Advertisement
Published: September 3rd 2007
As I settle in here, I realize that I do not need to rush through all the tourist-y things because I have plenty of time. I realized this after deciding to go to Westminster on Saturday afternoon to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Trafalgar Square. Now I realize that I chose Saturday afternoon. But. There were so may people that it was almost impossible to get down the street. Then the tube shut down, along with all of the streets around these sites. So I hung out on Westminster Bridge for an hour and a half and just people watched. The biggest question of the day was, "Will you take our picture?" And with the Thames flowing behind them, Big Ben on their left, I could hardly blame them for asking.
I decided to go back another day. It was hard to get the feel of the place. Never did figure out why transportation shut down.
Sunday I went to Greenwich. First I stopped by the Greenwich Market--a funky outdoor market (think Fremont Market in Seattle) with art, food, clothing, and anything else you could think of, for sale. The Maritime Museum was my next stop. What a
cool place! Lots of interactive exhibits about water, as well as fascinating facts about people who have emigrated by boat.
I climbed the hill past the Queen's House to the Royal Observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time. The Royal Observatory was comissioned by King Charles II in 1675. This is where you can stand astride the Prime Meridian of the World, Longitude 0 and be in the eastern and western hemishpere at the same time. There was a pretty long queue for that Kodak moment, and I know I will be back again, so I simply took a picture of it. Another interesing thing to watch is the red time ball on top of the Octagon Room. Everyday at 12:58pm, the red ball goes down. When it reaches the bottom, it is 1pm and you can accurately set your watch to it. (Mine was 32 seconds off).
I thought it was interesting, a whole museum devoted to time--time helped sailors figure out their directions so they wouldn't get lost (I learned all about that at the Maritime Museum). All across the world, we measure our lives in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, moons, adding up to the sum
of a life lived.
The last exhibit I passed on my way down to Greenwich Park was another interactive exhibit. On the wall, in large letters was printed,"When did time stand still for you?" Below were plastic covers mounted to the wall filled with cards from people all over the world, explaining when time stood still for them. Each one was a little different, some in English, Spanish, Japanese, French....Many of them were about love, travelling, families...I was transfixed.
And so I ask for your comments, "when did time stand still for you?" I would love to hear what you have to say. Thanks for reading!
Cheers!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.142s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0899s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Tiffany
non-member comment
Time Standing Still
I would have to say that time stood still at the birth of each of my kids. You leave your home with your life as it is, you head to the hospital where you go through this tremendous physical and emotional event, and then there you are with this new person in your arms, life changed forever. You sit there in the hospial in limbo waiting to get the ok to take your baby home and begin a whole new life. It is very much like time standing still. Well that's all I got (I haven't had my coffee yet so I'm not up to my game in the blogging department). Oh and btw - my guess as to why transportation stopped...they were doing a tribute memorial for the 10th annivrsary of the death of Princess Diana. Maybe you were in the vacinity of that event;0)