On our last day in London, we decided to do something low key so we rode the trains out to Greenwich (which doesn't have anything to do with moldy sandwiches like I first thought and is pronounced grin-itch). The Old Royal Naval College and the Royal Observatory were established there back in the 1600s. Now it's a museum spot and home to the Cutty Sark. The Cutty Sark was a clipper ship built in the 1800s to carry tea between the continents. Among many other cargoes, it also carried wool from Australia for sale in England for many years. I thought it was cool that this ship and I have both been to the harbour in Sydney.
We entered in the hull of the ship where they would have stowed the tea for sailing.
This is a picture of what the Cutty Sark would have looked like with all of its sails unfurled at sea.
The next deck was filled with artifacts.
Standing on the deck looking up at the masts.
Being a sailor would be so fun but I'm not sure my flat hands would be much good at tying knots in these ropes.
An upper bunk where some of the crew slept.
Ahoy matey!
Argh! Time to swab the poop deck!
I'll be taking over the sailing of this ship from now on matey!
Chillaxin with Erin and Scott in the Captain's galley. Bring me some grog!
Down below the Cutty Sark was a collection of mast heads which are put on the bows of ships. Most were kind of creepy.
Next we went to the Royal Observatory. Over a 300 year span, 10 astronomers who worked for the British Monarchy lived here and charted the stars creating maps of the skies for sailors to use when navigating the seas. The Earth is divided into longitude and latitude. Greenwich is the place of 0 degree longitude which means we were standing in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres at the same time. This is called the Prime Meridian.
If I stretch really far I can just reach both the Eastern and Western hemispheres!
Head West young man!
They had lots of cool telescopes in the observatory. I know my buddy Jack's dad likes telescopes so I posed with some of them. This was a really old one.
This clock was invented to help sailors determine their longitude when at sea. Before this clock, it was hard to keep reliable time at sea and they needed clocks to help them map where they were when no land was in sight. After they had these clocks, they would set one at Greenwich Mean Time before they left England and the other would be reset everyday at sea when the sun hit its peak location in the sky. By comparing the two clocks, the sailors were able to determine their longitude and know where they were in the ocean. The man who invented this clock won £20,000 which is equivalent to at least a million dollars today.
More telescopes.
On the way back to our hotel, we looked for the muffin man who lives on Drury Lane.
London has been so much fun. From the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern and then the Eastern and Western. What an adventure this has been! Tomorrow we head to Germany. Only a few more days with the Olivers before heading back to the US of A. I can't wait to share all of my adventures with Jack when I get back!
Location:Greenwich, UK
No comments:
Post a Comment