Two Hemispheres, One Person

Today began our second week of classes (time is flying by already!) and we started this week by a trip to Greenwich. Greenwich is located to the East of our location but is still within Greater London. To get there, we took a boat on the Thames that allowed us to capture some great photographs of Tower Bridge and other sites along the Thames. When we arrived in Greenwich, we walked around the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College and then around the downtown area.

We then headed towards the Greenwich Maritime Museum, where we were to have our coursework for the morning. We were unable to access the Library, for they are closed because of the Olympics. However, we did go to see a special exhibit that is happening through September 9, 2012, and was erected in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. I will blog about this on my other page and you will be able to access it here.

I'm between two Hemispheres!

After going through that exhibit, we visited the other parts of the museum and then went in search of the Prime Meridian, since that is kind of an important thing for people in Greenwich. Now, the entirety of Greenwich (and London in general) has been overcome with construction for the Olympic Games, which begin in about 18 days. And Greenwich will be hosting the Dressage Competition, so they need to get the stadiums ready. Which means, they need to shut things down in the area where the Dressage Competition will occur....so that means the Royal Observatory is closed. And the Royal Observatory is where the big Prime Meridian sign is located, and where most people go to get their photographs taken in two hemispheres. Alas, we couldn't get there. Now, if we had been scheduled to have gone to Greenwich, say, last week, it would have been open and we could have seen it. But that wasn't the case. Nevertheless, we overcame this issue and found another spot on a random side street where the PM is located and took our photos there. Crisis averted!
 

Elementary!

After succeeding in finding the PM, we went off in search of some shops and then lunch. We found Britain's Oldest Brewery, Shepherd Neame, where I had a pint of their Bishop Finger and a lovely sandwich. It was quite good, but tasted much like a Yuengling. Go figure. We then took the boat back to our home location, and Jenny and I headed towards Baker Street. Here, we saw the Sherlock Holmes Statue and then decided against going into the Sherlock Holmes Museum because of the ridiculous line. Thus, a quick trip to the gift shop was all that was necessary before I headed back to the dorms to catch up on my blogs and diary entries. A short but successful day!

- Kate