Our main mission today was visit to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich where the prime meridian is located. That’s where the earth is divided into east and west but it is an arbitrarily chosen line of longitude.

We took the tube from High Street Kensington, which by now we were used to, and disembarked at Westminster to go to Westminster Pier using a Uber Boat. As we arrived at the pier we were ushered (hurried) down to the Uber Boat that was heading to Greenwich. We found two seats at the front and three more people got on the we were off. The two men who docked and undocked the boat and put the gangway down were pros at their job. As we came close to a pier they took huge white ropes and flung them to large cleats, and never missed.

The first place we came to in Greenwich was the Old Royal Naval College. Then we had a hike through town and then walked up a steep hill to the Royal Observatory. The climb was similar to the hike up the Royal Mile.

We toured the Observatory learning that it was necessary to figure out longitude. Evidently naval folks realized this was necessary to avoid ship tragedies especially after 2,000 sailors were lost at sea in one incident.

Inn 1714 the British Parliament offered a prize of 20,000 pounds (equivalent to $4 million today) to anyone who could solve this problem. It was called the Longitude Law.

John Harrison, a British citizen, a carpenter and clockmaker, invented the marine chronometer which solved the problem of how to calculate longitude at sea. This increased the safety of sea travel over long distance. It took him most of his life and never received the full prize.

We never realized how important time was until reading that many years ago individual towns and villages kept their own time so there was no consistency anywhere in the world. Once longitude was figured out and there were 24 longitude lines it was easier to keep time.

After taking a picture with one foot in the western hemisphere and one in the eastern, we walked back down to the town of Greenwich and noticed a pub called the Spanish Galleon that offered Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding. This was another English dish I wanted to try.

Yorkshire pudding is made with eggs, flour and milk and is like a pastry. The meal consisted of roast beef, gravy, potatoes, carrots, endive, cauliflower with cheese and water. We sat for several minutes waiting to be served then realized we had to go to the bar to place our order.

In order to try a different means of transportation we took the DLR back to London Bridge. It is basically an overland tube. After getting to London Bridge we had some time before our reservations at The View at The Shard to we walked the Queens Walk along the Thames, ate some ice cream and had a cup of tea in Costa in a mall like area.

The View from The Shard is 68 stories and then 72 stories looking over London. It is the tallest view in London. It was an excellent view of the airplanes heading into Heathrow. We walked around both stories then headed back to the hotel.

There was a light rain falling which we had experienced every day with temperatures in the mid to upper 50s. There always seemed to be a little wind which made our coats necessary. Saturday, while we were outside so much, we actually saw sunshine although the temperature remained cool. That day we walked over 20,000 steps for about 9.5 miles and climbed 28 flights.

Yorkshire pudding is typically best found on Sundays, so we were told. We found some at the Spanish Galleon in Greenwich. Still don’t know why it’s called pudding because it certainly doesn’t look like pudding. In the bottom photo we took a selfie from The View from The Shard with the London Tower Bridge way down below.