July 05, 2004 - London

We had a wonderful time today. A British sociology colleague, Ray Lee, joined us for the day and took us on a Thames boat tour. Much of the history of London occured on the Thames, with all the early palaces and commerce connected by water, so there were many stories to be told by Ray and by the tour guide.

We picked up the boat at the Waterloo station, which had a couple of scenic attractions of its own.

Parliament with Ben Ben

The "Eye" constructed for the Millenium

Here's a car up close.

The trip on the river provided not only the history of London but a review of the varied architecture as well. Here is a scant sampling of what we saw.

The Tower of London	The new city hall
Known popularly as the "Gerkin"	St. Paul's Cathedral

We took the boat to Greenwich, home of the Greenwich Observatory and Greenwich Mean Time. It is also the home of the former Naval Academy, which still offers some amazing photo ops.

Officers' Dining Hall

Detail of mural at end of hall

We hiked up to the observatory (no inside pictures allowed) and I was able to discover that my watch, which has not talked to the mother ship in Fort Collins, Colorado, since June 9th, is now 10 seconds fast. (I will keep that in mind as we catch planes, etc.)

The observatory itself was fascinating, and the view back towards London wasn't all that bad, either.

london

Up until now, we felt we'd been doing a pretty good job of seeing London, but this trip reminded us of how much more there is to see. We'll have to come back.

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