England - Two Days in London, Part 2

Sunday, 12 May 2019

We started our second day in London by taking a river boat to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Our "Oyster cards" (transit passes) also covered this transportation.

While waiting for our boat, we noticed that the modern building on the left had people on the top.

A closer look showed four men rappelling down the skyscraper. No idea whether this is "recreation" or work.

The Tower of London.

Tower Bridge

An old warehouse, now converted to apartments, kept its old loading crane.

Our destination: the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the Prime Meridian. For technical reasons, the official Prime Meridian doesn't line up with the GPS prime meridian -- they differ by about 300 feet.

The courtyard of the Observatory offers a panoramic view of London.

The new skyscrapers of the Canary Wharf area rise behind the National Maritime Museum and the Old Royal Navy College.

A small building at the side of the Observatory contains a "camera obscura" ("dark room") that projects a live view of the buildings below through a pinhole down to a flat table in the room. Once your eyes adjust, it's amazing to see the detail -- cars and people moving in what at first glance seems to be a static scene.

At the top of the observatory is a red "Time Ball" that has been synchronizing clocks throughout London since 1833.

At 12:55 PM, it rises half-way up the post (left). At 12:58 it rises to the top (right).

And at exactly 1:00 PM it drops and returns to its bottom position.

To finish the day we returned to St. Paul's to attend the Evensong service, followed by an organ recital. We were inspired by the cathedral ambience, but the muddied acoustics (about a 10 second reverb!) made it difficult to follow spoken word and music.