After staying in Bath for a week, we finished off our visit to the UK by going to London to check out some sights and hang out with some friends!
Big Ben
We were in London last December for a week, so we ticked off some of the main attractions then, such as the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, the Tate Modern, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Design Museum London, the National Gallery, the Science Museum, Buckingham Palace, the Natural History Museum, Harrods, and the British Museum. It may seem like a lot, but we weren't rushed and we also spent some time just walking along the Thames to take it all in. Plus, since Luke lived in London for a year, he was very familiar with the place so we didn't have to worry too much about navigation. We also took day trips to Brighton and Cambridge during our visit in 2012.
Although we saw lots of museums last year, there is always more to see - even in the museums we already visited. There are always new exhibitions, and their collections are usually too big to see in one sitting anyway. After spending our first night in London going out to dinner and then to see the Hobbit movie, we figured that we'd hit the ground running on Sunday. Let's just say it didn't really happen like that. After getting up a bit later than planned, we made our way to the Natural History Museum to find a long line-up outside the building. Little did we know that it would take us over an hour of waiting in the cold just to get inside - had we known, we may have changed our plans. Regardless, the exhibit that we wanted to check out, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, wasn't too busy and was worth the wait. It was made up of amazing, mind-blowing, photographs that all had little insights by the photographer included. The atmosphere of the exhibit was great too, and we bought a few postcards to frame as souvenirs.
Then in the afternoon we made our way to the Churchill War Rooms, which is made up of the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum. The Cabinet War Rooms are part of an underground complex which was the heart of the British government and military command throughout WWII. Construction of the Cabinet War Rooms started in 1938 and they became operational in August 1939, one week before the start of WWII. They were used 24 hours a day by Churchill and his office, made of up many government officials, civil servants, intelligence staff, telephonists and shorthand typists, to name a few. Most of the people that worked there also slept there, especially during the Blitz. The Cabinet War Rooms remained in operation throughout the war, and when they were abandoned after the surrender of Japan in August 1945, the lights were turned off in the Map Room for the first time in 6 years!
The place was amazing to walk through as it has been left the way it was when the war ended. There were lots of fascinating things, but it was most impressive to see how they managed everything without the technology that we have today. For example, tracking the location of their ships was done manually on a map with thumb tacks; there were lots of pin holes near Newfoundland. They also had hand-drawn graphs posted to track the numbers of casualties, as well as strings on wrapped around thumb tacks to monitor the German front.
The Churchill Museum is also located within the underground complex, which was very informative as well. We didn't know much about Churchill himself, so we had the opportunity to learn a lot, and it had a great audio guide to go along with it. Before we visited the exhibit, we didn't realize that Churchill's political career had begun so early, at the age of 25, and that it had had so many ups and downs. He was prime minister twice (1940-1945 and 1951-1955), and continued to be in politics until he was 90 years old, six months before he died.
The place was amazing to walk through as it has been left the way it was when the war ended. There were lots of fascinating things, but it was most impressive to see how they managed everything without the technology that we have today. For example, tracking the location of their ships was done manually on a map with thumb tacks; there were lots of pin holes near Newfoundland. They also had hand-drawn graphs posted to track the numbers of casualties, as well as strings on wrapped around thumb tacks to monitor the German front.
The Churchill Museum is also located within the underground complex, which was very informative as well. We didn't know much about Churchill himself, so we had the opportunity to learn a lot, and it had a great audio guide to go along with it. Before we visited the exhibit, we didn't realize that Churchill's political career had begun so early, at the age of 25, and that it had had so many ups and downs. He was prime minister twice (1940-1945 and 1951-1955), and continued to be in politics until he was 90 years old, six months before he died.
Then to conclude the day of tourism we went to the View from the Shard, a Christmas present from Luke's sister. After going up a couple of elevators and climbing up some stairs, we made it to the seventy second floor. It has a 360 degree view of London, and the fact that the Shard is so much taller than the rest of the other buildings in the city makes a huge difference in terms of what you can see.
We booked our trip for 5pm so that we could see London at night; it was a great atmosphere, but not great for pictures. Everything is surrounded by glass and there are no gaps that you can take pictures through, so it was hard to avoid getting reflections of some kind in your picture. It was an amazing view, but it was difficult to capture the atmosphere at night.
We booked our trip for 5pm so that we could see London at night; it was a great atmosphere, but not great for pictures. Everything is surrounded by glass and there are no gaps that you can take pictures through, so it was hard to avoid getting reflections of some kind in your picture. It was an amazing view, but it was difficult to capture the atmosphere at night.
The next day we tried, again, to get going early but there were some delays in checking in for our flight the next day, so we made our way to the Imperial War Museum as soon as we could. Unfortunately the museum is under renovation so we didn't get to see it in its full glory, so we may have to go back another time. But, we did have time to see three of its exhibitions - A Family in Wartime, Secret War, and the Holocaust Exhibition, .
The 'A Family in Wartime' exhibition followed the story of one particular London family throughout the war, including the role that each member played in supporting their family or their country, as well as how they lived during that time. It was a very personal way to take a look at life in London during the war, and their experiences made everything more real. Secret War was about the role that spies, primarily MI5 and MI6 agents, played during the wars. In general, the information is still a bit vague (obviously), but interesting none-the-less. Then we checked out the Holocaust Exhibition, but unfortunately we were tight on time at the end and had to rush through the last bit. This exhibit was interesting because it focused on Hilter's rise to power quite a bit in the beginning, more than we'd seen anywhere before, which gave some context to the situation in Germany at the time and went into detail about the things that followed.
The 'A Family in Wartime' exhibition followed the story of one particular London family throughout the war, including the role that each member played in supporting their family or their country, as well as how they lived during that time. It was a very personal way to take a look at life in London during the war, and their experiences made everything more real. Secret War was about the role that spies, primarily MI5 and MI6 agents, played during the wars. In general, the information is still a bit vague (obviously), but interesting none-the-less. Then we checked out the Holocaust Exhibition, but unfortunately we were tight on time at the end and had to rush through the last bit. This exhibit was interesting because it focused on Hilter's rise to power quite a bit in the beginning, more than we'd seen anywhere before, which gave some context to the situation in Germany at the time and went into detail about the things that followed.
So tourist-wise, we only managed to see the Imperial War Museum on Monday, but we did go out for dinner and drinks with Luke's friends from university, which was a great way to end the trip.
Luckily, we avoided any weather issues on the way back, and arrived in St. John's on New Year's Eve just in time to fall asleep before the new year even started. Here are some more pictures from our time in London:
Luckily, we avoided any weather issues on the way back, and arrived in St. John's on New Year's Eve just in time to fall asleep before the new year even started. Here are some more pictures from our time in London:
