Greenwich

If you get the chance to visit London, you really should take the time to visit Greenwich. You can get there by train, bus, taxi or even walk if you have the energy. Personally though, I recommend taking a boat. The one I took was from Tower Bridge which is next to the Tower of London and on it we listened to a tour guide who showed us a lot of things that you only see from the river. I'd like to tell you something that he told us and which I found very interesting: In 1665 London was suffering a terrible plague and thousands of people died from this disease. As a consequence the ships which came to London along the River Thames stopped coming for fear of catching the plague - this meant that the Londoners didn't have food to eat or medical supplies they needed. It was only the ships from Holland that continued to come and they landed at a wharf which you can see on your way to Greenwich. For this reason the City of London decided that no Dutch boats that came to London pay taxes. This continues to the present day!

Anyway, on to Greenwich. The first place I visited was the Royal Observatory. This is famously where the Prime Meridian passes - the 0° longitude which separates the eastern and western hemispheres. Now, just out of curiosity, how many countries does this line pass through do you think? Well, starting from the North Pole it goes through The UK, France, Spain, Algeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana and Antarctica. Not as many as you thought - only 9!

You probably know Greenwich Mean Time. This was once the time based on the clocks kept at the Royal Observatory and is now called Universal Time. Very often you see the time zone of cities expressed as + or - GMT. For example, Rome is GMT+1 which means when it's 2 o'clock in London it's 3 o'clock in Rome. There is lots to see at the observatory but now it's time to see the National Maritime Museum.

It is home to a large number of exhibits which tell the story of Britain's past naval strength, the main reason Britain had an empire back in the last century. Even if you're not interested in ships and sailing the stories told are fascinating and even the building itself is worth seeing - a fine example of Georgian architecture. It was built in the 1930s and formally opened by King George the 6th in 1937.

In a bit of a rush now as I spent too much time at the museum, but next stop is the Queen's House. It took 19 years to build and was finished in 1635. It's called the Queen's House because it was built for the wife of Charles the First, Henrietta Maria. It was a revolutionary design for the period as it was in a classical style - indeed the first of its kind in Britain.

There are many more things to see here, but time has run out. But I repeat, if you come to London there are hundreds of things to do and see. Everyone goes to the West End, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Palace etc but you absolutely must make a little effort to get on the boat which takes you to this little corner of the city for a memorable day out.