Blogs from Greenwich, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 3

We went to Ranger's House, Blackheath, which is managed by English Heritage and is home to an extraordinary wealth of medieval, Renaissance, and later works of art collection on 8 August 09. Upon arrival, we showed our membership cards, and entered the exhibition rooms. We firstly read the panels of Julius Wernher's biography. We understood that Julius Wernher was born in Germany , and the opportunity to work with Charles Mege in South Africa changed his life. With great success of dealing with raw diamonds, he gained an incredible amount of fortune. There were displays of a Louis XV mechanical travelling cabinet which he received as a Christmas present in 1874, and it made him begin collecting beautiful crafted of art. There was a huge array of antique jewellery, ivories, enamels, medieval art collection, e.g. ... read more

Today was a really restful day in Aberdeen, had to pack all my bags for the journey to London today at 2.oopm. Becc & I went to the gym yesterday again, could so get used to going to this gym. Its been great to still be able to work out & holiday at the same time. Had to check all the footy scores both AFL & Barossa League......not so good about the Bombers but the Pies are going great guns. Packed both my suitcases & they are very heavy, will hate to see what they weigh at the end of my trip. Caught the 2.00pm flight from Aberdeen to London, went to the British Airways lounge for refreshments. Saw Matthew Fox the actor from Lost & he is just as good looking if not better in ... read more

Took the Docklands Light Rail to the National Maritime Museum to see British Naval and Maritime history enroute to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. It's a good museum that's kid friendly. In fact, there were several school groups there. The museum shows the importance that accurate time measurement played in the history of navigation. Latitudes could be determined from a Sextant and the stars. But, longitudes had to be created with the standardization of time to make East-West travel a practical reality. Does this mean no clocks meant no colonization? What if the Luddites had busted clocks instead of weaving machines? Just more random thoughts. History is never that simple is it? The Chinese first invented the clock, the compass and navigated in large fleets to Western Africa. No raping, pillaging or colonization. Well, there were ... read more

Henry's Beatles Adventure at the O2 4000 school children from across the country came together to sing at a performance to mark the life of the Beatles and raise money for charity "Voices for a Better World". After months of practicing Henry and c30 of his Slade schoolmates joined the fun at the O2 Arena in London. Itinery - Left school at 11AM for O2 Arena on coach - Had lunch outside the arena - Perfomance practice with everyone for a few hours - Had supper - 6.30 warm including a new world record for the most people attending a music lesson. - 7.30 performance started - 10.45 collected from concourse by mummy and daddy "It was really fun to sing with so many other people. I liked the fact that it was really loud ... read more

Day 1. Just a short boring note to let you all know we've made it safely to London and the weather is great! A damp day in Moncton, with a forecast of rain through the week and into the weekend. Fog as thick as pea soup through the Cobequid pass, but it clears soon enough and traffic on a Tuesday night is light so we make great time. Once in Halifax, Curtis makes friends with airport security, see pic of the special attention he received. :P We take off at midnight on time. This had to be the biggest non military plane I’ve even flown on (although a Herc may just beat it). I sat up near the front and Curtis is actually standing by his seat near the back in this pic. We arrive in ... read more