London: Day 19 (May 31, 2012)

We set out for Greenwich this morning.  It is quite a lovely place.  Greenwhich is where Henry VIII was born.  It was somewhat of a holiday spot for royalty then.  Now it is sort of a Maritime Monument.  The Old Royal Navy academy is there:

 as well as a restored tea clipper that brought tea from China in the 19th century.

  There is a building called the Queen's house, which is a house built for Queen Anne, she preferred Greenwich to London.  It is an art gallery now.  I think this is one of the first ever free standing spiral staircases.  Apparently it kind of freaked people out and they were afraid to use it because they didn't understand how it holds itself up.

And there is the Old Royal Observatory where a lot of charting of stars and work for navigation was done.  It is also where the Greenwich clock is which is the clock that all time around the world is based on.  There is the red clock dome which drops every day at 1PM.  I actually saw it drop today at 1PM Greenwich time.

And last but not least the Prime Meridian runs right though the observatory at Greenwich.  I stood in the western hemisphere and the eastern hemisphere at the same time.

Oh, and just as an aside, some the Olympic events will take place in the park at Greenwich, like the equestrian events.  Here is a picture of the arena in progress.  It is not finished yet.  It is essentially in the back yard of the Queen's House which is that white building in the back and center of the arena.