Greenwich Observatory

Uh, so, yeah, as you may recall Sha and I live in London and we have been blogging about our experiences. Well, I have become rather slack on the updating front (as I am sure you will know) and really haven't done much of it lately. Nonetheless, I will do a few 'quick fire' rapid posts to try and bring us forward to the present day. I may have more chance of eating my own face, but hey, at least I can say "I tried" (and failed).

Sunday, March the 8th 2009

Sha and I headed to Greenwich where we met Perraine and Heather for a coffee (milky) at a cafe in Greenwich park. Actually, the coffee was slightly better than the rest of the crud that masquerades as coffee over here, so that was something. Heather then headed off back home to do some work on some illustrations she was working on while Perraine, Sha and I went down to Greenwich and did a walking tour with a guide who gave us a lot of history (and through a very thick accent). As this was over 8 months ago, I can't remember the finer details, except that I am pretty sure I enjoyed myself and that the name of the ship the Cutty Sark was derived from something quite rude involving naked witches dancing around a house (or church?) which they had set on fire. This was a long time ago. Oh, and would you believe it, you can read all about it on the Wikipedia page linked to above.

After the walking tour we headed up to the Greenwich Observatory and watched a 30 minute show called Invaders From Mars, with the deep booming voice of Tom Baker narrating. Gotta love Tom! That was quite a unique experience, lying back on the seats on the Observatory and looking up to see what settling Mars may be like in the future. It was so comfortable that Sha actually dozed off for a minute. Right - now for some pictures.

Thames Underpass Walkway

By going through this walkway you can actually walk under the Thames and exit on the Isle of Dogs - from there, just a quick walk to Canary Wharf. You can see the exit point in the distance.

The Admiral Hardy Pub

The last man that Lord Nelson ever kissed...

Greenwich Observatory

You can't see them, but there are little spikes all over the ledges to prevent those damn pesky pigeons from landing.

A big red ball at Greenwich Observatory

The ball is raised just before 1pm and at exactly 1pm it is dropped. It was used by ships in Thames as a method of synchronising their time pieces (the hill of the observatory can be clearly seen from the Thames).

Another interesting part of the Observatory


All for the moment, but over the coming days I'll put up photos of our trip to Oxford and a few of the other interesting things we did in March.