Friday we headed into London to check out "Winston Churchill's Britain at War" Exhibit. Our interest in this was created by touring the Churchill War Rooms which we had done last week. As an American it is hard for us to imagine what it must have been like to fear invasion by Hitler after hearing how he had mowed across Poland and France and was just 23 short miles across the English Channel. The nightly bombings in 1940-41 must have been terrifying.
The Britain at War Museum was all about the British people and what it was like for them during WWII. It wasn't about the military situation or the political situation, just what life was like. We learned a lot of interesting things that we did not know, such as they sent the children away from London (which was very unfortunate for some of the children). Fascinating to learn about but still very very hard to imagine.
When we left the museum we walked across the London Bridge and up to the pier at the Tower of London and caught the river boat tour up to Greenwich, about a 30 minute narrated ride. The river has lots of interesting buildings along its shores (as well as many old pubs).
 |
| Cher lived in top left apartment for many years |
 |
| These are supposed to look like 3 French Soldiers (do you see it?) |
We got off the boat in Greenwich at the Royal Naval College and went in search of lunch in town.
 |
| Royal Naval College |
After lunch we hiked up the steep hill to the Royal Observatory. There are a variety of things there but the most interesting one is the Prime Meridian. This is the longitudinal line from which all others are based. This line also divides the east and west hemispheres. and it defines GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Being a science buff this holds special significance to Larry so we couldn't come to London without making a pilgrimage to Greenwich.
 |
| Prime Meridian |
The fun thing to do is stand with one foot on either side - so that you are spanning the two hemispheres. Larry, of course, had to do that but we didn't go into the Observatory because they now charge quite a bit for it and there is a long queue to take your picture on the meridian. You can tell outside the yard where the line is and we staged our own picture.
They also have the offical time keeping clock. Larry was dismayed to find out that his watch is now 22 seconds ahead.
The view of London from up on the hill was wonderful as well.
Compared to many of our sight seeing days, this was a relative relaxed and low-key day. Very nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment