We went to Greenwich village which is a short train ride away. We waited outside what I thought was where the ball dropped. With 8 minutes to spare I realised I had the wrong place. Quick panic and we found the right spot. We waited and... nothing happened. Anti-climatic! Apparently the ball is broken at the moment, disappointing.
We did stand on both sides of the Prime Median at once.
We walked through the Greenwich Park, part of which is being developed for the equistrian events of the 2012 Olympics. At Greenwich is a series of beautiful old buildings that have now been taken over as the University of Greenwich and College of Music. There is also the National Marine Museum but unfortunately Nelson's uniform that he was wearing when he was injured was off for conservation work - unlucky!
We also saw the Painted Hall which is a massive dinning hall that is painted (love British names) even the columns. There's a panoramic view of it down below.We then walked through the foottunnel under the Thames - now we've walked over and under it!
Can you explain what the ball drop thing means please ?????
ReplyDeleteEvery day at 1255 a red ball on the observatory rises to the top of a spike. At 1300 it drops back down. It was set up so sailors and ships on the Thames at the time knew exactly what time it was. This was before extremely accurate (ie only lost a minute per 100 days) timekeeping existed. Especially since many clocks depended on pendulums and bearings, which the movement of a ship completely threw off (and ships had to know the time to accurately pin point theirocation). Yeah, I'm gathering TONNES of useless facts, now I can bore people even easier lol.
ReplyDeleteI had a vague idea about it but this defintely gets my head around it. Thanks.
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