Tower and Prime Meridian

We got down to the entrance to the Tower of London about 20 minutes before the doors opened, and not a moment too late as the queue already stretched right up the hill.

But we got in and Anne made a beeline for the crown Jewels display. There are some extraordinary stories behind some of those stones sitting in their splendid settings - like the Black Prince's Ruby and the Koh-i-Noor. We went round and round on the moving walkway quite a few times admiring them. I did the climb up and down the White tower while Anne enjoyed some sunshine and a chance to read the book on the Crown Jewels she'd bought from the Tower shop, then after a bit more exploring ,we headed out and down to the river and caught a cruise boat back to Greenwich. The river is lined with countless thousands of apartments, each one of which would be worth more than 1.5 million pounds. Makes the head spin to think how much money has gone into that stretch of water.

We had a nice lunch in the sun in the walled garden at the back of the Naval College buildings, then trudged up the steep Hill to the Observatory, to admire Harrison's 4 fantastically intricate chromometers in action, and to pay our respects to the Prime Meridian. Lovely views from up there too, worth the walk.

Afterwards we wandered back through the park and via some very interesting back streets back to our hotel. On the way we passed an intriguing building, a 19th century school, with two doors, one enscribed "Girls and Infants" and the other, narrower door, "Boys". Why is the boy's door narrower? Why did they need separate doors? What were the infant's doing coming here anyway? All very mysterious and a bit grim looking.

 A good day, lovely weather, and though we are tired we managed not to do too much, keeping our effort expenditure to sustainable levels.