Journey to the Beginning of Time

American Mom — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:00:00 +0000

When people discover that we moved to London, their first question is usually about the time difference.

In case you were wondering too, we’re 6 hours ahead of Central Standard and that’s more like the second question. The first actually being, “WHAT????

So anyway about the time difference, but where to begin?

(Wha. Wha. Wha…)

Sorry, couldn’t resist. Anyway, where to begin… Why? Where else but Greenwich, London, the home of Greenwich Mean Time!!!

(huh?)

Greenwich Mean (or Meridian) Time? GMT? The starting point in which the world’s time zones are set?

(oh-kay?)

Longitude 0° 0′ 0″, as in the Prime Meridian. Com’on my sister just taught this to her fourth grade class!

(Yeah, BO-RING)

Well, it’s situated in Greenwich, London and we just happened to make a day trip out of seeing it this weekend.

(Geeks! Losers! Witches! Burn them!)

Oh, don’t be like that. We had a REALLY crummy week (more on that later) and the weather was just so perfect that we so needed to get out and do something fun.

We started our journey by taking a river boat along the Thames, which is by far the BEST way to see the sights of London…

… especially when you pack sandwiches and have a picnic as you float past stuff like… oh, you know… the Tower of London, the Tate Modern, the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral… and such.

When we arrived in Greenwich, our first stop was to see the Cutty Sark, the world’s last tea clipper. This is what I was expecting to see…

…but this is what I saw instead.

Cheer up, Grace-Grace, pouty face. If you had done your proper research, you would have known that the Cutty Sark is being overhauled and renovated at the moment, but no use beating yourself up about it. There’s so much MORE to see.

While in Greenwich, we stopped at Greenwich Market (fabulous handmade goods and crafts, by the way), the National Maritime Museum, lovely Greenwich Park, and the University of Greenwich….

We even saw the “oldest object that you will ever touch”, which is a 4.5 BILLION year old meteorite, at the Peter Harrison Planetarium…

… but, who are we kidding? You all know what the big show was going to be.

Yup, I’ll say it again, it’s the PRIME MERIDIAN!

So here I am, with one foot (the left) firmly planted in the Eastern Hemisphere and the other in the Western Hemisphere. How cool is that?

I wish I had worn much cuter shoes of the occasion, but if you had to climb the near vertical ascent to the top of the Royal Observatory (where the Prime Meridian is “housed”) while pushing a stroller with a sleeping toddler, you’d be in comfy shoes too…

See our sleeping toddler and his stroller on the Prime Meridian. So tired of his nerdy parents.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a photo of “awake Avery” at the Prime Meridian.

By the time we made it back to the Royal Observatory, it was already 5:00 pm GMT and like most of the UK, the Prime Meridian was CLOSED for business and gawkers alike.

The guard really didn’t go for my explanation about it still being 11:00 in the morning where I’m from…

Friday Photo Op: Natural History Museum

American Mom — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:00:53 +0000

Central Hall, Natural Science Museum, London

American Mom In London » Museumland

Journey to the Beginning of Time

Friday Photo Op: Natural History Museum