Tag: London

The river Thames is not a small one while it is passing through London, United Kingdom. I crossed it many, many times on bridges and within (underground) trains. But there is also the possibility to walk through under it at one point: the Greenwich foot tunnel. It connects the Isle of Dogs north of the river with Greenwich – the entrance is close to the Cutty Sark. Construction works started in 1899 and the tunnel was opened in 1902. The purpose was to bring the workers in a fast and reliable way to the docks.

To refer to a specific place on the planet a coordinate system is needed. We’re using longitude (west/east) and latitude (north/south) to tell where we are. The latitude is 0 on the equator but for longitude a position for 0 – the prime meridian – had to be defined. On a conference in Washington, United States different alternatives were analysed and it was defined that the prime meridian should be the one going through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London (as it was used most often by that time).

After some days between skyscrapers and tightly packed houses in the city of London, United Kingdom you might feel the necessity for a little change. The city quarter Greenwich is no insider tip as everybody goes there for the Royal Observatory – but you should consider it, even if it is only for a walk in the evening. Just take the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) from Bank and exit at Maritime Greenwich. After some meters you’re standing at the shore of river Thames.

After watching the movie ‘Notting Hill‘ with Hugh Grant (‘Whoopsidaisies!‘) and Julia Roberts (‘Can I stay for a while?‘) we all know that there are numerous small gardens throughout London, England – some private, some available to the public. One of the latter is located near the river Thames between Embankment and Westminister. If you can distract your eyes from the river and London Eye and walk on the other side of the street you can find Whitehall Gardens.