By Land or By Sea: St. Paul’s Cathedral/Greenwich/Victoria Astor

From the Tower of London we headed over to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral is one of London's most famous and most recognizable sights. At 365 feet high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world, St Peter's Basilica in Rome being higher.

This Cathedral is where many of the Royal Families events take place since it seats more people than Westminster Abbey.

It is where Charles and Dianna were married.

From St. Paul’s we went to the Cannon train station to catch a local train to Greenwich to visit the Prime Meridian.

It was at this train station we heard that Obama had won the noble peace prize – to which we both ask why? What did he do? We then noticed it was on the front page of all the newspapers. Crazy we thought. We got on train for the 25 minute ride and continued talking. Across from us a guy sat, in the seats facing us, reading a newspaper and intently listening to our conversation. I was very amused at how he didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was ease dropping on us talk about U.S. politics. I also noticed that several pages of the paper he was reading covered Obama and the peace prize – there were significantly more articles about this in the London paper than any typical paper in the U.S.

When we arrived in Greenwich we were not sure where we had to go. The map of London we had did not cover this area and what I had read online made it sound like the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the home of the Prime Meridian, was very easy to find from the train station. We did not find it quiet as easy to find as we were lead to believe. I even think I had to ask to directions. Looking back now, we did walk further then we needed to, but the way we took brought us past this….

What on earth is a Humped Pelican and why does it need a crossing?

It was not until after we got home I was able to google it and found out that is means that there is a raised pedestrian crossing – something like a speed bump – in the road. Why they use that terminology… Who knows? I am sure someone had a good reason at one point….

We finally found the park and by the time we arrived it was dusk out. We noticed there were not a lot of people around but continued to the Observatory building.

Thankfully there is laser light showing where the line is.

As we got closer there was this huge hill to climb. A family was coming down the hill and they told us the Observatory was closed but there was a gate that was unlocked where you could get in to take pictures on the line.

As we got up to the to the Observatory area we found the gate to get into the main area locked. We were a bit disappointed and wondered if there was another gate that was open. We did find an open gate that lead to path that went around the Observatory. We decided to follow that path to see if there was another gate into the Observatory area. This path took around to the back of the observatory, into some gardens and dead ended into a grassy area. By this time it was getting pretty dark out and we decided maybe we should be sneaking around back here. So we went back the way we came. We decided the gate we went through was the only one unlocked and were not able to get to the top. So we decided to take some pictures…

Here I am “breaking” into the Royal Observatory.

Shannon “breaking” in.

Here is the area we were trying to get into.

The Latitude/Longitude sign.

The official clock.

Standing under the line.

Here is the wall where you can stand on the line.

Split between the east and west hemisphere.

Shannon straddling the line.

Here I am in the Western Hemisphere and Shannon is in the Eastern Hemisphere.

After we spent some time taking pictures we decided it was time to go. With all the running around and trying to get good pictures we had been there for about an hour. We started down the path to leave and we heard a noise coming from speaker. We did not really think anything of it and kept walking towards the exit.

Within a couple of minutes a security car with flashing lights came driving quickly from behind us with some one yelling over the speaker. Again we did not think much of it since we were walking out of the park. As the car caught up to us the security guard shined a light and started yelling at us for being in the park. I told the rent a cop we were on our way out and he asked us how we got in. I said we walked in the gate and he said the gates were locked the park was closed and again asked how we got in. I said we came in when the gates were open and that we had been in the park for a long time. The rent a cop said that was not possible they had been driving around looking for people. By this time I was a bit frustrated by the interrogation since we had not done anything wrong and we were on the way out. Plus I was a bit tired. I made some comment about how we had been in there for about an hour and had the pictures to prove it. So maybe that was not my smartest move, arguing with the security official especially once I remembered that they were probably military personal. I think he finally got sick of dealing with me, and he ordered us to leave out the nearest gate. I of course had to ask where the nearest gate was. He said follow me. He took off in his car and we followed. When we got to the gate he had to get out of the car to let us out. He then speed off in the other direction.

Once we left the park we started to laugh about the whole thing, of all the things to get in trouble for – trying to leave the park. Then it dawned on me that what if he had not came along, and we got to the locked gates, how would we have gotten out? We were almost locked in the Royal Observatory for the night – now that would have been an adventure!!

We then walked back to the train station and headed back to London.

You can't come to London without getting this picture....

We got off at Victoria Station and went back to the hostel. We were got to the hostel there was glitch in the system and we still could not check in. They did give us free internet time – so we were both able to send some emails. We then were able to get into our room. We were in an all girls room with 4 people. We took one of the bunk beds and met one of the other people in our room.

Here is our room…