Located at the prime meridian (0 degrees longitude), this observatory is famous as the point from which all time and distances on earth are measured.
It’s quite the climb from the water. We paused to take the picture above from just outside the main gate. We can see the London business center in the background. But we honestly just needed to catch our breath! 🙂
It was here that astronomers studied the heavens in order to help seafarers navigate.
In the process, they used the constancy of the stars to establish standards of measurement for time and distance used by the whole world.
Probably the most popular spot inside the observatory is the ability to straddle the Prime Meridian – which separates the Eastern and Western hemisphere.
I’m a pretty huge geek. Jackie… not so much. So I think this place made more of an impact on me than her. But it is historic… and important as well. And we got a good walk in getting up to the observatory and then back down to the DLR to get back to our home-away-from home area.
We also had some fun getting there… your’s truly got us off a couple of stops too early… which caused us to get a nice dose of the London bus system. It was fine… and the buses are fantastic. In fact, they helped get us comfortable… which was very helpful with what was just over the horizon for tomorrow… a tube strike that required us to utilize the buses for a day much more than we normally would have.