We are not the type of people who believe other people's opinions blindly without first gaining some perspective of our own. Sure, we listen intently, however never make judgement without some element of investigation. Fortunately we also apply this to vacations and the places we visit. We had been told [by many people] that London is shit...It is not! We have had a great time here, seen some amazing things and will be back...Look out Queeny, you'll have to throw out the red carpet for us again.
Today marked our last full day in London; We head south to Cornwall Wednesday morning and are looking forward to a week there and will then meander our way north back to London over a few weeks. It was a jam-packed day full of museums today as we visited the Churchill/Cabinet War Rooms in White Hall, the Museum of Natural History and the Victoria and Albert Museum also. Oh, we took a side trip to Westminster Abbey which you can see pictured here.
The Churchill War Rooms was a real eye-opener and as someone who loves war history was really interesting. To think the war was run and won from that bunker complex beneath White Hall is simply mind-boggling in today's modern world. Many millions of soldiers helped win the war of course. The War Cabinet and staff would spend weeks down there without seeing the sun whilst London was bombed and Winston Churchill would conduct the war, send radio broadcasts and speeches all around the world and generally give Hitler and the Axis forces hell. You can see Winston and some of his buddies in this image.
They would eat, sleep and work 15-18 hours a day conducting the defence of Great Britain and the greater war and they had everything down there they needed, except sunlight. It wasn't an incredibly comfortable existence but they made do; Winston Churchill and his staff were on rations just like the rest of London! You can see the Chiefs of Staff Conference Room pictured here which is where Churchill would meet and discuss the war and plan out their strategies. London was bombed almost around the clock and here they could [relatively] safely conduct the war. We went through the sleeping chambers, dining rooms, map room, plant room and other various areas in this amazing subterranean complex where for some 6 years some of the smartest military minds worked tirelessly to defeat that asshole Aldolf Hitler. I plan on doing a post about some of the things we saw in there a little later so will elaborate on it in greater depth: Things like the Enigma Decoding Machine, the bunker complex and the man, Churchill, himself.
From there Faith and I headed over to the Natural History museum which is a celebration of life, the planet, humans, animals, plants and just about everything else you can imagine. It was simply stunning and free to get into as well. They encourage donations of 5 pounds and I reckon you'd be an asshole if you didn't offer it. The place is simply bursting at the seams with dinosaurs, fossils, land animals, marine life, geological specimens, arachnids, reptiles, planet earth exhibits, history of evolution, wildlife garden and a working research centre. There's more than that too. It's amazing.
The image above is of a whale skeleton in Hintze Hall which was simply stunning. The building itself was just amazing with intricate carvings on the walls and pillars and an incredibly detailed painted ceiling. I have many pictures of course and will share them in posts to come.
You can see Faith looking up at the huge skeleton in the Hall here. We spent about 4 hours marvelling at all the wonders and could have spent another 4 hours easily without even touching the sides! There was an amazing slice of tree, a sequoia tree, which was simply massive! It captured my attention for many reasons not least of which was it's age. The tree was felled at 1335 years of age by some asshole lumberjack. It was quite humbling to behold to be honest and that the human race brought about it's end is sad. I'm going to do a post about it and share some photos sometime.
After having our minds blown at the Natural History Museum we hit the Victoria and Albert Museum which again is full of all sorts of interesting things. There is about 2.4 million individual items in there from statues, paintings, fashion, gold and silver items, jewellery, books, armour and weapons, church relics, sculptures and so much more. It's a little overwhelming to be honest and easy to get lost in. You can see an effigy of a knight in this image and below a set of gilt doors that had Faith completely fascinated. She's got a thing for big doors.
Everything in there has a plaque and description with what era or year it comes from. There are items from all over the world and I can only image at the value of this collection. There was a room literally filled with silver items, pots, crosses, hair brushes, tea sets, plates, cutlery and just about anything else you could imagine, all made out of silver. Then there was another with all gold! The jewellery room was spectacular and filled two levels, not small rooms either. This place must house billions of dollars worth of items and I'm sure some priceless ones also!
After a couple of hours in there it was time to leave and head back to our apartment. We flicked through our photos on the way back and decided we hadn't seen enough...That means another trip back to London!
All in all our few days in London were really nice, busy of course, but enjoyable. We managed to see a lot of London and learn just how much more we didn't see. However we spent time engaging with the history, and current vibe, of the place and we feel we have a small idea of the tone of the city. It's such an interesting place with a great history and we'll be back for sure.
Right now it's time for dinner so I'd better get going. Faith is hungry (and I'm ravenous) and whilst it's riveting for her watching my type on my laptop we have better things to do.
Thanks for reading and I hope you follow the next leg of our UK adventure: Cornwall!
Faith & Galen x