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The Prime Meridian - A Prime Grassy Knoll and Other Historic Sites
Greenwich: the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian. And one of those tricky English word pronunciations, like Holborn, or Leicester. It took the motivation of one of our last weeks in London to finally get around to seeing one of London's most historic attractions. Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Park, containing the Queen's House, the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the only museum in the world dedicated to the technological marvel that is the fan (the greatest thing until the miracle of central air).
It having been a spectacularly sunny day, we ambled our way towards the museum and discovered just how nice it was to lie outside on the soft green grass in front of the National Maritime Museum. Among rowdy schoolchildren and adults playing hooky, we lay barefoot with our heads on each others stomachs, chatting and looking up at the clouds. However when we stopped our reverie and wandered over to the museum which had lay a mere 100 yards away, we discovered that it had closed ten minutes earlier. Darn. Hmm time spent outside soaking up the sun left us no time for the museum. Oh well. We made our way up the sloping hills towards the actual location of the famous Greenwich Mean Time, the Royal Greenwich Observatory. One can always spot the tourist sights for the crowds of people whose eyes seem to glaze over and stand, heads tilted off to one side, a clueless expression on their face, no matter the object nor the situation. Of course saving visiting Greenwich until I had spent five months living in London allowed me a student status, almost akin to an honorary citizen status, far beyond the unattractive title of tourist.
From the hill the Royal Observatory is situated upon one has a marvelous view of the surrounding area, along with a backdrop of the steely buildings of Canary Wharf, a bit of the sloping green hills of old London contrasting with the new buildings of the Wharf area. Greenwich is a town reminiscent of a cobble-stoned New England town, replete with millions of coffee shops. Here, in this place which has the first and last word on time, even the Starbucks we went into seemed to retain a slight charm about it, and one could almost forget its commercial implications. Cutty Sark, one of the original English tea clippers and the only remaining classic clipper which had made its way across the pond, is boxed up on a dry dock near the banks of the Thames. Though historically important, unless you're a historian of clipper ships, or have been to Mystic, Connecticut one too many times, the ship doesn't hold more interest than as a quaint backdrop. One interesting feature of the Greenwich area is the Greenwich foot tunnel, an eerie underground pedestrian tunnel connecting Greenwich to the Island Gardens on the other side of the Thames which is also used by cyclists. The closest tube stop is the Cutty Sark on the Docklands Light Railway.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich,_London)
National Maritime Museum: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/
The Royal Observatory Greenich http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/
