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Welcome to the world of the Vincent D'Onofrio obsessed - and a bit of real life thrown in.


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Maritime Trail

When I was a kid, every sunny Sunday was spent in Greenwich Park, and I visited the National Maritime Museum often, both with my parents and with school. I don't think the significance ever sunk in, though.

For instance, the Queen's House (on the left in the picture below) actually dates to the 17th Century, but being a kid I just assumed it was our present Queen's house.


Beyond the Queens House, to the left and right, are colonnades leading to the two wings of the museum. The one out of the picture, to the left, is the admin building; the one on the right is the museum proper. These buildings have some history as a medical school and an asylum, but I can't find a date for their contsruction.

I remember queueing for hours in the far colonnade for the first Titanic exhibition. It was very affecting, much better than the ones that came later.

Since my school days, there has been a lot of work on the museum, with a huge glass atrium throwing light on the exhibits. I took Alex there on Monday. There was some Nelson memorabilia on display, but I couldn't find the item that intrigued me most when I was a kid.

Nelson's long johns. The ones he was wearing when he died at Trafalgar, cut open to remove them, and covered in blood.

Best. Museum. Exhibit. Ever.

7 comments:

JoJo said...

It does look like an asylum! Or a prison. I bet it's interesting. The long johns though...ew!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Sorry, that was me. I've only ever been to Greenwich once and thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe we could add it to the next V-Brit-Chick meet agenda.

val said...

Easy for me, but it depends on how the rest of you can manage to get there.

val said...

Oh, and on when exactly we meet compared to when the Olympic equestrian events take place...

Anonymous said...

I think we'd better aim for AFTER the Olympics. We can lose each other easy enough as it is ;0)

I seem to remember taking a boat to Greenwich, which was fine but I can't get one of those from St Pancras. Oh well, it was a thought (fear not, I was sitting down when it happened)

val said...

It's not that difficult from St Pancras. Northern Line to Bank, change to Docklands Light Railway to Cutty Sark or Greenwich.

From Victoria, I'd have to check. If trains go from there to Greenwich BR no problem, otherwise, I think there might be a 180 or 185 bus, will have to check on TfL.

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