Greenwich town...briefly

So, I haven't really been anywhere the past couple of days - well, that's not 100% true. I was in the Kensington area on Thursday, but it was very briefly and by the time I thought about taking pictures we were making our way to  leave it! We also went to Chingford...there is not one thing that is even worth writing about concerning there! I did however go to Greenwich on Friday. I initially went for a meeting in the morning, however, it was a relatively nice day and although I didn't have a lot of time to walk around, I did manage to explore a little bit, so this can be Greenwich part 1!

Greenwich...the place where time began...seriously!  Greenwich is the birth place of Greenwich Mean Time which is the baseline of world time. There is a huge sundial in the town center which gives a brief history of it...

My meeting was at one end of the park, so I when I was done I had a quick meander through the greenwich observatory. I will definitely go back when I have more time as it seems really interesting in there and it has a ton of things to see both relating to time and astronomy. There is a also a planetarium next to the observatory which I also want to go to at some point.

In the grounds of the observatory there is part of what was a huge telescope built in 1789 for William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus. Also in the grounds, is the prime meridian line. This does actually run along the ground and if you stand either side of it, you are standing on 2 different hemispheres! Unfortunately, I  didn't get a picture of the line as there where so many people standing on it, but I will try for next time!

After the observatory, I went back in the town center. Near the sundial, there is the parish church of St Alfege. Apparently, there has been a church on the same site since 1012!! St Alfege was the Archbishop of Canterbury who was taken hostage and murdered by viking raiders. The site of the church is the traditional site of the martyrdom of St Alfage. 

The church has it's own website which gives a much more detailed history of it if anybody is interested : http://www.st-alfege.org/pages/intro.php

A little further on is Greenwich Market. It's a pretty small market, however there are quite a few different vendors in there and it has nice vibe about it. You can pick up lots of different handmade crafts and jewellery as well as some different types of food ranging from dim sum to Brazilian churro's!! There are also a few little actual stores set in the sides of the market walls. One of which includes an awesome little spanish deli with a really nice seating area inside.

I made my way back home after this, however I did pass a couple of interesting buildings on my way back and also managed to stumble across a little deli next to a grocers, florist, butchers and fishmonger - I will certainly be going back to these at some point. The fishmonger even had Sashimi Tuna - perfect for the next time I make sushi :)

I've got a pretty full week coming up, so I'm not sure where I'll be able to squeeze in any exploring, but hopefully I will as I'm really enjoying it!