Awe-Inspiring

Tuesday Night was time for a bit of silly fun with a free Ghost Tour of London, paid for by the International Student House (ISH). This tour, part of London Walks, took place in the area around St. Paul's Cathedral. While not particularly spooky, it was a fun way to see some of the area, as well as get filled in with the local lore about ghosts and poltergeists, and to top it off, some film locations were pointed out to us (one church we stopped outside of was one of the many churches in Four Weddings and a Funeral). Due to it being dark and I not wanting to use my flash and annoy other people on the tour, I only got a handful of photos, but this one is my favorite:
The above is St. Bride's Church, known as the Wedding Cake Church because it was based on this architecture that a baker got the idea for a wedding cake he was designing, an inspiration that would become the common form of wedding cakes from then on.

Wednesday was field trip day for my architecture class, where we visited the outside of Parliament and the House of Lords.




My Foreign Office photos were taken from very close up, and were more reference photos for my architecture class, so they are not included among the sampling of photos.

The Gaza conflict is a huge issue here right now, evidenced by the 24-hour protest going on outside of Parliament (these people have camping tents set up!).


But by far my favorite part of the day was the visit my friends and I paid to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. What was supposed to be a quick stop in the day turned into a three hour extravaganza, only ended by the fact that the museum closed at six. It is to this particular experience my blog post title refers.

Visitors to the museum take self-guided tours, aided by these handy dandy devices. Punch in the number you see on the display, hit play, and hold it to your ear like a telephone to hear your tour guide explain some of the exhibits. The commentary also gives you optional sound bits to hear, like an excerpt from a memo from one secretary to another about how to handle Churchill's dictation, and a recreated dialogue from one of the debates that took place among the commanding heads of the army and Churchill.



Below are some of the pictures of the exhibit. The quality varies as many of the displays had glass in front of them, which made them difficult to photograph.





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The last photo at first glance is a restroom which was notorious for always being locked. Rumor had it that it was Churchill's private toilet that only he could access. But in reality, this led to a secret transatlantic telephone room where Churchill could contact the President of the United States. Only a handful of people knew the real identity of this room.

I will hopefully add the rest of my photos to Facebook soon and post the link here. Its much easier to add and caption photos there then it is here.

But before I leave you, some more videos! These were taken in the new wing, the Churchill Museum. By far the most time we spent was in that room, which contained material from his birth until his death (which included footage from his funeral). The man led an absolutely fascinating life; for instance, did you know he was a journalist during the Boer War in Africa, was captured, escaped from prison and made his own way back to friendly territory, at one point spending three days in a mine where he was being hid by some farmers? Its absolutely amazing. The first video is of a huge interactive table that ran down the middle of the room that was essentially a huge time line, with the options to read extracts from various memos or to see pictures of certain events. The second is a simple pan around to help give you an appreciation for the size of the exhibit.









That's all for now! Cheers!