It was my second week in London. I did not know what to do, where to go, but I wanted to learn about something new. My coworker in London suggested me to go to Hyde Park because the weather was so nice that week (she said it is rare to be sunny in London on April). I did a bit of my research and I decided to go to Greenwich because they have quite a big park around there. They also have a royal observatory for the Prime Meridian, so I feel like I can learn something new.
Greenwich
Greenwich (pronounced as GRIN-icth, the w is silent), plays an important parts in maritime history. Long time ago, the sailors are having trouble calculating their location when they were out there in the ocean. Most of the sailors used the prime meridian as their reference in their maps. I don’t really know how it works (or maybe I’m so bad explaining things in English), but if you stand in the middle of the prime meridian line, and you check your compass app, it will show the 0 degree prime meridian.
Also, if you hear the terms GMT (or UTC) it stands for Greenwich Mean Time. Before this standard is found, a lot of people use different standard to calculate the time and day. Could you imagine how chaotic it is if everyone in the earth have the exact same clock?
Greenwich is located at the bank of Thames River and the royal observatory is located on the top of the hill. Long time ago, the sailors wait for the sign from the observatory before they went sailing
You’ll need to pay 10GBP to go inside the royal observatory, the park is free of charge. The royal observatory is not that big, but it’s really informative and if you want to learn more about how the meridian works, you should go inside.
Back to London
I spent half of my day in Greenwich before I went back to London. I planned to go to the Natural History Museum around Kensington. In this area you can find the science museum and Victoria&Albert Museum too. And you know what… all museums in London are free of charge.
Natural History Museum is a museum dedicated for natural history. You can find a lot of specimen inside from animals to natural phenomenon such as earthquake or eruption. The museum is quite big compared to science museum or V&A. I was there for 2 hours and I felt that it was not enough for me.
Before I show you what’s inside the museum, please take a look of what I see in the way to Kensington.
The photos I took during the night.. I think me and some coworker were having dinner somewhere around the area and we just happened to see that scenery.
I’ll post some more photo inside the British Museum on my next post. For now, please enjoy this whale skeleton that will welcome you when you go inside the museum.
Love the photos! (Way above my level, as always –; )
Anyway, the Prime Meridian (a.k.a. longitude 0)… as explained to me, it’s also the official dividing line between the Earth’s Eastern and Western Hemispheres. So you stand with one foot in the Eastern world, and one foot in the Western world. (I did that too, when I was little.) Kind of nifty. 🙂