Britain at War

On Thursday, my day ended up being dedicated to exploring the history of Britain and World War II. I started out at the Britain at War museum, which explores the home front life of the British, including what it was like to live through the Blitz. It was a very small space, but still interesting. In one area they had a bomb shelter set up; when you went inside, audio was played that mimicked the sounds a family would have heard during the bombings of London: the air raid sirens, the engines of the planes, the whistling of a bomb before it struck its target. Another room was a two story reconstruction of a bombed out building. In between, there were displays about everything from fashion to rationing during the war.



After grabbing hot chocolate to warm myself against the drizzling rain (and scalding half of my taste buds in the process) I walked a few hundred yards to the Thames and the HMS Belfast, a decommissioned Navy ship that, among many other things, was present at D-Day.


This exhibit was a lot of fun, despite the rain. The self-guided tour took you all over the ship, including down into the maze of piping in the engine room and into the gun turrets on deck. Wax figures recreated the life of soldiers stationed on board during the war--though sometimes what I first thought was a wax figure turned out to be an on-duty officer, as the ship is still staffed with Navy personnel. To encourage children to explore the exhibits, there was a kind of "treasure hunt" game: the premise was that "rats" had escaped and were scattered about the ship, and the children needed to find them all to win the game. Needless to say, once I figured out what was going on, I became just as interested in finding the rats as listening to the information from my audio guide. Here are a few of the ones I found:



After all this WWII information, I found myself watching Mrs. Miniver that night, which I thought was quite good.

Friday I went to the National Portrait Gallery, which unfortunately did not hold my interest as much as I thought it would. While I did manage to increase my knowledge of the succession of the monarchs for the last few hundred years, I found that the headshots of various dukes and other nobility began to blur together after the first couple dozen. I revived myself with a triple-chocolate muffin (a dessert that has been one of my greatest discoveries in London) from a local Costa Coffee Shop before ducking out of the rain and going home.

This week should be full of fun, as my friends are back from their various trips. A day trip to Brighton is being arranged, and last night we secured tickets for both Les Mis and Oliver! for later in the week, checking a few more shows off of my "Must-see" list. All that's left is Stomp and Jersey Boys.

Photo Album: Britain at War

TTFN!