Docklands Museum, London

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Today was bright but cold so it was a bit chilly waiting for the train, it doesn't help when there is nobody in the passenger assistance office at the train station so you then have to find the guard on the train to get the ramp out so Jane can get on. Even though it was booked in advance they must know that there is nobody at Fareham, luckily the guard was near the front of the 10 coach train, this could have been a problem if he was still the other end. At a push, you could probably get on without the ramp, but if they don't know you got on and nobody comes down the train checking tickets, then you have the same problem getting off and the gap is far too wide at Waterloo.
Any how's as it turned out we had double help at Waterloo so all was well.

After topping up the Oyster Cards we caught what would be the first of 3 buses, a 26 and then changed at Saint Paul's the to the 15 which took us into Commercial Road, we had planned on going into MacDonald's but as my tech was telling me the 315 bus was following the one we were on it would be prudent to get on it or have a 20 minute wait in what was now a cold, wet and windy day, luckily it wasn't like this all day. 

There are quicker ways to get here, but that involved 2 tube trains and then changing to the DLR, this could have got us there in about 35 minutes but there's always a risk of the elevator not working.

The bus dropped us off in Canary Wharf and it was only a short walk in the cold and wet to the pub called The Ledger Building to get warm, for a Wetherspoon pub this was definitely one of the better ones that had been tastefully converted. One hour later it was time to head next door the Museum of London Docklands which charts the history of how the docks developed over the years, I'm all for these free museums.

Roof Garden

After spending about an hour and half in the museum, we took a short walk round to the Crossrail Rooftop Garden which is semi covered garden built in one of the docks, this is also part of the new Crossrail station, which is underground with the other levels being trendy bars and cafes, I can't help but think that if they had made it completely covered they could have turned into a rooftop conservatory with tropical plants, as the summers in this country tend to be short it would be an excellent place to sit on a cold winter's today or even just a day like today.

As most of this area is made up of banking headquarters, it was always to be a bit of a ghost town at the weekend around here, but they are always finding ways to squeeze more money out of people but it's still an impressive place to see. I thought it would have more people in here, but there was were relatively few today. I think the security guards spend most of their time trying to keep the homeless people out now.

Greenwich foot tunnel

After about 30 minutes wandering around the pathways, we headed out across the footbridge and back into Canada Square the caught the D7 bus to the very bottom of the Isle of Dogs, this was one time I'd wished I had spent a bit more time looking at the real timing for the buses because the one we got on was packed but if we had waited there was another one not too far behind that eventually passed us with nobody on it.
Next on the list was taking a short walk which brought us out on the Thames with views over Greenwich on what was now a warm day. Something I've always wanted to do was to walk through the Greenwich foot tunnel with is a 350-meter long tunnel that runs underneath the Thames to the Cutty Sark in Greenwich.
Considering how this tunnel was constructed and opened in 1903 it's an amazing piece of engineering and well worth the trip down there, it is also kept remarkably clean.

Cutty Sark

By now it was around 3 o'clock and it had taken us longer than to get around than planned or maybe I'd just put too much into one day with the available time we had so after a quick walk around Greenwich Market we headed into MacDonald's and then Gate Clock pub for a couple of drinks and a well earned sit-down, they even had a row of plug sockets along the wall in here to charge your phone so made some of that. 

By 5:30 it was time to make a move, we were a fair distance from Waterloo Station and it was at least a 50-minute ride back on the bus which seemed like twice as long. 

We had just enough time to get some snacks and beer from the shop before going into the station, we normally get the 18:09 train back, but today we had decided to leave 1 hour later at 19:09, this turned out to be a good idea as I hate being in a rush. 

All was well with the train journey back arriving in Fareham at 20:46 and only had a few minutes to wait for the bus home.