Greenwich & Trafalgar Square

Today’s photography focus was transportation. The day started off with a trip on the tube (i.e. subway) and since the escalators were out of service, we took the long way down via a very winding staircase à la Alfred Hitchcock. Next, we boarded a ferry and had a leisurely stroll down the Thames River. The buildings look quite different from the vantage point of the water and I liked the way the soft sway of the boat made me feel that weightlessness that only saltwater can provide. As I wrote in my journal, I thought about how nice it was to be back on a boat, smelling the sea air and how peaceful the whole experience was. It also forced me to ponder something I have spent the last week trying not to think of – the continuing destruction of the water of my home state in the Gulf Coast. (If anything can be learned from the reckless way in which we misuse the finite resources of the earth, this must be the wake-up call and there is no longer the luxury of hitting the snooze button…)

By the time we reached our stop, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, we hiked, in the rain, up a very long pebble stone road to the top of a very large hill. At the summit, was the Bradley Meridian, named for the 18th century English astronomer James Bradley who marked the north-south line, and where I was standing at the 0º Longitude marker. Next I saw the last remaining section of the telescope, also from the 18th century that another astronomer, William Herschel, used to discover the planet Uranus. According a plaque just beside the huge piece, it was a popular tourist attraction which some people likened the Colossus of Rhodes due to its enormous size. Walking around the huge telescope I fought my way past very thick, black heavy fabric curtain into a darkened, tiny room that serves as the Camera Obscura. It used a mirror or lens to project onto a giant circular stone, which must have been mind-blowing to the people of the late 1700’s…

After a quick jump between the meridian lines where my body was nestled between two hemispheres, we made our way down the steep path once more, enlightened and yet still so much time left in the day. At the bottom of the hill was the Maritime museum, and when I saw their front lawn/garden area, I suddenly realized this was the place I had viewed in that darkened little room! The journey pressed on as we took the ferry back again and walked down to Trafalgar Square to observe the cars as they whizzed by the large round-about, attempting to take a photo that represented the theme of transportation. Oddly enough, after I took my photo and I decided to make my way home via the bus, I realized how much of my day had indeed been occupied by that theme; the obvious being cars, buses, boats, motorbikes, baby strollers and even our own legs. But what I found curious was the other things that represented transportation to me. The oil spill in the Gulf is primarily due to our incessant need for crude oil to transport energy to power our homes and vehicles. The telescope at the top of the hill allowed for the making of maps, which honed Britain’s transportation by sea. The tenacity of astronomers and astrophysicists furthering their curiosity of space, leading to travel via space shuttle. The mere fact of learning the history of these objects and places, transporting my mind into considering such feats of history and of our scientific and astronomical evolution! Finally, what a wonderful revelation it is that my fingers can type into this keypad and transport my thoughts to you, the reader, via this blog! Eureka!