London Day 3

I welcomed the later start & the slower pace today. My knees & ankles are protesting to the exercise required to keep pace with my tour guide & his demanding schedule!

A River Thames cruise, from Westminster Pier to Greenwich, was entertaining, informative & extremely cold! In order to take advantage of a great photo opportunity, we braved the elements & elected to sit on the open air deck! The Met Office has been kind to us since our arrival. While overcast & with the daily maxima in the low teens, it has been dry. Today however, the wind chill factor made conditions extremely uncomfortable.

What we have always known as Big Ben today became the Great Clock of Westminster. According to folklore, Big Ben is the bell within!

As we sailed through the heart of London we passed the London Eye, the fourth largest structure of its kind in the world; the original London Power Station, now the Tate Modern; the Globe Theatre; London Bridge; Sir Francis Drake's clipper, the Golden Hind, and HMAS Belfast. It was at this point in the commentary we learnt that Britain's ensign is known as the Union Jack only when flying from a wooden pole at the bow of a ship. At all other times it is the Union Flag.

While touted as the biggest & the best, the Greenwich Markets fell well short of expectation. Yesterday's Portobello Street markets were certainly larger & more interesting!

The climb to the Royal Observatory challenged those who are not as fit as they should be. However, the panorama from the summit was worth the effort. The Millennium Stadium was to the East, London's CBD was clearly visible in the background & the National Maritime Museum, along with the under-construction equestion venue, dominated the foreground. Greenwich is preparing to host the 2012 Olympic Equestrian Events.

While the Prime Meridian is a concept rather than a physical entity, The Greenwich Observatory has made the line of zero degrees longitude visible. In the Meridian Courtyard, East met West, & with the generosity of another tourist the moment was captured in time!

It was in the Octagon Room, atop Flamsteed House, where we met Ms Ruth Belleville, daughter of John Henry Belleville. the seller of time! From 1836, for the next 104 years, the Belleville family travelled from Greenwich to London to sell time to paying customers. Clients paid handsomely for the weekly updates. Four pounds a year!

         

The National Maritime Museum exhibits portrayed the lives & experiences of seafarers from a time past. Of interest were the navigational & scientific instruments. It was here we met  John Harrison & his 18th century marine chronometers, which helped navigators accurately calculate their position of Longitude.

         
Today we stepped back in time to an era that witnessed the standardizing of time, the selling of time and the invention of time pieces. Perhaps it's timely I sign off!