Monday & Still in London

Photos: The Millenium Bridge, View from the Tate Museum, Bookstore in Churchill & War Rooms, St. Paul's Cathedral, Churchill's Bedroom in the War Rooms, The entrance to the Churchill & War Rooms Museum,

Monday June 21, 2010

Up early to clean-up, eat breakfast and redistribute some of our stuff. Checked with Pete and Jess, but they still had some tasks with Jess’s family so we set off on our own. The first stop was the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. We met a rich rich lady from Dallas who was at the museum herself as her granddaughters searched for a Prada purse or something like that to go with the shoes and clothes they had bought in Rome and Paris. Ah...the perils of having granddaughter's who are more into spending grandma's money than learning about history and culture.

The museum is great--admission comes with audio descriptions of rooms and exhibits. The underground headquarters was fascinating—even realizing that the whole place was not completely bomb proof. The rooms were small and furniture was as it was. Many of the maps in the map room were originals. The Churchill Museum was also very interesting, lots of quotations as much of Churchill’s leadership revolved around using the language. Interesting interactive exhibits on early life, early politics, WWI, the interwar period, the wilderness, and, of course, WWII, but a good deal about his later time as Prime Minister kept us busy for several hours. It is clear in the museum how difficult it was for a man who had grown up when Britannia ruled the world to deal with the very different post war world. Finally, we exited the museum and got a message from Pete and Jess—reception was apparently not good underground.

We took a bus toward Covent Gardens where we were to meet Pete and Jess. Using our trusty maps, we made it, and Pete and Jess found us. We went to a Marks and Spenser –the grocery part---and collected boxed sandwiches, salad, fruit for lunch. We found a spot on the curb behind a nice little green car and had lunch…..seating and parking are both hard to find. After that we toured Covent Gardens….a huge flea market….found knives like the one we have at home that came from Neil’s family. Apparently, they are antiques, not just old. It was fun looking at all of the strange things…jewelry to old fashioned wood working tools to silver.

Then we did the tube to St. Paul’s Cathedral. The tube was fun, but boy are those escalators steep….don’t much care for them. We got to St. Paul’s, did the obligatory outdoor photos of this famous cathedral, went up the stairs, to find out that we had missed the opportunity to go into the cathedral by 30 seconds….it seems they wanted to have a church service. Boy were there some rude people who were really giving the guards a bad time.

We just took some more outdoor pictures just in case we didn’t get back there. Then we went to the Millennium Bridge…..the one that twists and dumps the people off when the Death Eaters attack the bridge in one of the Harry Potter movies. It is a pedestrian bridge across the Thames. The Thames is a long way across and at the end is a converted power station that now houses the Tate Modern Art Museum. It is a huge building in which we saw some famous works by Picasso, Leger, Dali, and others. However, we also saw some uninspiring stuff. I’m not convinced that a messy workshop table is art. If it is then I need to preserve the one in our messy basement. They also have one of those paintings where the whole canvas is painted red with a black stripe down the side...which I had saved the ones the boys did when they were little. Okay, I admit it...I just don't quite get the modern art thing. The museum has lots and lots of space because of its former use--it is really quite massive.

As closing time approached, and our limit of energy approached somewhat simultaneously, we boarded a bus back towards Victoria and the place we had dinner the night before. Garfunkels was busier than the previous night, but it was just what we were looking for with a bit bigger menu than a pub and larger liquid offerings. We had a great meal and then came back to the hotel. Pete and Jess checked the internet, and we talked and made plans for tomorrow. Finally time to part, and we walked with them the few blocks to the Pimlico Tube Stop and said good night. Nancy and I were out of energy and quickly relaxed and went to bed.

Some 17,806 steps.