It's summer, which pretty much means another trip to Europe!  I stopped in London for a few days to see some friends -- and not do any research for a change!  London was great -- I stayed with a friend in London who went on the road trip to Ypres and the trip to Oslo in '06 with me.  We had no set plans, only to go around London and take pictures from places where one of our favorite shows is filmed (MI-5 in the US, Spooks in the UK).  It was a random yet fun way to go around the city.  We went to Freemason's Hall (which is used as Thames House in the show), but then we went to the real Thames House -- which has real security pods to enter the building!!   Sadly, we didn't see any real spies enter the building.  We also walked around University College London, Borough Market (a more modern version of Central Market in Lancaster), and Coventry Gardens (who doesn't love a good tea shop?).  My friend also has a friend that works for a Welsh MP, so he took us around Parliament.  Although we didn't get to see either House in session (although that seems rather boring), we did get to have a quick drink in one of the Labour pubs inside Parliament.  Apparently we passed a few MPs along the way, since we were in areas not usually shown on public tours, but I have no clue who we saw.  No one terribly important, I think. 
    Then we went down to Greenwich, which was really pretty.  The old Naval College is there (which is now the Trinity College of Music).  The Queen's House holds maritime artwork and one of the buildings is the Maritime Museum.  Both museums are free, although we only walked around the Queen's House.  The Maritime Museum appears quite kid-friendly and interactive.  As we walked up to the Queen's House I commented how it looked a bit like the house in the recent version of Sense and Sensability.....  and inside was a sign listing some of the recent productions filmed on the property -- and I was right!  All those Sunday nights watching the Complete Jane Austen on Masterpiece Theater have clearly paid off.  Behind the grounds of the Queen's House is a huge hill and the Royal Observatory.  We walked up the enormous hill to the Royal Observatory where we stood on both sides of the Greenwich Mean Time line.  It's amazing to see how many people go take pictures of themselves standing on a line.  We of course did the same.  We walked around the observatory (which is also free) and saw lots of old atronomical tools.  We then took the ferry back to the center of London (Embankment Pier).  The ferry takes about as long as the tube/DLR, but it is well worth it for the great views of the city and some of the famous sights -- the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, and HMS Belfast.

Phil had the idea of taking a boat down the Thames and getting off at Greenwich, to see the sites there.  I had never even thought of doing such a thing, it was a great idea.  So, we walked from the hostel just a couple minutes to a boat dock, and caught a ferry to Greenwich.  On the way we got to see lots of neat sites, like an obelisk from Egypt (after having been in Egypt, it's cool to know where these came from and how much it means that they were given away), Shakepeare's Globe Theatre, the Cutty Sark (famous clipper), and to go under the Tower Bridge.

One of the boat operators actually took the time to tell us about these sites and point out some that we would otherwise have missed.  That made the boat ride that much nicer.  We jumped off the boat at Greenwich and took a walk through the town.  We made our way up to the observatory where famous people like sir Edmond Halley did a lot of his stargazing.  Astronomy has always fascenated me...just something about the fact that God made all those stars just for us to look at.

Of course, also at Greenwich is the Prime Meridian.  Although I'd crossed over it a few times already on this trip, I still acted like it was the coolest thing to cross over.  Phil graciously took some pictures of me looking like a moron.  We also got some shots of the Queen's Palace here and checked out some of the parks.

I decided that it was time to straddle the East and Western hemisphere at the same time.  Off to Greenwich I headed.  The town center there was very alive and again, good shopping, yikes!  But it was sunny out (still cold) and the walk in the park up to the Observatory was really nice.  So here we are (Flirt and I) on the Prime Meridian.

You can spend several days here if you want to see everything in this part of southwest london. I arrived pretty early at 12AM and only had 5hours untill everything closed. Thinking about comming back some other time , but im not sure since my stay here in london is comming to an end. But since the admission is free is nothing wrong with just taking the DLR out the greenwich again.

Going here is a Must see if you are in london. If you only have 2days in London walking from Westminister to Towerhill and visiting greenwich is not a bad choice among all the things London has to offer.

Its also not so easy to get around in London during weekends as they often are doing alot of maintenance on the Underground. It where almost total chaos since parts of the network where "offline during maintenance".. But using 5-10times as long as normal it certainly wasnt the fastest way to travel. The underground tickets ARE valid on Buses when this happen so just take the bus instead. Its probably faster.

Back at the Hostel (Globetrotter inns) there are some dutch people always trying to start problems with everybody. Yesterday me and edvar, a guy i met i the hallway and after talking english he asked me straight out "Are you Norwegian".. And after that we have spent a day togheter just drinking and seeing the sights.. But over to these dutch people again, they want to get in a fight with me and edvar and everytime we are walking some place these people are blocking the doors and starting to threatn us. They even followed me to the toilet and would let me leave.. Probably to threaten me or something. Luckily there where someone else who had to go to the toilet so i just escaped.. These guys are f...... shitheads and are just making trouble for everyone. Its sad that such a great hostel is bothered by someone like this.

Aunque ya conociamos Greenwich, nos hace ilusion visitarlo. Ademas es tan comodo en el metro que no hay problema. Hay que hacer trasbordo en la zona nueva donde esta el edificio mas alto de Londres, creo recordar, el Canary Wharf, el que acaba en pico. En Greenwich si uno deja suelta la imaginacion se llega a vivir el pasado marinero grandioso que vivio Inglaterra. Visitando el museo marítimo, los barcos. Y visita obligada es el famoso observatorio, donde pasa el meridiano ese que tanto nombran, el de Greenwich, por supuesto. Esta encima de una pequeña colina, en un parque muy tranquilo, asi que el paseo vale la pena. Desde alli se ve a lo lejos Londres, con sus ruidos, sus edificios, pero aqui estamos en el siglo 19, o casi.

This is the place where the prime meridian is located. Here you can stand with one foot on the western side of the world and the other on the eastern side of the world. The exhibition is free(!) so you dont need a ticket. There is alot of stories about seaman who lost their life at sea beacause there where no way to find your accurate possision. Thats all change when a clockmaker from London managed to make an clock that was accurate enough to find the time of day.. If you know the time of day and measure the posision of the sun then you can pinpoint you posision.. Do you want to know things about clocks this is the place. And much about learning the very basic means of navigating before new electronic instruments made these old instruments obosolete. For engineers and mariners this is a paradise. You can see how all of the old clocks are built up and get history of the times with less reliable clocks and watches. PS: They also have a telescope where you can see pluto! This is a must see when you visit the Observatory

National Maritime Museum. The Gem of Greenwich. England has long traditions of being a seafaring nation and its all documented in The national Maritime Museum. The admission is free(!!!) and the exhibition is great. Its divided into several different parts and if you dont have so much time i would rush trough the first floor and up to the 2.nd and 3.rd floor. Some miniatures of ship are upto 5metres with an incredible amount of detail.. I where actually making a splice on one of the ropes inside ,and i guard came up to me and asked me what i was doing.. I said: Im just making a splice to this rope to make it look better. The guard (who obvious) where and old seaman started to laugh and mumbleing something about prides of work.. The best of all: The admission is free (i hope you got it the 3.rd time), but i made a fair donation.