Oct 22 - A walkabout and 3 Museums

 Busy day today.  The walkabout was Central London around Covent Gardens and down to the Thames; the 3 museums were the London Transport Museum (LTM), The Royal Observatory and the National Maritime Museum.  And then I got lost - but it wasn't my fault!  That's at the end of the blog.

So, here goes.  I get off the Tube at Covent Gardens, the closest stop to the LTM.  I'm early so I just trip around gawking at buildings and other sights,

Walkabout:  I enter the Cobent Garden Market.  It hasn't really got going yet.

Arrgh - the Christmas decorations are up!  I think the stalls in this aisle are for small, individual vendors.  

The next main aisle has regular shops

On Catherine Street I come across Jamie Oliver's Restaurant!  Pretty pricey, menu items are 50 - 100% more than in the area I am staying in.  Fish & Chips will set you back 25 GBP.

There seem to be a lot of theaters and playhouses around.  Here are two.

Further along is a building with a plaqe indicating Marconi broadcasted from that building

The gates to one of London College's newer buildings; and below that one of the older buildings.  Nothing rubbed off on me as I walked by.

Down at the Thames there are lots of working boats at the pier.  On the far bank (upper left in the photo) you can see that it is low tide on the Thames.  Swimming in the brown water, anyone?

Time for my first museum - I scoot back to the LTM

The museum has a large a collection of public transport vehicles since the early 1800's.  A few examples:

Stephensen Horse Tram (on rails), 1882

Early gas driven, circa 1908

Early above ground (Metropolitan Railway)

Underground Steam driven.  Dealing with steam underground had issues.

One of the very early underground electric locomotives

A peek inside 

All of the uninsulated equipment was scary

Double deckers over the years

Notice the herd of ankle-biters.  This is a very popular museum for children and there were lots of them.  Lots of games and interactive displays.

I'll leave the Transport Museum - I did sign-up for one 'adult' interactive activity:  'an exploration of dissused Underground stations and secret sites.'  I am to meet near the Holborn station tomorrow morning.

To get to my next museum, The Royal Observatory (RO),  I had to take the DLR Line, part underground and part overhead which took me to the south side of the Thames.  The nearest stop to the RO was Greenwich, but it is under modification for  few months, so we went to the next station.

The overhead parts of the trip were very interesting as you are weaving back and forth through the buildings.  I am near the front of the train.

Look Mom, no driver!  He got up, put the cover down over the controls 

and went back in the train checking tickets.  The train kept going, stopping at stations along the route.  The driver returned To take the train manually past Greenwich.

ROYAL OBSERVATORY

The walk to the RO was longer due to the shut down Greenwich Station, but it was a pleasant day and I got to walk through parts of Greenwich Unversity. 

Looking up the open space in front of the RO, which is at the top right.

And the view from the top.  (I took a 30 second panoramic video, but 

Blogspot choked trying to load the 66 megabyte file)

A view of part of the Flamsteed House, the original observatory.   Before radios and accurate marine clocks, the ball would drop down the pole to signal to ships in the harbour that it was exactly 1 o'clock.

At the top is the Octagon room, where the observing took place.

The RO was founded in 1675 and one of it's main purposes was to accurately chart the stars and to develop accurate timekeeping to enable ships to determine their longitude.

The second model of the clocks of John Harrison, who won the prize 

for developing accurate timekeepers (chronometers).

The astronomers at the RO developed accurate star charts through careful observing of the movements of celestial bodies.  Determining the position of the Prime Meridian was a part of this problem.

The other main building on the hill was the Meridian Observatory

This is a Quadrant, used to measure the position angle of the moon and stars (sorry about the bad picture).  This is in the position of where Halley determined the Meridian to be

Bradley's Transit instrument, for measuring the Meridan, which 

improved on Halley's measurements.

And this is Airy's instrument, which again improved the position.

The biggest instrument is the Great Equatorial Telescope, sitting in the dome of the Meridian Observatory building.

This instrument was installed in1893.  It's main lense is 28 inches in diameter and replaced one with a 12.8 inch lense.  It was in use until 1947.

The term 'Equatoriial' refers to the mount, which is designed to follow the motion of the earth's equator by turning on a plane parallel to the earth's equator.

That's a short tour inside the building.

Outside here is me with a selfie, standing over the brass strip marking Airy's Prime Meridian.

You would think that the GPS in my phone would read a longitude of 0.0 degrees.  But it doesn't, it reads -0.001501 degrees, about 100 meters west of 0.0.  

Why? That is tonight's science question for you.  If you really must know why, I can explain it to you at a break between Tai Chi sets  😊

That's it for the Royal Observatory.  I have tons more pictures, but I won't bore you with them.

NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM

The National Maritime Museum is a short walk at the bottom of Observatory Hill.   It's free and not very busy by the time I get there.

One bump in the road - my camera is almost out of juice.  Too many photos & GPS checks, so I switch to a camera that I bring for exactly this problem.

A few interesting items as I head in:

Royal barge for Frederick, the Prince of Wales, son of  George II

Various figureheads on the wall nearby

Binnacle from the wreck of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior

Stern decoration from the Implacable, 1805

(Before you proceed, guess when it was taken out of service)

I hope you can read this description - it is very interesting

Upstairs now, and one of the first displays talks about the Arctic Expeditions as well as the search for the Erebus, Terror, and Franklin's crew.   There is underwater video of Parks Canada divers finding the wrecks.  

There is poor lighting in these galleries and they frown on flash photography, so I apologize for the pictures.  My phone is charging!

Other exhibits include Parry's expeditions to the Arctic, Polar Winds (life in the Arctic, with soundscape by Tanya Tagaq), and Scott's and Shackleton's expeditions to the south Pole.

Maritime Wars have a lot of attention paid to them.

August, 1588 battle against the Spanish fleet

There is an exhibit about the exploits of Admiral Horatio Nelson

HMS Victory, his flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, 100 guns

A bit about his tactics.  There were interesting animations

 in the exhibit about his battles 

Unfortunately, he was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar.  Part of his funeral procession

I had to leave the museum shortly after this.  There was lots more about the British Navy in this gallery, and later history in the following galleries.  Needs another trip.

My 'adventure' (groan) on the way back to Cartwright Gardens:  Remember two things I said earlier - Greenwich station was closed and my phone/GPS was low on battery.  I wandered back a ways, and then caught a bus so I could ask the driver where I could catch the DLR railway.  He dropped me off a block away from the (closed) Greenwich station and pointed in that direction.  Thanks!

I walked to the Thames and remembered I had been here before on my cycle ride.  Here's a photo of the Cutty Sark.

The other thing I remembered is that there is a walking tunnel under the Thames here.

Here's the entrance to the tunnel (full disclosure - the photo is from my 2018 trip)

The tunnel itself is boring - a semi-circulaar tunnel with dirty white porcelain tiles.

I popped through the tunnel to the station on the other side and got back nicely to the flat (for a well deserved beer)

That's it for Oct 22.  Happy Birthday to my sister - the National Gallery card I sent her made it in  time!

I just re-read this page and corrected (most, I hope) of the spelling errors.  My typing is terrible when I'm tired.

Oct. 23 - A tour underground of the disused parts of the Underground.  I have a charged phone,  and a flashlight