Geography Lesson

Marco and I were out and about the other day and we stopped into a pub for a snack.  There were red and white flags strung all over the pub.  I asked Marco what the flag was and he told me it was the flag of England.  I assumed the flag of England was the Union Jack flag... I decided to do a little research.

The Union flag represents the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a.k.a. United Kingdom, U.K. or Britain).  The United Kingdom consists of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles and it consists of England, Scotland, and Wales.

Flag of England - England takes up the southern part of Great Britain

Flag of Scotland - Scotland takes up the northern part of Great Britain

Flag of Wales - Wales sits to the west of England (and do NOT call a Welsh person English!)

Northern Ireland sits to the west of Britain and takes up the northern part of the island of Ireland (Republic of Ireland) and does not have a flag of it's own.  The above flag or banner was Northern Ireland's flag until 1973 when the parliament of Northern Ireland was dissolved by the British government.  Northern Ireland uses the Union flag.  The above flag is used but primarily at international sporting events.

Most of us remember the troubles in Northern Ireland between the Nationalist (mostly Roman Catholic) and the Unionist (mostly Protestant)...  The Nationalist want(ed) to join with the Republic of Ireland and the Unionists want(ed) to stay part of the United Kingdom...  Some Northern Irish will display either the Union flag with the above banner or the Irish green, white, and orange flag to show their political view.

So, there you have it... hope you enjoyed the lesson!

Boats on the River Thames

The River Thames (pronounced teams) is a major river with a lot of history and a lot of activity still today.  People live on the river..... 

People work on the river...

 

People take tours on the river....

This guy is huge and I saw him do a u-turn!!

This is a high speed tour... you can either do the Captain Kidd tour or the James Bond tour :)

This boat looks like it belongs on the Mississippi!

People play....

There is traffic!

The river is patrolled by the police... and I've seen them race by with the blue lights on!  I'm not sure who they were after because the pirates have long been gone.

And we can't forget the fire department!

This is just a sample of the boats we see on the river! 

I do want to add another one more thing about the river Thames...  We have high tide and low tide on the river.  There can be a 7 meter (almost 23 feet) difference between high tide and low tide!

Hope you have enjoyed!