Missing Edinburgh

July 27, 2007

London, England

I woke up at 8:30 this morning, and a bit after 9 the other scholars and I met up to walk to the Westminster Pier, where our boat was leaving for Greenwich. We took a beautiful Thames River Cruise, and it was a perfect day to do so. Once we got to Greenwich we explored the old Naval College before making the trek up the hill to the Prime Meridian Exam. It was a really neat place, with a lot of cool clocks and it is fun to take a picture on the Prime Meridian (kind of like taking pictures at Four Corners or something like that. The museum has a camera obscura, and some other neat stuff to see as well. And the five of us took a von Trapp-style picture on the Prime Meridian to send back to the Lake Havasu Rotary Club. We were there at 1 o’clock, so we got to see the ball drop (only happens at 1 every day). I tried to film it, but it was kind of anticlimactic. Greenwich is a really nice town, just outside of London yet it feels miles and miles away.

After the Royal Observatory, the group was separated in half, but we found the others at a pub that looked like one they would have gone into. We ate lunch there, and then explored Greenwich a bit. We found this flea market type of place with all sorts of crazy shops. It reminded me of something you would find in Rocky Point, except for there were set prices and they were not cheap. There was really cool stuff at this place though, like these crazy little beads that grow in water and feel so funky, these growing beans with messages on them, some magic shop with a book of 5,000 spells, and these really cool massage toys in the shape of animals.

When we got back it was pretty late, so I helped the others figure out what they should see in Edinburgh, a bit envious that I would not be accompanying them, made some pasta, and then saw them off. Once they left, I got online for a little bit and then went to bed, because Allie and I were leaving extremely early for our tour in the morning.

Just as I was getting into bed, there was a knock at the door. I opened and it was Rebecca screaming, because she saw the play with Orlando Bloom in it and got his autograph and up-close pictures of him. haha.