cauliflower cheese, other veggies, Yorkshire puddings and delicious gravy. The place was full of locals watching horse races, very much like our hometown, and the best part is that I apologized for almost spilling a pint on what I thought was a man’s hat laying on the bar only to find out that it was, in fact, a cat (and a very handsome cat).

Posted by
7976 posts

Bluegrass Dowager, very lovely and interesting trip report--I really enjoyed reading it! I've been to London twice before (many decades ago) but have never made it to Greenwich, which I plan to rectify this spring.

All of the places you mentioned (and a few you didn't) are on my list of those to see, but I'm glad that you enjoyed the Queen's House. I am really looking forward to seeing this, especially as I love history and I'm a huge fan of Good Queen Bess. And good to know the children were contained. 😉 I also laughed at the Pimm's cup, and have a good friend who loves those (and probably would not have stopped at 2).

Sadly, my stay will not cover London so I won't be able to try the Sunday roast, but hopefully I'll be able to try it at some place later in the trip (I know my Yorkshire stay covers a Sunday). And I laughed very hard at your story about the cat!

Btw, I don't know what part of Kentucky you are from, but I'm originally from just over the river in Cincinnati. I moved up north after I retired, but I do miss that area (especially the bluegrass region).

Posted by
9218 posts

OP thank you for your report. Its been decades since my visit to Greenwich.

Believe I’ll revisit on my next London sojourn.

Posted by
4580 posts

Greenwich has been on our list as a daytrip next time we spend time in London, but based on your description I have to wonder if it's worth staying there a few days or just make more than 1 daytrip. Do you have an opinion?

Posted by
16 posts

@Mardee, thanks! This is my first trip report on this forum and I never know how much detail to include. I suppose I might have chosen a more polite term than "contained" in reference to the children, LOL. We are in central KY and have family in Cincinnati as well.

@Allan, I think it depends on your interests and what you want to see, of course, but there are plenty of interesting things in and around Greenwich - we had two nights here and still couldn't do everything. As much as I love the heart of London, and I very much do, it's occasionally overwhelming - Greenwich makes a nice "break" from the chaos. Day trips to Greenwich are also great. It was a very short visit via one of the Thames cruises that we first visited for just a few hours and we liked it so much that we decided to devote more time to it on the next trip. Personally, if I were going to visit Greenwich more than once on a single trip, I'd stay there overnight to avoid the back-and-forth travel, but that's just me.

Posted by
7836 posts

Mardee,

You'll have to try to find somewhere for Sunday Lunch in Thirsk or Helmsley on Day 27, or maybe Haltwhistle while you are in Northumberland on Day 34- the Twice Brewed or the Milecastle Inn, both up on the wall could be ideas.

Posted by
7976 posts

isn31c, thanks! Those sound great and I will definitely check them out. I would love to have a Sunday roast meal!

Bluegrass Dowager, no worries about the kids. I have 4 grandkids but that doesn't mean I want to be surrounded by kids when I'm traveling. :-) So good info to know.

Posted by
14719 posts

What a fun TR! Thanks for dipping your toe in to posting!

I've not been to Greenwich in a good long while and it's always on my "To-Do" list. I've wanted to see the Queen's House to see the ceiling and I also think there is some kind of vegan cake place in the Greenwich Market area, hahaha!

I've got you bookmarked for future reference!

Posted by
1138 posts

Nice report, Bluegrass! I had a similar trip about a year ago, October 2022. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the area.

I have a question that might help the others with planning. When I visited the Queen’s House, it was necessary to have an advance free ticket. People without were turned away - no availability.

I wondered if that was still the case. Did you get your booking in advance? Or, my experience might still have been impacted by Covid protocols. In 2023, have we moved on so pre-booking isn’t necessary? (The website suggests advance tickets but maybe this is a true suggestion, not a requirement these days.)

Posted by
16 posts

Hi, @ ORD. I think you are the poster who shares my love of the Pullman Hotel in London, yes? I just checked my Trip It app, where I keep backup copies of entry tickets, and it does not look like we had timed tickets for the Queen’s House. Honestly, there were very few people there and we sailed right in and practically had the place to ourselves, which was very nice.

Posted by
3871 posts

Great trip report! Thanks for posting it. I enjoyed reading it.
We love Greenwich and the boat ride there.
Great story there about the cat asleep or just lying on the bar!

Posted by
3560 posts

Thanks for sharing. We took the Thames boat to Greenwich on our recent trip and hiked up to the observatory. Very nice area and I can see a return visit for a longer stay in the future.

Posted by
1138 posts

Yes, Bluegrass, I’m the Pullman fan!

I’m glad to hear that the Queen’s House is easier access than a year ago. Thanks for clarifying.

Posted by
497 posts

Thank you for this report. Definitely need to add Greenwich to our future London visit.