London, Part 2
Thames River Trip to the Barrier and Greenwich
For a variety of reasons, we wanted to visit Greenwich, the site of the Royal Observatory and (ex-)home of "Greenwich Mean Time" (GMT), the historical master clock from which all time zones refer. We took this trip relatively early in our stay and think it helped to give us an over-all view of the city.
We also wanted to see the Thames Flood Barrier, which is a ways seaward of Greenwich. One of the boat services included a loop out there, so we chose the "wet route".
We started out at Harrod's, picking up ham and cheese croissants for lunch. Then we walked to the Westminster pier to check out the boats. There are a number of options, but only TRS (Thames River Services) included the Barrier. A coupon and Senior Discounts halved the price.
Westminster Pier is located "across the street" from Parliament. At least three lines service that pier, so there was a bit of confusion as to (a) which ticket window (b) which floating dock (c) which vessel but the staff was good at guiding us to our boat, the Mercia. As we pulled out the competition's boat (in photo) was also loading. We headed down stream.
The London Eye across the water looks like a giant bicycle wheel. It takes 30 minutes to make one rotation.
The large building was once the London County Hall, the home of London's elected government. It's gone kind'a "down market" these days. It now holds the London Aquarium, the London Dungeon, an amusement arcade and Shrek's Adventure!
Our boat had a delightful live guide/commentator/"cultural interpreter" on boat. He probably would not have called the drift from governmental to amusements "down market".
We sailed on...
On the north bank we see Cleopatra's needle. Originally erected in Luxor circa 1500 BC (1000 years before Cleo was born), it was a present from the Viceroy of Egypt in 1819. It took until 1878 to get it erected. There are similar obelisks in Paris and New York. The bronze Sphinxes at the base are English, not Egyptian.
Notice the greenish scum area/line on the wall of the river. That's the normal tidal range ("with boat for scale"). More on that later.
A bit further downstream is the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
(tide is very low: the river level will be almost to the top of the wall on the way back)
Londoners have nicknames for their modern buildings: their tallest is called "The Shard".
As we approach The Tower Bridge, we first encounter the HMS Belfast in the foreground. We'll see the bridge again from the Tower of London in part 3
We turn and go back through the barrier stations to Greenwich. Our boat, the Mercia, is tied to the London Rose because the dock was entirely occupied when we arrived. So we disembarked through the London Rose to the dock, assisted by a helpful crew member.
Greenwich has two historic buildings: this is Flamsteed House, the one that monitors the "central meridian" and established the "meridian line" that marks the boundary between the eastern and western hemispheres of the earth. The red ball drops daily at 1 pm to continue its job as a public time standard. (er, make that "dropped", since it's currently damaged due to a weather event)
There were many amateur telecopes sprinkled around the site trying to show Mercury to visitors, but they were equally disappointed by the clouds.
So we toured the grounds and met other historic telescopes outside.
The battered iron cylinder beyond Karen is all that remains of William Herschel's 1780's 40-foot long reflecting telescope. Its mirror is now at the Science Museum.
The second historic building is the Royal Observatory itself.
The dome now covers the "Endeavour Room" a rentable space featuring a large round conference table. The building also houses a museum, a gift shop, an auditorium and photo gallery, and a cafe. The terrace at the exit of the cafe honors Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space.
You've heard of Greenwich mean time? The break in the fence above Karen's head was it: point 0 for longitude and GMT. At night the observatory sends out a green laser beam to mark it.
However ... with the advent of the GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO satellite navigation systems, the agreed-upon "zero line" has been shifted 102.5 meters to the east. So this highly-marked line, although historically accurate, is no longer truly "zero". But even the new zero is a moving target.... continental drift shifts it about 2.5 centimeters (one inch) further east every year. Fame is so fleeting...
Among the few changes we see on the return trip: the National Geographic Explorer ship had tied up alongside the HMS Belfast. That's still The Shard standing beyond them.
We docked at Westminster pier again. Due to the rain we took our first bus trip ... home.
