Greenwich Was Great!

Entry to the Painted Hall at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich

Today we travelled to east London to the ancient town of Greenwich. Somewhat unusually, we took the Thames boat instead of the tube, bus or rail. Greenwich is a beautiful place and home to important monuments such as the Greenwich Observatory, the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Naval College. Its architecture is every bit as beautiful as its parklike setting. I don't think I've seen that many columns, anywhere, ever. Some highlights included the Painted Hall with its breathtaking ceiling and wall painting which emulate sculpture but on closer inspection turnout to be two-dimensional. The Maritime Museum itself was full of curious things, including the bloody remains in which Admiral Nelson was dressed when he was struck down by a French sniper bullet at the battle of Trafalgar. The girls enjoyed a simulator which allowed them to pilot a ship (unsuccessfully it turned out) into New York Harbor, and they enjoyed flashing morse code at each other and running signal flags up a mast. But the best part may have been the observatory, where we were able to straddle the prime Meredian--that magic line that defines longitude and look at the official measuring devices accepted by the whole western world for the exact establishment of measurements such as foot, inch, etc. By no means did we see it all, but what we saw convinced us this is a really beautiful--if somewhat out of the way--place. Visitors to London should not pass it by.