Today's plan was to fly home to Seattle. But, as they were offering vouchers to be bumped, I took it. I'm still in London and will fly home tomorrow around 3 PM. I prefer an afternon flight anyway since sleeping on a plane is impossible. This morning, I decided to have a look at the outside of Westminster and then go on to the Imperial War Museum and Churchill Museum. Here's a Saturday morning in London. I'm standing outside Westminster and looking back towards the Parliament buildings and towards the London Eye. What a beautiful city. Especially when there aren't a lot of tourists out yet. Later on when I came out of the museum, the whole area was absolutely packed, but it is a big city so what else?
As for the museum, it was unreal to spend the first part of the week walking through the room where he was born and then see Churchill's desk where he spent his finest hours. Here's the new entrance to the basement rooms outside the Clive Steps. (This is just yards away from 10 Downing Street where the PM lives.)
And you guys, here is the room where Churchill's War Cabinet met. The day the war ended, the Cabinet pretty much got up from their chairs and walked out of the room.
I have quite a few pictures of the war rooms that I won't bother posting but the funny thing about all of them is that they have wax models acting out different tasks in the rooms. At one point, I was leaning against a pillar listening to the audio commmentary and I guess I was pretty still because another tourist walked past me and was just looking at me. Then he doubled back and took another closer look at me and then he started laughing. He thought I was fake and part of the display. We had a good chuckle about it. Here's a guy that wasn't real pushing pins into the giant map in the map room. Definitely go here if you go to London. It's about an hour or so and it is very cool.
After the museum, I stopped by King's Cross station to grab some lunch (best ham and cheese sandwich I've ever had, these guys can definitely do sandwiches!) and take a picture of this.
Then it was off to South Kensington to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This place is basically a gigantic holding house for the decorative arts. The quantity, quality, and variety of stuff they have in here is nuts. And the palace they've housed it in is equally beautiful as the displays. They have jewelry, dresses, tea cups, silver wine servers, pianos, beds, tapestries, iron work, statues, musical instruments, James II wedding clothes, desks, chairs, and on and on. Here is the entrance hall, a Dave Chihuly I actually like.
Here is a life-sized animatronic of a tiger eating a British citizen that was owned by some maharajah. See how dangerous lions/tigers/leopards are?
And look at this ridiculous dress. The ladies had to turn sidewards to fit through the doorways. And looking at all the clothes, I think people were malnourished back in the day, their frames were incredibly tiny.
They also had a few complete rooms that they've transported to inside the museum. Here is one of the ball rooms they had.
And finally, this giant gallery with reproduction plaster casts of Hadrian's column (from Rome) so that the poorer students in London that couldn't afford to travel to Italy, could study the column just the same. Ah, the things people had to do before digital photography and the Internet.
After that, it was time to get my stuff, pack up, and go to the airport. In short, I had to drag my stuff from the underground to the train to terminal 4 to ticketing to security to the gate back to ticketing, down to customs, back to baggage claim, back up to ticketing, over the the cashier for my travel voucher for getting bumped, back down the train, over to terminal three, walk to terminal two, get on a bus, and check into the hotel. Ahh, I think I'll think twice before offering to be bumped again.
Today's plan was to fly home to Seattle. But, as they were offering vouchers to be bumped, I took it. I'm still in London and will fly home tomorrow around 3 PM. I prefer an afternon flight anyway since sleeping on a plane is impossible. This morning, I decided to have a look at the outside of Westminster and then go on to the Imperial War Museum and Churchill Museum. Here's a Saturday morning in London. I'm standing outside Westminster and looking back towards the Parliament buildings and towards the London Eye. What a beautiful city. Especially when there aren't a lot of tourists out yet. Later on when I came out of the museum, the whole area was absolutely packed, but it is a big city so what else? 
As for the museum, it was unreal to spend the first part of the week walking through the room where he was born and then see Churchill's desk where he spent his finest hours. Here's the new entrance to the basement rooms outside the Clive Steps. (This is just yards away from 10 Downing Street where the PM lives.) 
And you guys, here is the room where Churchill's War Cabinet met. The day the war ended, the Cabinet pretty much got up from their chairs and walked out of the room. 
I have quite a few pictures of the war rooms that I won't bother posting but the funny thing about all of them is that they have wax models acting out different tasks in the rooms. At one point, I was leaning against a pillar listening to the audio commmentary and I guess I was pretty still because another tourist walked past me and was just looking at me. Then he doubled back and took another closer look at me and then he started laughing. He thought I was fake and part of the display. We had a good chuckle about it. Here's a guy that wasn't real pushing pins into the giant map in the map room. Definitely go here if you go to London. It's about an hour or so and it is very cool. 
After the museum, I stopped by King's Cross station to grab some lunch (best ham and cheese sandwich I've ever had, these guys can definitely do sandwiches!) and take a picture of this. 
Then it was off to South Kensington to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This place is basically a gigantic holding house for the decorative arts. The quantity, quality, and variety of stuff they have in here is nuts. And the palace they've housed it in is equally beautiful as the displays. They have jewelry, dresses, tea cups, silver wine servers, pianos, beds, tapestries, iron work, statues, musical instruments, James II wedding clothes, desks, chairs, and on and on. Here is the entrance hall, a Dave Chihuly I actually like. 
Here is a life-sized animatronic of a tiger eating a British citizen that was owned by some maharajah. See how dangerous lions/tigers/leopards are? 
And look at this ridiculous dress. The ladies had to turn sidewards to fit through the doorways. And looking at all the clothes, I think people were malnourished back in the day, their frames were incredibly tiny. 
They also had a few complete rooms that they've transported to inside the museum. Here is one of the ball rooms they had. 
And finally, this giant gallery with reproduction plaster casts of Hadrian's column (from Rome) so that the poorer students in London that couldn't afford to travel to Italy, could study the column just the same. Ah, the things people had to do before digital photography and the Internet. 
After that, it was time to get my stuff, pack up, and go to the airport. In short, I had to drag my stuff from the underground to the train to terminal 4 to ticketing to security to the gate back to ticketing, down to customs, back to baggage claim, back up to ticketing, over the the cashier for my travel voucher for getting bumped, back down the train, over to terminal three, walk to terminal two, get on a bus, and check into the hotel. Ahh, I think I'll think twice before offering to be bumped again.
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