Remember that school yard game of our youth? I never got to be Mr. Wolf – perhaps because I was too fast to be caught, or maybe because the idea of eating little children did not appeal to me. Either way, I wish I had remembered to play it the other day while visiting
the place where time begins
Any idea what I might be referring to? It’s rather a whimsical idea, isn’t it? Are you imagining an Alice-like world filled with floating clocks and tipsy-turvy tea cups? There were several clocks – some telescopes too – but I was in no storybook. On Sunday I went to Greenwich to check out, amongst other things, the Prime Meridian.
Here I stand in the in-between. One foot in the Eastern Hemisphere, one in the West.
The photo at the top of this entry shows the hill we climbed and the building in which this start-point is situated. It is called the Royal Observatory, and the red ball at the top of the building is called the Time Ball. It is one of the world’s earliest public time signals and falls every day at 1300h.
The PM is located in Greenwich Park, where we found yet another hill to climb, this one entitled ‘One Tree Hill.’ This is me being one tree on that hill.
Just outside the park is a slew of museums and sites to visit. This is the Queen’s House – once belonging to Queen Anne of Denmark (wife of King James I). We weren’t able to go inside due to a Pirate Party (seriously), but Luke and I took photographs outside to make up for that fact (and I later learned that photos are not permitted within the building). This is me practicing my Princess skills.
This lovely place is called The Painted Hall. It took 19 years for the artist 19 years to complete it and it can be rented out as a venue for banquets.
We rounded off our day with a visit to the local mexican restaurant. Here I ponder how very short-lived my vegetarian attempt happened to be.
