Family Blog 2: London Trip Part 2--Greenwich, Study Abroad Life, St. Paul's, British Library, Six

London Trip Day 4: we headed out to Greenwich for most of the day. We took the subway out to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, which I was interested to find out was built back in 1902. When you enter you go down a deep spiral staircase that goes underneath the Thames river and exits right by the entrance to the Cutty Sark. We did take a selfie right by the river edge before we headed into the tunnel:

I nicknamed it the murder tunnel because it looks like some of the true crime story settings I listen to-haha! Here's what it looked like inside:

It is a 1/4 of a mile long from beginning to end. We did make it out to the other side where we went to see the Cutty Sark. The Cutty Sark is a tea ship built in 1869 turned into museum. This ship used to be one of the fastest ships in its era, and it was used to bring tea from China to Britain. It has been raised above a dry dock so you can see its hull and everything, which was very cool to see.

You could walk around the upper deck:

I got a picture of one of the toilets on board. It even had a rope scrubby to help clean yourself off afterward-Ewwww!

You could see some of the crew cabins. They were really squished inside:

Everything was small--even going down the stairs:

You could practice guiding the ship on its trip from China to Britain. It wasn't as easy as it looked. I did get it in 73 days which was pretty good!

Here's the bottom of the ship you could see:

The name Cutty Sark and its figurehead named Nannie came from a poem from Robert Burns titled "Tam O'Shanter". Anyway it was an interesting museum and I am glad we got a chance to visit.

The next stop was the Maritime Museum. We didn't spend too long here because we had tickets to the Royal Observatory, but we did get to see part of the museum which was interesting.

There were a bunch of ship figureheads we got to see:

I found some old tattoo instruments. They looked like they would be painful:

There were needles made from shark teeth:

After leaving the Maritime Museum we walked up the huge hill to get to the Royal Observatory. The views of the London skyline from the top were pretty cool:

Here's the Royal Observatory behind me:

The Royal Observatory is important because it is home of the Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian which is the line that divides the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Here is the actual brass line you can stand on where you have one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and one in the Western Hemisphere:

We all took a picture together:

We got to walk around and learn about the history of the astronomers that lived here and the advancements they made to the field of astronomy. They had different telescopes that help them chart the night sky. Here's some views of the telescopes and the docent that taught us about the history:

You can see the Prime Meridian line on the window where the telescope looks out:

Stairs to get to the top of the telescope:

We did tour the Flamstead House which is the oldest part of the Observatory designed by Christopher Wren. On the very top floor we got to see the Octagonal Room which was mostly used for hosting distinguished guests:

The view of the London skyline was great:

After our tour we walked back down the steep hill into town to grab a bite to eat:

Interestingly enough we found a pizzeria that offered Chicago Style pizzas-haha! It was pretty tasty.

After dinner we headed over to the historic Queen's House, which is a former royal residence and art gallery.

The Queen's House is known for its perfectly shaped, 40 foot cube. We could only get the room at a weird angle, but it is perfectly square:

The Queen's House is really well known for its Tulip Spiral Staircase. It was an original structure from when the house was built. It is made of wrought iron and is a self-supporting staircase without any central support. It was really pretty. Here's an angle looking down:

Looking up:

After the Queen's House it was time to head back to the hotel. Although it looked dark outside, London is far enough north that sunset was at 3:40pm. So by the time we got back to the hotel it wasn't that late. I wanted to go back out and visit the areas that I lived when I did a semester of study abroad in London 26 years ago. Michonne was kind to go back out with me. We took the tube over to the Hyde Park Chapel where I attended church. They have since renovated it and it also includes a visitor's center now as well. It was fun to see the nativity outside:

We went inside and took a tour. It was fun to see it all again. I can say it is a small world especially in the church. One of the sisters that gave us a tour had a cousin who is currently serving in Omaha who came out with Daniel. They are currently serving in the same area, too. That was a fun connection. Here's our tour guides:

They let us walk in the chapel. They even let Michonne play the organ for a minute.

They showed us the closet full of Book of Mormons in so many different languages. They even had a set of a Book of Mormon in Braille, which was pretty cool:

After visiting the chapel we then headed over to where I used to live. We got off on the Notting Hill Gate tube stop which is one of the main tube stations I used when I lived there. It was fun to see it again.

Then we walked over to where I lived at 27 Palace Court. It was locked, but Michonne took some pictures of the outside for me.

It still looked the same!

As we were getting ready to leave one of the current occupants came out and we got to visit for a few minutes. I am so glad I had that opportunity to study abroad. It really was an amazing experience!!

The next morning we got up and headed out to visit St. Paul's Cathedral. We took a bus out there and were the first ones on, so we got to sit on the upper deck in the very front.

You could really see how crazy the drivers were in London, but also all the cool things as you rode to your destination.

We took some pictures around the outside while we waited to get inside:

The inside was beautiful:

We did get a chance to go up and see the dome. The hallways were very narrow and there were 528 steps to get up to the top.

The first part of the three part dome was the Whispering Gallery. They don't let you take pictures there, unfortunately. The interesting thing about the Whispering Gallery is if someone whispers against the wall on one side you can hear it pretty clearly on the other. It was crazy!

After the whispering gallery we headed up to the second part of the dome called the Stone Gallery. It is an outdoor gallery just above the Whispering Gallery. The views were amazing.

Then we headed to the third part called the Golden Gallery. There were more spiral staircases and steps to get to that point.

At the top they had window in the floor that you could see into the church from above. The picture does not do it justice because we are pretty high up. The window was pretty cloudy, too so it didn't make for a very clear picture. I did the best I could, though.

Here's a reference point... when we got down we took a selfie underneath the dome on the main floor. If you look in the middle you can see the window I took the above picture from:

Back to the Golden Gallery...It is the highest accessible point and offers 360 degree views of the city.

When we climbed all the stairs back down to the main floor we walked around to look at all the things.

In the back of the church there is an American Memorial Chapel. During WW2 part of the cathedral was damaged. When they rebuilt they dedicated this part as a tribute to the Americans who had fought by the Britains side during the war. There are three beautiful stained glass windows. There are squares with each state being represented.

Here's where we found Utah:

They also had a Roll of Honor which display all the names of the 28,000 Americans who died while based in the UK:

After finishing up at St. Paul's Cathedral we headed over to the British Library. We got to see some amazing items in their collection. Here's some of the interesting things we found:

Here is The Parc Abbey Bible from the year 1148:

Here is a papyrus from Egypt, possibly from 3rd Century:

Here is an original Magna Carta from 1225:

Here's Paul McCartney sketches of John and George from the Beatles:

Here is a manuscript from Mansfield Park written in Jane Austen's hand and her glasses from 1814-1815:

This is a copy of Beowolf from early 11th century:

Here is a 2,000 year old homework book from Egypt 2nd century. I guess homework really has been around forever--haha!

After the British Library we grabbed a bite and then headed over to see St. Pancras Station where you can find Platform 9 3/4 if you are a Harry Potter fan. There was a massive line to see it up close and get a picture. We decided we didn't want to wait and grabbed a faraway picture and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.