London

For our second trip outside of France, we went to London by train to take in the sights and museums, do a little theatre, and join family and friends. We had a fine visit.

We checked into the Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington. Not only was it a wonderful hotel, the location was perfect, a two minute walk to the South Kensington underground station.

Our niece Emily and her boyfriend James joined us, and we hit the streets. Our first stop was Harrods, where the billionaires shop.

We were looking for a present for our nephew. but quickly realized we were in over our heads. We got out unscathed, and joined our cousin Debbie, her son Emi, Emi's girlfriend Consuelo, and our family friend Peter at a Chinese restaurant.

Debbie Consuelo Emi

Peter                                             Emily                                             James

Eric             Jessica

    The next day, we spent a few hours underground in the most remarkable Churchill War Rooms, which have been transformed into a museum. The museum consists of the Cabinet War Rooms, and a biographical museum of Winston Churchill. The Cabinet War Rooms construction began secretly in 1938 beneath the (now) Treasury building. They became operational in August 1939, and were abandoned in August 1945 after the surrender of Japan.

    During the darkest days of World War II, these underground reinforced rooms served as the British control center for their war effort. In May 1940, Churchill declared, "This is the room from which I will direct the war." For security reasons during the bombings of London, both civilian government leaders including Prime Minister Churchill and the War Cabinet, and military leaders resided nearly continuously in these rooms. The main room was the Cabinet Room, in which 115 cabinet meetings were held.

    The War Rooms were protected by a massive 5 foot thick slab of concrete. Other rooms included multiple residences for the military and civilian leaders, dormitories for staff, a map room from which daily intelligence reports emanated, a communications room, Churchill's bedroom which combined his living quarters with BBC broadcast equipment, a Transatlantic telephone room with cutting-edge technology for secure scrambled communication between Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, Chiefs of Staff Conference Room for meetings of military leaders with a civilian representative, and of course a kitchen.

Cabinet Room

Communication Room

Winston Churchill's bedroom

BBC broadcast equipment in background

white bowl on floor was for cigar butts

Chiefs of Staff Conference Room

                   Chiefs of Staff Conference Room                                             Somebody's doodling on map

                       The doodling is located toward the top of the map above the 2nd chair from the left

Switchboard Operator

note the gas mask lower left, just in case

word processors

Kitchen

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill
Bond Street, London

From the museum, it was a short walk past Parliament to the Thames River and the Westminster Bridge. We took a riverboat from the bridge downstream for the 30 minute ride to Greenwich. It was a beautiful clear day, better than we had a right to expect in mid-December. Initially, we had planned to go to the Royal Observatory, but there was not enough time. (Eric returned to the Royal Observatory the following day which he describes in the next blog entry.)

That evening we met Debbie, and went to a fine Indian restaurant called Thali on Old Brompton Road, a 15 minute walk from the hotel.

The following Tuesday evening, we met Emily before the theatre, and went to the El Nivel Mexican Restaurant & Bar.  This is a new family-owned restaurant in the London theatre district. Part of that family is Jesse who is an old friend of Conor, Erica's son and Jessica's and Eric's nephew. Jesse treated us well, and we had the opportunity to sample three amazing tequilas, ranging from young to old.

    We were in the theatre district for a reason: to see Mathilda, the musical based on the classic children's novel by Raol Dahl. What a delightful show! Check out this scene and song, When I Grow Up  from the musical. We loved it!

stage at Cambridge Theatre, London

Our last morning in London, we spent at the British Museum, founded in 1753. It was the first national public museum in the world. It is huge. We only had two hours before we had to check out of our hotel and head for Salisbury for our upcoming visit to Stonehenge (more on that later).

We each went our own way in the museum.

two heads are better than one

In anticipation of our upcoming trip to Germany, Jessica had targeted the special exhibit, Germany: Memories of a Nation. Please watch the video on this link. 

Frau mit totem Kind
(Woman with dead child) 1903
 by Käthe Kollwitz

Eric spent most of his time exploring Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, and ancient Egypt. Of particular interest was the Rosetta Stone.  The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of an Egyptian decree inscribed in stone in 196 BC. 

Clearly demonstrated are three inscribed languages:

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs

Egyptian Demotic script

Ancient Greek

Before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were not well understood. That changed with the discovery, since the hieroglyphs could now be translated by using the better understood languages.

We reunited two hours later at the Volkswagen in the lobby, and set out on the continuation of our trip. Next stop - Salisbury.

1953 Volkswagen