The reason we visited Greenwich has to do with Greenwich Mean Time. Only 20 minutes from Central London, Greenwich is easy to reach by Docklands Light Railway, tube, rail, bus or riverboat. Greenwich is a cute village and seems like a million miles away from London, a great place to come on the weekend and browse the town. We walked through Greenwich Park. Here there were many people enjoying the weather,having picnics, reading and relaxing. We slowly walked up the to the observatory, which meant the path gradually inclined.
Greenwich Mean Time was named after this place because this is where the Prime Meridian was established. And since no one seems to know what that is, I will try to explain it. It was easy enough to measure the Earth from the equator, horizontally, but there was no easy way to measure the Earth vertically. So, one astronomer divided the Earth into lines vertically and since he was based in Greenwich, the starting point, became Greenwich. So, the Prime Meridian is not nearly as cool as the equator. It's just a man made line.
From the observatory there is a great view of London. The Royal Observatory was built in 1675 by Charles II to solve the problem of longitude. It was originally designed by Christopher Wren. In the octagonal room, astronomers studied the stars and planets. The observatory was very interesting, but it was a bit too scientific for me, too much information that I could not comprehend.
All in all Greenwich was a nice experience.
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