A day in London Sea Life Aquarium and Greenwich Observatory

Summer is the most awaited season in a cold city like London.. As we did not want to waste a summer weekend , we set out on a trip. Main challenge in family trips is to make it interesting for kids..!

Sea life aquarium

Sea life aquarium is very close to the London eye. In fact, it was managed by the same Merlin entertainment that operates the London Eye. 

The arrangement inside the aquarium seemed quite unusual, as it resembled a tunnel and some of the fish tanks were so tall and huge that it spanned across many levels of the aquarium. This helped in getting a view of the fishes from different angles, which made it more interesting. It also gave the feel of touching the fish directly when we touched the glass. So, the kids were too scared to touch the glass.

When we were enjoying seeing the colorful fishes in one side of the tank, we felt something fishy (!!) on the other side. A giant sized lobster, which was almost hiding under the rock, started moving. Then , there were lot of colorful sea anemones and star fish , which were really beautiful.

Then came the Ray fish , which is a type of bat fish but is huge in size. It was looking very normal until we saw its back closer. It was looking like a white ghost and so was  a bit scary..

Just contrary to this was the Jelly fish, which still lingers in our mind. The fish was simply dazzling, with the multi-colored back ground lights.. I was reminded of the shiny and glowing creatures shown in 'Avatar' movie.

Next were the biggies, sharks and the big Ray fishes. The sharks were really big and about 10 ft long. It looked very shiny but the fact is, its skin is so rough like a salt paper. As we saw them very close from different angles and from different floors, the kids were excited.

We moved on to some colorful ones as shown in the movie 'Finding Nemo'. There were some funny looking fishes like the giraffe faced fish and the stone fish. The stone fish exactly looked liked a stone. It was hard to believe it to be a fish, until it made some movements.  Sea horses and turtles were also nice to watch.

Finally , it was time to move out. The only disappointment was that there were no dolphins and dolphin shows. But, overall we enjoyed the aquarium.

Then we set out to Greenwich.

Towards Greenwich..

The boat ride from London eye to Greenwich was an exciting experience. Boat is another means of transport for London. The seats inside the boat were just like in an airplane and there were few seats outside just open to sky. We took the outer ones for sight seeing. The boat was going so fast, that it splashed water on us. As  it was a windy day, we felt very cold. London's weather is very unpredictable. It is very hot on one day and the very next day it swings to the other extreme even in summer. It is always safe to go out with an outer wear and an umbrella.

Prime Meridian

Finally we reached Greenwich Royal observatory... This houses the Greenwich mean time and prime meridian , which separates the East from the West just like the equator separates the North and the South.

The Observatory was mainly built to improve navigation at sea and 'find the so-much desired longitude of places' – one's exact position east and west – while at sea and out of sight of land, by astronomical means. King Charles II appointed John Flamsteed as his first Astronomer Royal in March 1675, who did his research here. Finding the longitude @ sea proved to be a major challenge in those days and due to which there were many disasters in sea. Finally the clock invented by John Harrison to find the local time @ sea helped in calculating the longitude , which changed navigation forever. The clocks by Harrison were in display and the longitude /latitude calculations and different time zones of different countries based on longitude were displayed and explained.

We had to wait in a long queue to take a photo on the line with one foot on the Eastern and another on western hemisphere.

Telescopes and clocks used in ancient times to measure time and longitude were present. Dolphin sundial is one. There are 2 dolphins facing each other and the exact location where their tail end of the fins shadows meet give the actual time.. We checked the time and oh yeah.. it was accurate.

If you have a thirst for astronomical science , this observatory is a must visit for you. There are also other museums and parks in the surroundings.

As it started raining  and the evening was drawing to a close, we returned home filled with good memories of the day..