Monday, May 5, 2014

Visited Greenwich to make sure the clock had the correct time!

We ventured out today using a suggested tour from a Rick Steves book and went to Greenwich for a quick look round as they say over here. We took the tube to Waterloo station and walked across the bridge to get to the boat that would take us down the Thames to Greenwich.

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the walking bridge over the Themes,         cruising the river                                           Tower Bridge

The first thing we did when we reached the docks at Greenwich was to visit the Old Royal Naval College:

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Since it was a nice sunny day the locals were out in force all over the college (London sky line in background).

Being at the college you have to see ships

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The original Cutty Sark launched in 1869 to bring tea from China (and I thought it was for Scotch Whisky). The third picture shows the largest ship in a bottle in the world.  We also saw same great people from history:

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Statue of Sir Walter Raleigh              and ???? I think we have the photo for our Christmas cards!

We next climbed the hill to the Royal Observatory Greenwich.  This is where the Prime Meridian of 0 degrees longitude is located. You can straddle the line and have one foot in the Eastern and one foot in the Western hemisphere.  That will cost you 10 pounds or $16.95 to do that.  We just took photos of people waiting in line to do it.

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Prime Meridian line (on the ground)                     line of people waiting to have their photos taken on the line.

While we were there they treated me like a king

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Oh yes it’s good to be King! I finally found a country that respects me.

On our way back to London we got to see the Gherkin, Cheese Grater and the Walkie-Talkie

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The first grey building Walkie-Talkie, second grey building Cheese Grater and point of the third grey building, the Gherkin. Oh yes, the Londoners do come up with some great nicknames for their new buildings!

One list tidbit of the great English language.  We have all heard and seen the word WHARF, well it is really an acronym for Ware house at river front.  See, you learned something today by reading our blog!

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