For once, the English weather was on our side and it was with a spring in our step that we walked from Rotherhithe to London Bridge (via some pubs and the River so all was lovely).
First stop was Greenwich. This confused us poor non-DLR users as there are about 30 stops and 15 stations. This IS an exaggeration, but I don't care. Despite Greenwich being lovely, this made the day start off baffled and thus Greenwich stations are stupid. Finally met Sarah and strolled to The Fan Museum. http://www.thefanmuseum.org.uk/
What an odd place. The building was beautiful, made up of 2 town houses. We agreed that to a certain extent the building was the interesting bit of this trip.
I liked the gift shop more than Sarah did and bought my mum a fan for a tenner. I do think that this was rather expensive, but mum liked it so that's fine.
From here we walked to New Cross, stopping off at a revolutionary right-on cafe for a spot of coffee and a comfortable catch up.
I liked that you could choose a tea pot and take that to the counter (but I dislike tea so this is actually most unhelpful) and although it was pleasant enough, we agreed that the service was rather slow despite having 3 people behind the counter. It is this kind of socialism that makes the revolution never happen. Sarah discussed Soviet Russia and told me good news about her life. Well done Sazy...
I liked the gift shop more than Sarah did and bought my mum a fan for a tenner. I do think that this was rather expensive, but mum liked it so that's fine.
From here we walked to New Cross, stopping off at a revolutionary right-on cafe for a spot of coffee and a comfortable catch up.
I liked that you could choose a tea pot and take that to the counter (but I dislike tea so this is actually most unhelpful) and although it was pleasant enough, we agreed that the service was rather slow despite having 3 people behind the counter. It is this kind of socialism that makes the revolution never happen. Sarah discussed Soviet Russia and told me good news about her life. Well done Sazy...
We made it to New Cross, got the train to Rotherhithe (for a NW Londoner, this all seemed adventurous and far away) where we alighted for the Brunel Museum http://www.brunel-museum.org.uk/. I will confess here that I thought this was all about Isambard, but it wasn't. It was about his Dad. When I got home and told my brother, he seemed to know all about it. Shows what watching the Discovery Channel can do for you.
There are many pics to follow, but suffice it to say that although we could have stolen Champagne, we didn't. We are trustworthy young ladies with the highest of morals.
The gift shop was rubbish, but Sarah observed that there are always, ALWAYS rainbow coloured erasers at these gift shops. This is true. Perhaps we should go into business manufacturing them. There is clearly a market for them.
From here we went for lunch at a pub called The Mayflower. http://themayflowerrotherhithe.com/. What a lovely place! Very little and apparently near THE Mayflower (why isn't that in the USA? Sarah didn't know. If she doesn't know, I have no idea. Although, I guess it was ours originally). There was a lovely outside area that has decking over the Thames. You can hear the water sloshing and sploshing and I thought it was jolly good fun. We had a bottle of white wine, a glass of water and a tasty and inexpensive tuna and mayonnaise sandwich. Yum.
We then walked via the Thames Path peering into people's apartments and discussing moving to a riverside flat. Hey, we can dream. We watched the sun set and Sarah took a pretty picture of some preening ducks. On a wooden thing. She may know what the wooden thing was. Anyway, it belongs to the ducks now.
We ended the evening in a rather smashing pub listening to a random gig (first band on was excellent... whoever they were) http://www.thegladpub.com/ Made me want to be in some LA garage band, smoking weed and hanging out with guitarists.
All in all a brilliant last museum visit of my twenties. Thanks Sarah.
As I say, pictures to follow. In the meantime here is Sarah's brilliant (as ever) itinerary:
Saturday
10th March Itinerary
Today’s jaunt into the historical wonderland takes us to South-East
London. Virgin territory in our quest to visit every non-obvious museum within
a price range of £0 to £8 per visit.[i]
Such an occasion would be noteworthy in its own right, but raising the
hysteria levels further is the fact that this will be the last museum visit of
your twenties. From here on after, you will look upon museums from the sage and
considered perspective of a thirty-year-old. No more youthful naivety and
ignorance for you. Rather, world weariness and lofty cynicism will shape your
future museum view.[ii]
It is an honour for me to be accompanying you on this momentous day.[iii]
To be brutally honest, the prospect of visiting either of today’s
destinations is not filling me with sleep-disrupting levels of excitement.
Reasons include, but are not restricted to the following:
a)
Not mad on fans
b)
Not mad on transport/engineering history[iv]
However, I am sure this only reflects a narrow-mindedness on my part,
and I am ready for my preconceptions to be quashed by the mighty knowledge
strongholds that are the Brunel and Fan Museums.[v]
Plus, they both have gift shops – RESULT!
Let’s meet at Greenwich first. I don’t know about you, but today I will
be navigating myself to the meeting point by way of the
Moleskine-complete-with-AtoZ-notebook[vi].
Shall we say 12.30pm at Greenwich DLR (not
Cutty Sark)?
The Fan Museum (opening hours: 11am-5pm) 12 Crooms Hill Greenwich,
London SE10 8ER (Admission £4) http://www.thefanmuseum.org.uk/
After a coffee (optional but probably necessary after staring at a load
of fans), we will take a long-winded journey via tube, DLR[vii]
and whatnot to the Brunel Museum.
The Brunel Museum (opening hours: 10am-5pm) Brunel Museum Railway Avenue
Rotherhithe London, SE16 4LF (Admission £3) http://www.brunel-museum.org.uk/index.aspx
Afterwards, it’s beverage time![viii]
Where we will chew the fat, bask in the post-museum visit memories and admire
the Moleskine. Happy days. The Mayflower sounds like the best place and it’s
super close!
[i]
Obviously, this is subject to review in light of inflation and/or our
drastically improved financial status.
[ii]
We could probably debate this point. Some would argue (I’m not naming names!)
that world weariness and cynicism would not really represent a massive
departure for you. But let’s keep the myth alive for the time being shall
we?
[iii]
I’m assuming you’re not going to be doing some museum two-timing on me during
the period 10th to 22nd March. If you do, I urge you to
keep it a secret from me to avoid any hurt feelings / awkwardness / vengeance
in future museum visits.
[iv]
This is not an indictment of the Canal Museum. To be fair to it, they did the
best with what they’ve got. I mean, it is clearly tempting to go with the
ice-cream making theme if you’re thinking canals are not really everyone’s cup
of tea. However, they do advertise themselves as the “Canal Museum” and should
have remained true to the cause. In the process, it has managed to undermine
the notion of transport being interesting for transport’s sake. The Brunel
Museum must overturn this assumption.
[v]
I fancy that a “super museum” could be created by forging the combined
strengths of these two establishments. I would call it the Frunel Museum
and all visitors would wonder at the sheer audacity of its ambition to combine
fans, tunnels and engines into a single museum. In your face, British Museum!
(Note that unlike the “Canal Museum”, “Frunel” would not be presenting a false
image of itself. Only awe.)
[vi]
Really like this! It feels so nice against my cheek (face not bottom, I’m not
weird!). It’s also quite a lot more stylish than my A to Z, and in addition it
nicely offsets my grubby tractor bag look.
[vii]
I hate the DLR. I don’t know why, but I hate it. Not a patch on a Moleskine,
although this is probably not a meaningful comparison.
[viii]
If this seems to be suggesting that beverage time is the best bit of the
itinerary, this is not my intention. But I do like this bit A LOT.
(Providing it doesn’t get too silly.)
