Friday – London
The boys of course wanted to ride the London Eye. Since I’ve already been upon it I decided to save the £12.50 and have a decent coffee (the hotel coffee is vile) at the cafe there while Steve and the boys went up. The day was nice and sunny but the wind on the Thames was fierce and cold. Still, it was pleasant enough sitting in the sun, reading a book with a cuppacino and occasionally watching the London by go round.
After their return we decided to go to the cabinet war rooms. I’m so glad didn’t go on my last visit in 2003. In Feb. of this year they opened the Winston Churchill Museum inside the war rooms. That was something well worth seeing. So much of the history of WW II is bound up in his speaches that it was a wonderful addition. The photos and audio of his speeches really made it come alive. The interactive displays were amazing ranging from simple touch screens to read the speeches, interactive displays where you try to complete some of the speeches to a grant timeline you could expand and contract to reveal documents, photographs and other bits of history from Churchill’s life. We spent several hours there and still didn’t see it all. The physical size of the museum isn’t that large but the volume of information and exhibits are amazing.
Later we met up with Jonathan and his daughter to visit the current British military. Our timing was right for the open days where the various branches of the service let visitors inside the barracks to see what they do. Ranging from submarine simulators to real tanks and helicopters (you can go in and even push buttons but they are not running or have live amo) it was pretty impressive in its own way.The boys climbed a rock wall, even Micheal with a lot of encouragement (and a boost in the beginning) made it to the top and pushed the red button.They even built a bridge with Phoebe’s help (Jonathan’s daughter) at the Royal Engineers section – engineering being near and dear to Steve’s heart. All too soon they were closing up for the night. I think by the time Phoebe, Ryan and Michael left the shooting range we were the last ones out.
Dinner at the Italian place I liked near the Glouchester tube station then Steve wanted to take the boys to Picadilly Circus, more like Times Square that a real circus but more cleaned up than the last time I was there over 20 years ago. 