Greenwich Time

The first trip for the class I am teaching, Introduction to Computer Science, was off to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. To make the trip out there more enjoyable than just riding a tube train, we rode an Uber boat up the Thames. We headed out before 9am and had to ride a couple of short trains to the Chelsea Harbor Pier. The pier looked locked and had several messages posted on it and a phone number. I started trying to call one of the numbers when a woman walked by and told the students that if you just pull the gate, it is unlocked and is open. Sure, enough it was.

The boat rides up the Thames River is so relaxing, and the boat is used by many daily commuters. There is a coffee bar on the boat, and many people make calls, working on their computers, and generally commuting up and down the river. The great thing is all the typical tourist sites you get to see but get to see from the river. There is parliament, St. Paul, The Globe Theatre, The Eye, London and Tower bridges, and other sites. It is slow going, but we wanted to enjoy the time, and we did.

Once we arrived in Greenwich we walked up to the Royal Observatory. The views, even on a cold, rainy, cloudy day are still amazing. I spent a little bit of time getting the students set on the goal of our visit.

This location is were so much work and development went into establishing a worldwide time and time zones, longitude and navigational tools. People will often hear of Greenwich Mean Time, GMT, this is the location that is kept. When navigating there is longitude and latitude. Longitude is the line that determines the east and west position. The zero measurement of that is right at the Greenwich Royal Observatory and a person can stand right on the zero mark, which the students in the picture are doing. Mapping movement of the planets and using it for navigation was also worked out here by many different people through the centuries. It truly stands as a place of great discoveries that are integral all that we do today.

After a couple of hours, the students scattered for internships or to head off to explorer London. Becky and I first participated in a great talk on navigation with time and how we got there. We then had lunch at a pub and finally went to the Old Royal Navy College. The area has been used and left to decay and rebuilt a couple of times. Currently it is actually used as part of the Navy college and other parts are used as museums. One building we heard about and were told to make sure we saw was the Painted Hall. It truly lived up to its billing. The building was gorgeous and the tour we took gave such great history. For anyone who is a Lord Nelson buff, this is the place to go. The Painted Hall is referred to as the Sistine Chapel of England.

This trip to the Royal Observatory and Greenwich was so wonderful. Becky and I plan to go back to this area since we really did not even begin to touch all the history and beauty. The Maritime Museum alone is worth a day trip and we did not get to go to that at all. This is actually the second time we have been in the area. Last summer we came with Abigial and Jamie, and we also visited the Observatory, but we also visited the Cutty Sark which is an 1869 clipper ship that is dry docked and people can visit it and see how a shipping boat looked back then. The ship moved tea and eventually wool across many seas.

The trip and day were amazing, and it seemed a great success to the students who expressed how much they enjoyed the boat ride and all they learned at the observatory.