London Day 2 - Imperial War Museum and Westminster Cathedral

Well the most important thing about today was that once again I got my washing done...!!! Not with the same loving care that Fiona and Audrey brought to it, but the little laundromat down the street charged me £17.90, but it's worth it when you're on the road! (I owe you Fiona and Audrey!!!). So now I'm back to all clean again just in time to go to Belgium on my tour.

Didn't have the greatest sleep last night, so woke up feeling a little weary. (I had some door slammers next door, that managed to find doors to slam in the middle of the night!) Was trying to think what I would like to do in London today that I hadn't done before, and it was a conversation with Jess and Karys last night that reminded me that I hadn't seen the Imperial War Museum. We were talking about their Uncle John (Kerry's husband) who absolutely loves museums, and John and I had actually discussed this before I left Perth, so today's visit was in honour of John Thorne!!!!

Imperial War Museum

The day threatened rain, so I thought it was appropriate to do an indoors activity anyway. And I loved it. There were different displays about all the different wars that Britain was engaged in... obviously from a British perspective. I thought their take on Gallipoli was a bit light on recognition of the Australian and NZ involvement and also the mistakes the Brits made in the whole campaign.
But it was perfect timing in terms of ANZAC Day and hopefully I am going to Ypres as part of the tour next week.

Looking up from the ground floor

I thought their WW1 display was excellent. They combined multimedia with many real examples of guns and tanks and the sad use of weapons in this war.
Here's a display that shows how the machine guns worked..

This model showed how the bullets sprayed out.

The Aussies got the occasional mention... but it was all in terms of the Motherland...!!!

They showed some very graphic photos of the mud and the conditions in the trenches...

WW1 Trenches and mud

WW1 Trenches and mud

They also covered WW2 and the effect of the atomic bomb

They also covered modern day terrorism...

See above for explanation

There was so much there, that I've only included a small snapshot of what could be seen. I spent about 3 hours there... then felt a bit weary!

Just a couple more to finish...

These life size planes were suspended from the ceiling

These life size planes were suspended from the ceiling

So... what to do next??? I was feeling a little tired so I tossed up between Westminster Cathedral (Catholic) or Westminster Abbey (C of E). The Catholics won!!!! And actually when I got there I was glad I made that choice, because it wasn't just a tourist attraction, you could tell it was a Church and was nice and quiet and still and I could rest for a while..... In fact they had a little coffee shop in the basement and I was ready for a sandwich. Have to admit I'm a little sick of ham sandwiches or toasted ham and cheese, because my choices are quite limited at lunchtime with my strange stomach...  Anyway I saw Turkey sandwiches, so my eyes lit up...

Butttttttt... you'll never guess the server's response... "Oh sorry, but we don't serve meat on Fridays!!"
I said to him,"But it's not Lent!!!"....  But apparently some obscure Bishop's Conference decided that they wouldn't serve meat in the Catholic Cathedral Coffee Shop on Fridays!!!! So I ended up with a toasted cheese sandwich....  I think it's a conspiracy!

Westminster Cathedral

Inside Westminster Cathedral

So, when I recovered from all that I did a lap of the Cathedral and lit a candle for all my family and friends in the Lady Chapel. Then I was just on my way out and spotted St Paul's Chapel, so I had to stop and light another candle for all my St Paul's friends and students. Expensive visit!!!

By this time I was really starting to wilt, and rain was once again threatening, so I decided to just go back to the hotel (and pick up my washing on the way!)
I'll need to totally repack as I'm going on the Eurostar tomorrow to Brussels. So I'm just going to go nice and gently and take my time and get myself organised for the next leg of the journey.

So... consider yourselves all prayed for, and now we move on to the next leg of the journey.