On November 13 we took a group trip to Greenwich. I had no idea what was there, other than the time line, and it was pouring rain and a little on the cold side so I wasn't very excited about it. But guess what, it was awesome!! The Old Naval Royal College is one of the main attractions in Greenwich. It was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who also designed St. Pauls Cathedral. This picture is of part of the campus.
ONRC is a music college and while we were there they were having a special exhibition on early musical instruments. It was so cool! I felt like we were a little out of place in there because most of the people who went into the exhibition were music students who probably knew how to play the lute and all 50 different types of recorders, but I really enjoyed looking at all the instruments, some in various stages of completion, and listening to people play them and stuff. The other fun thing was that they had tons and tons of music for sale. It was all classical and I got an awesome Bach piano book.
The main part of the exhibition was in the "Painted Hall" which is one of the most famous parts of the buildings because of the beautiful baroque artwork all over the ceilings. I wish the pictures showed this better; it was so ornate and intricate. I can't imagine how amazing it must be to go to school in a place like this!
After poking around the exhibition for awhile we headed up to the royal observatory!
It was raining so hard and since I was wearing my rain boots I was really excited about it! I probably had a little too much fun jumping in puddles and standing in the little rivers that were forming on the sidewalks and the streets...I couldn't stop looking at my feet! Thanks to Elliot for catching these hilarious pictures, and thanks to whoever invented rain boots for providing me with so much entertainment.
The observatory is set up pretty high on a hill so it was a bit of a walk to get to it, but we got to walk through the prettiest park! Sometimes I get sad when I think of how amazing all of these places probably are in the spring with all of the flowers blooming, but you just can't beat autumn leaves!
Of course the main attraction up at the top was the Prime Meridian. Elliot and I had to wait for at least five minutes to take this picture because there was a large group of Asian tourists, all middle aged men, who could not stop taking pictures! They just kept going and going, completely oblivious to the line that was rapidly forming behind them. But we finally got our picture and did our best to avoid them as we went around the observatory.
This is the Millenium clock which I didn't even know existed before I came here. It counted down to the year 2000 and now it has been counting the days since! I am not exactly sure what the purpose but it is accurate to one millionth of a second and that's pretty darn cool!
This is the oldest object I will ever touch, isn't that exciting?
Elliot and I also saw a show at the planetarium called "Ice Worlds" that was all about the ice on the earth and ice in space...and lots of cool ice stuff. I was so so excited about it but once I got into that comfy seat and reclined a little bit and the lights went out I just had such a hard time staying awake. I tried really hard, and I felt like I was awake and just taking a couple of long blinks. Elliot would tell you I slept through it, but I definitely heard the important stuff.
And this is the view of London from the top of the hill! It was really fun to look out over the city and be able to recognize parts of the skyline: the Gherkin, St Pauls cathedral, etc. I love this place!
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