Imagine 0°00'00"

11-29-2008

Today I took on London all on by my lonesome. It was quite liberating as I went where I wanted, took all the time that I wanted, and didn't really have to compromise with a group. This day was about me and Greenwich.

This entire trip I've had a collection of 50 cards called London City Walks. Sadly, I have yet to use any of them until today. I wish I would have started using these little blue cards sooner. On one side is a walking map of a small section of London. The other side has written directions which include historical, entertaining, and interesting information. Today I used my Greenwich card.

What's the cliche saying? The journey is the reward? That definitely applies to this Greenwhich journey because it was a chore getting out there with the tube lines down over the weekend: Bakerloo line to Waterloo Station, change to Jubilee line, take that to Canary Warf (where I was stopped by a TfL agent and randomly asked to present my oyster), then change and take the DLR (dockside light rail) to Greenwhich.

But totally worth the journey. The walk started at the Royal Naval Academy. Now chances are that without the little blue London City Walk card, but I would have never known about the Painted Hall.

This massive banquet hall is in the middle of the Naval Academy and hosts all their huge ceremonial functions and dinners. As impressive as the bulbed candles are, the real beauty, as you might have guessed, is in the walls and ceilings of which every centimeter is covered in ornately painted scenes and decorations.

Even the fireplace, which looked ornately carved, was in fact not ornately carved, rather painted to look ornately carved.

It was quite a sight, tucked away in the Naval Academy.

Across the way from the painted hall was the Naval Academy's chapel, which was worth the walk over to take a look, but not worth enough to post a picture of it here. As far as chapels go, I've had better. But they did have some amazingly clean and modern toilets. So there's a plus.

The real excitement in this area of London is the Prime Meridian, where the line of longitude is at 0°, completely zeroed out. Here I am straddling two different time zones. My watch and my head was spinning as I stood with absolute zero between my legs. It was a thrill. The Prime Meridian and the opposite 180th meridian (at 180° longitude)in which the International Date Line generally follows. The circle these two lines create divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

This line, which unlike natural lines of latitude defined by the rotational axis of the earth, is arbitrarily created by humans for navigational purposes. The most famous man made concept also originates from Greenwich, specifically from the Royal Observatory: time. From here we all sync our watches and where for close to a century, time was sold by the Bellville family, specifically a woman named Ruth Bellville. Taking after her mother, Ruth walked up and down the streets of London giving local shop owners the correct time, as she got access to the observatory through her father and got the correct time there. I learned all about her when a lovely actress dressed in period clothing gave a 30 minute talk about her life.

The Royal Observatory also houses the world's first public time keeping device. Ships docked along the Thames would look up the hill to see this massive red ball sitting like a tumor on top of a weather vain. At half noon, the ball falls to the polls midway point, and when the clock strikes 1:00pm, the ball drops all the way down. This allowed the sailors to adjust their clocks accordingly and set sail on time. The ball still very much functions today. I just so happen to be at the Royal Observatory at the exact time the ball slides down that skinny shaft.

The rest of my Greenwich day was much more exciting than a droopy red ball. After the ball dropping and the talk from pseudo Ruth Bellville, I chilled out in the observatory learning from an interactive panel (like in the movie Minority Report) about black holes, black matter, solar systems, and all things space-age. I went to a planetarium show about Mars Invaders. Sounds like a kids sci-fi, but the invaders in this brilliant piece of cinema were human beings, and the entire film was about our exploration of Mars, past and future. 

Once I knew all I ever needed to about Mars, I walked a cold walk down from the observatory to the National Maritime Museum, where I soaked in (pun intended) all sorts of boat and sea knowledge. Beside the Seaside pleased me the most of all the exhibits. It was more art than educational, but if one looked close enough, you could learn a great deal. The exhibit was a series of black and white photos taken from the 1820's to about the turn of the century. Each scene depicted a different aspect of life for those living seaside. 

From the Maritime Museum, I found my way to the Greenwich market, where I indulged in a rainy Nutella crepe and an oriental chicken wrap, in that order. This market was probably one of the better as it was mostly homemade-craft based. Super cool artisans selling not just trinkets to clutter your home, but practical things like puppets and wooden ties.... well there were some practical things there, like the food. I got a bag of spiced cashews from a vendor that had barrel after barrel of deliciously seasoned nuts.

Once the market started to repeat itself, since I was walking in circles, I decided it was time to head over to the West End and take in a show. To get back, however, I took a walk under the Thames via the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, yet another find thanks to those little blue cards. Had to be careful in here though as there were a lot of regulations, including:

• NO cycling
• NO busking
• NO littering
• NO loitering
• NO skateboarding
• NO skating 
• NO spitting
• NO animal fouling

I think a more efficient sign would simply say: Walking Only

After a few tube rides, I was in the West End contemplating what ticket I want to try getting last minute. As I was walking down Tottenham Court Road, I was randomly grabbed by Jenny and Cody as they were on their way to the musical Imagine This. This musical is about a family of Jewish actors during the Holocaust. And of coarse, there's a romantic fling thrown in there as well because as we all know, every story is a love story. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be the most moving show I've seen in London. A rather innovative story. Plus, sitting in £60 seats when you only paid for the £10 seats is bound to make anyone happy. 

Quick backtrack, we had some time between purchasing our tickets and the show starting so we wandered and found Cucumber Alley, a pleasant little covered shopping alley with this light scheme. Lovely, yes?