Where time starts

Great news...I got the internet where I am staying to work. Bad news...now I am behind on my updates. :)

So although it's Wednesday here...I will catch y'all up on Monday.

I have a friend that lives here, so he came and met me on Monday morning. My request to him was to see stuff around that I wouldn't see normally....aren't the normal tourist trappy things. He took me to Greenwich. It was a short train ride outside central London. Just a quick history note...this is where Greenwich Mean Time originates. It is 0 degrees longitude (I think) and where the east and west hemispheres 'connect'. I am sure you can look it up on Wikipedia and get a way better explanation of what it's all about.

We ended up going kind of later in the day, so didn't have tons of time to wander around. Cute little town. We walked through the park there, and I saw the Royal Observatory.

We went into the park and saw a lot of police and a bunch of people in white t-shirts. Didn't know what was going on. Looked like some sort of photo shoot. When i went to take some shots of the observatory, I was informed that I 'couldn't take pictures' because what they were shooting in this commercial was 'top secret'. This was kind of dumb, because first, it's a public park. Second I was obviously not interested in the commercial thingy. But anyway....managed to get a couple of pics.

Greenwich is also the birthplace of Henry VIII. In case you wanted another quick fact.

After wandering around there for a bit, we headed back to central London. On the train ride back, my friend asked if there was anything else I wanted to do. I said that I wanted to go to see the place 'with all the lights'. (Which turns out to be Piccadilly Circus). Since it was a nice night, no rain, we headed over there for dinner. Got to see the 'lights' (which were less impressive than I thought they would be.) And since this is apparently the hub of the shopping district (or at least one of them) we headed over to Marks and Spencer. I was sent on a mission by my friend to pick up underwear for her Dad....seriously, not making that up. Once the underwear had been secured, we went out for dinner.

So that was my exciting Monday. The best part of it was...since I was with my friend, I didn't get lost once. :)