Nessie Straddling the Prime Meridian
It’s Saturday morning and we had a late start off to Greenwich. We had everything planned and things were running smoothly until we got near our destination. There we found out that the tube routes were changed because it was the weekend – and “improvements” are done on the weekend. We tried to figure out what to do but it was hard to understand the instructions we got – even though they were in English. Luckily we did understand the phrase “follow the herd” so we basically followed other people. We got off the tube and on to a free bus which ferried us to another tube station, there we got on again, and off at the next stop – for Greenwich!
The H1 by John Harrison
I’d been looking forward to Greenwich ever since we started planning this trip because even though it *is* where the prime meridian exists – it’s also the home of John Harrison’s H1, H2, H3 and H4 clocks. If you’ve never seen the movie or read the book Longitude (I’d recommend the book)! Great timepieces and a great story to go with them. Sadly, you’re not allowed to take pictures within the museum, but I have included a picture from the Internet here.
After the obligatory ”take your picture straddling the meridian” we headed for the open market in downtown Greenwich. It rained a bit as we walked, but not a big deal for us Washingtonians. The market was small and crammed with people. There were the mandatory stalls with jewelry, scarves and such – but the food area was great! There were food stalls for about every ethnic group you can think of: Indian, Thai, Japanese, Portuguese, Greek, Moroccan, Vegan (!), etc. I have to admit, we did not see any burger and fries stall! I bought an odd mixture of rice, saffron and cheese, smooshed together and shaped like a pear (really, a pear). Amber got a calzone-shaped thing filled with spinach, potato and cheese. Patrick dove into two orders of chicken goyza and then bought some spicy Caribbean curry. We all enjoyed the dessert stalls too!
Finally, even though it was a bit early, we headed back – having to reverse our route with the bus ride and all. We’re now back for our last night at our apartment. Tomorrow we pack up, get our rental car and head out on the road.
