Planetarium, Greenwich and a Day in London

As Jamie has been learning all about the planets, stars and space this term, we decided to have a trip to the Planetarium in London. It had moved from where Mike and I were expecting it to be, but it had moved to Greenwich and the Royal Observatory, which made a lot of sense. We headed off into London by train, then tube and then finally by the DLR, Docklands Light Railway to Greenwich. It was a first for Jamie and I on the DLR and it was brilliant and we got to see some interesting and changing parts of London. We were even alongside Canary Wharf, which as Dr Who nuts meant lots of Dalek and Cybermen spotting (ha ha!!). It was amazing to see all of those huge huge buildings and how magnificent they look close up.


It was a short (ish) walk from the railway station to the Planetarium, through the grounds of the National Maritime Museum and then up a hill (which was a bit of a struggle for me with my cough and wheeze), once I started up the hill I wasn't stopping till I got to the top, not even for the lovely squirrels playing in the trees. The chap below, I captured later on in the day on film not literally!! The photo above is a shot of the amazing view from the top, so it was well worth it. On the right of the picture you can see the O2 or Millennium Dome as it once was, in the foreground the National Maritime Museum and behind that Canary Wharf and the other banking towers. To the left you can almost make out the Gherkin building closer to central London, so the view was totally breathtaking.

We had prebooked a couple of shows at the Planetarium, we would have liked to have done another one too, but they were a wee bit pricey for all 3 of us (2 shows was £40, a day in London can be a bit pricey with train, food, extras etc you probably don't have much change out of £200 but a jolly lovely day nonetheless), and we had timed it perfectly so a quick trip to the loo and then into the first show. The first show we saw was 'Meet The Neighbours' which was a live show, with one of the astronomers from the Observatory giving us loads of information about the nearest planets, stars and constellations to Earth and showing us what we would be able to see in the night sky at the moment. It was all really really fascinating, and watching it all on the screen above was amazing and you just felt like you were floating away into space, which is what they want you to feel in the end. Below is a picture of Jamie stood with his back against the dome of the planetarium which was a vast amount of copper or bronze or steel or some metal which made it pretty magnificent.

We then had a nice long break before our second show, which was the last show of the day so we had lots of time to explore. Our first port of call was some lunch and Mike and I decided to have some soup and it was the hottest hottest hottest soup I have ever tasted in my life - not spicy hot but hot hot!! I had leek and potato which was yummy just very hot and it took ages to cool down, Mike had spicy tomato which was hot but not as hot as mine and Jamie had a jacket potato so a lovely lunch. Then we headed out and explored the Royal Observatory, finding out about the history of the building and the people who had worked there. The weather was not too bad, lovely and bright but very cold out of the sunshine. Below Jamie is in the gardens with the Observatory behind him. One of the highlights was the Camera Obscura, where we got the very unusual view of London below us.

There is more than enough to keep you busy here for a whole day, the picture below is the Millennium clock which shows have far into the new century we are, 3700 on the day we were there. We had a wander around the little museum and the shop (of course). Mike was most fascinated (I think) to see one of the timepieces which featured in an episode of Only Fools and Horses, the one where they do eventually become millionaires. Jamie got a couple of bits and pieces including some space strawberries, dried and packaged as the astronauts would take them in the space shuttle. They tasted very much like strawberries but the texture felt a bit like cardboard and weighing almost nothing.

The other major attraction here is the Meridian line as in GMT and of course the obligatory picture had to be taken, well it had to, so we joined the longish queue. We had learnt all about the line and the reason it came into being in the museum, for sailors and then how it helped to create train timetables. Here is Jamie on the line,

and Mike and Jamie

and then all of us, well it had to be done didn't it!

After that we headed into Greenwich Park, which we will leave until a warmer day, we stopped for a coffee then had another look at the amazing view and then headed back in for our second Planetarium show of the day. This one we had told Jamie had a bit of a surprise in it for him and then whilst we were waiting to go in he said "does it have David Tenant in it", how does he guess it? It was narrated by DT. This show was called "We Are Astronomers", and was totally brilliant, it was explaining all about what Astronomers do and how technology is used in their work, and how it impacts on the world, it also explained about the Hadron Collider in Switzerland. A brilliant show and very very interesting.

When it was finished it was almost dark which was a bit weird, it was daylight when we went in. We then headed back into Greenwich and looked for somewhere to have a bite to eat. We ended up at Pizza Express which we nearly always seem to do on our days out in London, and we timed it just right, just before it got really busy. It was a lovely walk through the park and into Greenwich as there are some interesting and lovely buildings to see.

What did we have to eat, well what do we always have, Jamie had dough balls, Mike had garlic bread with cheese and I had bruschetta con fungi, for mains Jamie had pepperoni, Mike had Sloppy Giuseppi and I had Lasagne, and for pud Tiramisu for Mike and I, Chocolate Fudge Cake for Jamie. A bottle of the Pinot Grigio Blush (what else!) Cappachino and Bambichino and then we could not move. But it was our special treat for the half term!!

We got the train back very easily there was one leaving Euston about 5 minutes after we had each grabbed a magazine for the trip back and it wasn't stopping too many times so a totally lovely day all round. I would very much recommend a trip to the Planetarium and Royal Observatory and the whole area is lovely. We may head back in the summer to visit The Cutty Sark and National Maritime Museum and will watch out for this part of London if we watch the Marathon in a few weeks. A lovely day.

Ciao

Sue

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Reading challenge 10/16 - currently reading Songbird by Josephine Cox