Day 20

Today we traveled to Greenwich to see the Royal Naval Observatory and the clock that sets the world time. We took a boat down the Thames river and saw a lot of London including City Hall (for the City of London which is a 1 square mile radius that is the original city with St. Paul's at it's center. It has it's own police force and government) and Canary Warf (where the ships used to come in, it's now luxury homes). The hike to the observatory was probably one of the hardest climbs I've ever done. It's not a very long walk but about half way up the hill goes practically vertical. I literally thought my legs were going to give out by the time we reached the top. At the top you can see the worlds largest telescope, exhibits on Naval clocks, telescopes, astronomy and maritime equipment, and stand on the prime meridian. So today I stood in two hemispheres at once, it was pretty cool. You also get a good view out over the city and of where the Olympics will take place in two years (two years from today actually).
This evening we went on the Jack the Ripper Walk. Probably one of my most anticipated events of the trip. It didn't disappoint. We walked through the City of London, down old streets and alleys to follow the Jack the Ripper story. We saw the crime scenes where his five victims were found and attempted to follow in his footsteps from 1888. It was a lot of fun, and the ripperologist was a great speaker.

City Hall, there is another egg shaped building by the same architect in London, and these are very controversial buildings with the Londoners

Greenwich!

Heading to the Prime Meridian

World's clock. In the building behind are a lot of old telescopes

Standing in both the east and west hemispheres

A cool old telescope and star charts

Looking out off the hill

The city

The four towers sticking up on the right are at O2 stadium and where a lot of the Olympics will take place

The observatory

Largest telescope in the world

Astronomy building

The oldest rock I've ever touched, a 4.5 billion year old meteorite

The egg building by the same architect as City Hall, this one is an insurance company

The prostitutes church where Jack picked up one of his victims. The women used to circle the street around the church looking for customers

Apartments where a victim was found, the only additions are street lights and the roll top doors on the bottom floor.

The pub all the victims and Jack the Ripper frequented

The Ten Bells

Some interesting street art by a reformed criminal/ graffiti artist. The Prime Minister just brought the Obama's one of his pieces

A for Ashley

C for Caitlin

Random Funny photos from today

This boat eats trash, do you?

A funny sign.