My tour of London......
Categories: just-life
Date: 27 November 2006 23:13:44
I managed to see things in pairs when I went round London on Saturday.... not on purpose, but that's just the way it turned out!!!
first there was the Golden Hinde in Southwark. This is a replica of Sir Francis Drake's galleon which sailed over 100,000 miles including round the world!! The other is the Cutty Sark...... which didn't look much like the model I have in a bottle..... I know it had been windy the night before but surely not that windy.....???
I also popped into Southwark Cathedral which was very nice. I didn't realise that they were doing a special service for the anniversary of the Porvoo Communion, a community of twelve European churches which consider themselves maintaining the Catholic and Apostilic Faith while being Protestant with regard to the Roman Catholic Church. While it sounds like this was signed many years ago it was infact as recent as 1994!!!
On the otherside we have the Chapel of St Paul and St Peter from the Old Royal Naval College which was beautifully painted and plastered.
The first of the museums I visited was the Royal Observatory. It was great. If you happen to know the radius of the Earth, with a quick bit of mathematics you could work out just how far away all those places are. I also reset my watch, so if anyone wants to know the correct time, just ask!!! While in the museum park I caught up with a tour group and I have nothing but praise for the lady that was giving the tour. She was amazing. I don't know if she's the only one or not, but I was still amazed!! I also didn't know that the Greenwich line has been moved three times by successive Royal Astronomers for no more reason than they didn't like where the old one was!!
I also visited one of my favourite museums, the Natural History Museum. Now here's a small hint, if you ever visit and there's a massive queue (like on Saturday) head round the side as if you were going to the Science Museum and there's another enterance which almost no-one realises about. Sure you don't see the dinosaurs straight away, but you do come up under the model of the Planet Earth (see above).
Lots and lots of fun!!!
There are more photos, and they look better when a bit bigger, just head over to Bimbling Along on flickr.
nb - there were some very friendly squirrels in Greenwich Park....