Monday, January 17, 2011

It is Stephen time in Greenwich

Hey hey USA...and others
So, my adventures continue.  Yesterday UConn in London strolled to the tube and took the DLR to Greenwich (not in CT).  All of you know this town, it is home to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the Prime Meridian line. 

We first bought some sandwiches and sat in the Old Royal Naval College.  Apparently the students who used to go there used to get up at 5 and then go swimming for three hours.  They would only eat twice a day and did a lot of marching!  Lucky I don't have to do that here in my studies in London. 

We continued on in the Old Royal Naval College to the beautiful Chapel that was on the grounds and the Painted Hall (where Nelson's body lay in state after his death in the Battle of Trafalgar).  This is apparently also whee the Tudor palace used to exist, which is where Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were born!  Next we traveled up to the top of the hill at Greenwich, which had a magnificent view of London (for free too, compared to the London eye, it is definitely worth it).    
Greenwich Park, Queen's House, and Old Royal Naval College behind us and London behind that!

Once we got up there we saw the Greenwich Meridian Line (0 degrees) which they had marked out and we stood on.  They also had the official clock representing the Greenwich Mean Time.  We had a lot of fun taking pictures up there.  After that we strolled back down the hill and went to the Queen's house where members of the Royal Family used to greet people for parties and such.  Now it is an amazing art gallery.  We also went into the Maritime Museum where they had some great artifacts from when the Thames was a central shipping port.
Me at the Prime Meridian with some of my friends here (the brown line represents 0 degrees!)

We took a boat after that and got to see London at night from the Thames which was really remarkable.  Once I got home I skyped my parents for the first time and got to see sunny and snowy America as opposed to rainy London (although I'm quite happy with rainy London right now, sorry guys). 

Today I don't have class so I've been sort of lounging.  I went for a bit of a run around Clerkenwell and then came back here and decided to do a bit of a blog.  Now I'm going to go buy some of my Shakespeare books and laundry detergent!

Hope you are all doing well!

-Stephen    

Dennis, Me and Andy chillin at the Queen's House


Whaz up USA!

2 comments:

  1. did you get my email on this blog about the fact that i use to live 2 mins walk away from where you took the picturs in Greenwich park?

    thought it would be listed under "comments"

    maybe I sent it somewhere into the ether?
    Rosalind

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmmm, that is weird. Did you send it to sfpelletier524@yahoo.com?

    I hope all is well Rosalind!

    ReplyDelete