*** Greenwich:
I took a London Walk guided tour to Greenwich. The tour left from Tower Hill Tube, and we reached Greenwich via a boat ride, from a dock near the Tower of London. The Tower was built by William The Conqueror - though he actually never conquered the City of London - and thus in the City he is called William I, and not William the Conqueror. Around the city there are red and white stone dragons that mark the boundaries of the city and the Queen or King are not allowed to pass the dragons, without the protection and permission of the Lord Mayor of the city. William built his palace near to the city - and that is the Tower - to show the people of the city who is the boss.
On the way to Greenwich we saw Execution Warf - were pirates were hung over water - and in the high tide the fish ate the bodies. The deference between high tide and low tide in the Thames can reach 12 meters.
The last pirate to be executed this way was the pirate Captain Kid.
I also saw the dock from which the Mayflower left England to America - and it is called, of course, the Mayflower Dock. We sailed around the Isle of Dogs and saw the Docklands and the new towers at the Canary Warf area.
Near the dock, at Greenwich is the Cutty Sark - A clipper which used to bring cotton from Australia, and Tea from China (a very fast boat is called a clipper because a horse that pulls a carriage makes the sound "clip clop..." and the faster the horse goes the faster the sound is made - and thus "a clipper"). The ship had to be fast, because the first ship that arrived got the best prices.
The shape is named after a story in which a man heard singing from the forest at the middle of the night - and he followed the singing until he found out it was a witch trying to catch him. The witch was wearing a cutty sark - a night gown. He jumped on his horse and fled, but he was almost caught by the witch and then he escaped as the horse jumped over the Brigdun River - but the witch caught the horses' tail and it remained in her hand.
The ships figurehead is of a woman in a nightgown, her hand outstretched and a real horsetail (not wooden as the rest of the figurehead) is in her hand.
