The Centre of the World...

Monday, April 17. Cloudy, no rain!

Breakfast in a Pub! My gosh, what has become of us? 1/3 of the cost of in the hotel and basically the same food.

Then we walked the 1/4 mile maybe to the Thames where we boarded a River Bus to Greenwich for the day. The boat trip was great, it put me in synch a bit more about London, I have never ever been oriented correctly since my first trip in 1960. [Gad! That is 57 years ago, hell, many people do not live that long Doug, so stop complaining!]

Soon we were in Greenwich which is about 20 miles [?] south of London on the Thames of course. It is famous because every person in the world uses Greenwich-Mean-Time every day of their life whether they know it or not. The English divided the world into 360 degrees, which is a circle, or globe, which Planet Earth is, sort of. They drew a line heading to the South centred on Greenwich all the way around the world. They then eventually divided the circle into 24 zones, they are called Time Zones. 

As an aside, miles, Knots and nautical miles are all involved in this mix. Later!

It is too long a story to tell but that enabled sailors to know where they were around the world, providing they knew the time in Greenwich. That brings us to 'Time' and that is entirely another story about the invention of a clock that could keep time at sea in a rocking boat. The story goes on and on and on...

Thank heaven there are people that are seriously interested in this stuff. Speaking of uninteresting stuff, I am sorry about our long tale of ancestors the other day but I had to write it whether you are interested or not.

We spent an interesting day at Greenwich and made our way back to the hotel, Fellette and I only motivated by the fact that we were going to pack our bags tomorrow morning and say goodbye to suitcase-living for a while.

Our car comes for us at 5:30 tomorrow morning and we three are off to Amsterdam, connecting to a big blue and white airplane for a KLM flight to Vancouver. We are looking forward to that, regardless of the rain. I say we, I cannot speak for Craig, who has been an absolute Prince to travel with!

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Craig here... thought I'd get my 2-bits in here before the trip is over! I've been thinking about going to Vimy for at least 20 years now, and the 100th anniversary was the perfect time to go. Being here with my Mom and Dad has made the trip even more special, and the fact that we were able to tread the same ground that The Seaforth's did 100 years ago with both former and serving members of the regiment was truly a privilege that I will never forget. The England leg of the trip has been a blast too. I've always loved London, and feel very at home here. Heading up to Northampton and The Bramptons to see the village where Dad's side of the family lived for the better part of 200 years was a great bonus. We'll need to make a return trip in the future to explore Mom's side of the family in Norfolk!

The Red Lion Pub, just up the street from #10 Downing Street... best breakfast of the trip!

A view of or hotel from the river on the way to Greenwich.

Passing The Tower of London.

At Greenwich Pier in 35 minutes... great way to travel!

The Cutty Sark was our first stop of the day.

You would not believe the amount of rope needed to rig this ship!

On deck.

The Royal Observatory at Greenwich... when the ball drops the time will be EXACTLY 1:00 GMT.

Sailors have set their watches to this for 200 years.

I wonder if anyone else has ever thought of taking pictures like this at the Meridian Line???

Our next stop is The Maritime Museum. Waaaay down the hill by the river.

Too good not to get a picture.

Much to see in the museum.

A fun fair at the dock-side for the Easter Bank Holiday.

Returning to home base... Westminster Pier, next to the Parliament Buildings.

Victoria Embankment Gardens outside our hotel.