From Pole to Pole

Sunday's trip to Greenwich was fantastic...strangely, the whole "standing in two hemispheres at once" bit may have actually been the least interesting part of the trip!  But I can say I've done it, so I suppose that's something.

The trip started off with a boarding the buses (from the left side--very strange!) outside Faraday at 10:30.  We then drove through the city of London with our very capable narrators pointing out all the sights. I apologize if the next few shots are blurry but this was from a bus window...I think I've improved, though!  These are some pretty arches with a Latin inscription that I should be able to translate...oh well.

 

Love love love the sky in this shot...This is the clock tower, NOT Big Ben as many of you are thinking.  Big Ben is actually only the name of the bell in the top of the clock tower.  Despite the ominous-looking sky, we escaped any downpour and had a beautiful trip.

 

This is a view of what is now a college with the Thames in the foreground.  However, these buildings used to be for royal use, with the small building in the very back being known as "the queen's pleasure house."  She was evidently very bored while her husband was off being kingly, so this is where she had her private resort complete with personal entertainers and attendants.  Interestingly (and tragically in my humble opinion) there are no kitchens in that building.

 

A speedboat towing two canoes on the Thames.  There are a lot of water activities on the river, from lunchtime cruises to paddleboating!  However, we chose to go under the river to get across it--there's a tunnel that runs under the Thames from London to Greenwich.

 

One of the side entrances to the Greenwich Market...I like it better in black and white because the outside was so peaceful compared to once you entered! There were vendors selling every time of craft and food...I bought some Portuguese food for lunch, and my friends managed to find Thai, Greek, and Indian cuisine as well.  For dessert, we treated ourselves to a gourmet ice cream stall...who knew banana poppy seed ice cream would be so delicious?

 

A view of London from across the river Thames...this is from the hill that the observation tower and Prime Meridian marker sit atop.  Greenwich Park, which includes the hill, is a huge green space that was the product of some strange politicking...its original role was to provide a cushion for the town to make it less vulnerable to attack!  Interestingly, this park did serve military use in modern history--the tops of some trees were lopped off so that the British anti-aircraft guns hidden in the park could clear the trees.  Unfortunately, photography was not allowed up in the observation tower.

I've had my first photo class and will be getting set assignments shortly, so hopefully you'll see some improvement in my photos!  I now have better software for editing, too, although my professor warned us that "Photoshopping a crap photo yields a crap photo."  I see his point.  

Thanks for reading!