Greenwich

On Tuesday, Mom took a day trip to Paris.  She booked a group tour before we left that traveled on the Eurostar high-speed train through the English Channel straight to Paris.  We dropped her off at the St. Pancras rail station at 5:30am (yikes!).  Since we had the day to ourselves, Mona and I decided we'd take a day trip to Greenwich.

On either side of the Prime Meridian

Greenwich is home to the Royal Observatory and marks the Prime Meridian separating the Eastern and Western hemispheres and the basis for which all time zones are calculated.  The term Greenwich Mean Time refers to the time in Greenwich and is a single reference point by which everyone can calculate the correct time.  It's an absolute time that doesn't change with the seasons like when we change the clocks for daylight savings time.  The observatory sits on a hill overlooking the town and we hiked up the hill so we could each stand in a different hemisphere at the same time.

Giant Ship in a Bottle at the National Maritime Museum

Greenwich is a historic seaport on the River Thames just south of London, and is home to the tall masted ship Cutty Sark as well as the Old Royal Naval College.  No longer a Naval College, it's now the site of the University of Greenwich.  It's also the home of the National Maritime Museum.  We visited all of these as well as walked through the town and strolled along the river.  Greenwich is an easy day trip as it's

Cutty Sark

connected to the Tube system via the Docklands Light Rail (DLR).  Our week's travel card included riding the DLR so it made for a fun day without adding any extra expense.