Greenwich

By now, I hope everyone has recovered from ‘falling back’ during the recent daylight savings time change.  The weather in Austin has also recently changed – going from warm to below freezing.  Between the cold and dark, David and I keep finding ourselves curled up on the couch with the fire going, ready to fall asleep… at 8:00.

The time change has provided the perfect excuse for us to go back and blog about our day trip to Greenwich earlier this year, as the world’s time has been measured from Greenwich since 1884. 

Greenwich is home to the prime meridian, the National Maritime Museum, and the Royal Naval College (formerly a royal palace where King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I were born).

Before we began our day, we fueled up with brunch at Fatboy’s Diner.  The diner is an authentic American diner actually built in New Jersey in the early 1940s and then transported to Trinity Buoy Wharf.

Trinity Buoy Wharf is located on East India Quay, an old shipyard for the East India Trading Company.  The wharf is home to London’s only lighthouse and a container city, residences made from recycled shipping containers.  The area provided an interesting, artistic backdrop for our brunch of hash-browns, burgers, potato skins, and chili cheese fries. 

After stuffing ourselves with greasy American food, we rode the futuristic DLR train to Greenwich and hopped off at the Cutty Sark.

The Cutty Sark was a clipper launched in 1869 from Scotland.  It was used to transport tea from China to London, and then wool from Australia to England.  As faster steamships overtook traditional clippers, the Cutty Sark was taken out of commission and docked in Greenwich.  In 1957, Queen Elizabeth opened the ship to the public as a museum. 

However, in 2007 there was a terrible fire and the museum was closed.  Five years later, the Cutty Sark was reopened to the public again by Queen Elizabeth.  We were excited to finally see the ship as it had been beautifully restored.

David actually visited the Cutty Sark as a boy during a class field trip to Greenwich, but the new museum was better than ever.  It features a glass atrium so visitors can view the entire ship from top to bottom.   We took a free tour on-deck, and then explored the cabins and tea holds below.  To round off our visit, we walked down beneath the ship and saw a huge collection of figureheads, the carved wooden sculptures that adorn the prows of ships.

All figureheads in the Cutty Sark collection were acquired by Long John Silver, a Londoner obsessed with anything and everything maritime-related.  He was not picky, and his figureheads ranged from a traditional mermaid to Abraham Lincoln!

From the Cutty Sark, we strolled through the small village of Greenwich, across the cobblestone streets, past picturesque homes and quaint bookshops.

The Royal Naval College

The Bellot obelisk overlooking the Thames River.  The obelisk commemorates Frenchman Joseph Rene Bellot, who died trying to rescue Sir John Franklin.  Franklin and his crew vanished during a voyage to discover a water route around the top of North America.  Terribly, even more men and ships perished trying to find Franklin, including Bellot, who fell through ice.

The Painted Hall, designed by Wren and painted by Sir James Thornhill, George I’s court painter.  It took 19 years to cover the dining room in art, and now it’s the centerpiece of the college.

We then walked from the campus up the hills of Greenwich Park, home to the equestrian competitions during the London Summer Olympics.  From the top of the hill, we had a great view of London.  

After taking it in, we stretched across the prime meridian and set our watches to the Greenwich Time Ball. 

Since 1833, the ball has been used by sailors to set their timepieces to exact Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Lastly, we visited the Greenwich Planetarium.  We touched the Gideon Meteorite, a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite found in the Namibian Desert.  Then we stargazed inside the 120-seater theater under a 45-tonne bronze-clad cone built directly on the prime meridian.

Overall, it was a busy, fun-filled, educational day in Greenwich.