Much Ado About SOMETHING.

Today was a remarkable day.

We went to Greenwich. As in meantime, prime meridian Greenwich. Greenwich is altogether a delightful town. It is very green and grassy and hilly, with lots of quaint shops and pubs.

The Maritime Museum is there, as well. I think we forget how integrally maritime London really is. This trip reinforced the importance of the Thames and the sea. We went to Greenwich by boat, and then walked near the pier for quite aways, passing through the grounds of the Naval College on to the Maritime Museum. The museum was fascinating, with instruments and art and history from even the earliest days of European naval exploration.

The Greenwich Meantime museum was also very cool. We had read about the “Longitude Problem” with navigation in class this past semester, and we got to see the four clocks made by John Harrison. These clocks, particularly H4, are arguably the most important pieces of their kind. They literally changed the face of exploration, allowing navigators to correctly determine longitude.

The world of the sea really is central to London, although it has been overlooked some in these days of rising technology. London wouldn’t be London without the sea, though, and the sea’s salty, rough, utterly enticing magic.

In the evening, Sarah and I went to see Much Ado About Nothing at Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End. The show was utterly phenomenal. It starred well-known actors Catherine Tate and David Tennant. We stagedoored them afterward, and got autographs. The Globe performance was pretty good and entertaining, but this show was pure art, and the entire cast was brilliant.

We met Ally and Frank while stagedooring. We helped each other get autographs. They are from Minnesota. Or maybe Wisconsin. In any case, they were very friendly!