After the Churchill War Rooms, Dave and I grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to the nearby Westminster river pier to hop on a City Cruises narrated boat tour on the Thames. We could stop at some of the more popular photo locations on the way.
It took us to Greenwich and we learned quite a bit from the tour guide. It was a relaxing way to travel, with restrooms and a cafe/bar on board.
The Churchill War Rooms are brilliantly preserved, with many of the spaces exactly as they were left at the end of WWII. The center of the spaces were more-recently turned into a museum dedicated to Sir Winston Churchill. I learned more about the man than I ever thought was possible…including his involvement in the Dardanelles campaign and his bitter opposition to Indian independence.
The Map Room was definitely my favorite part. Churchill even had maps essentially wallpapering his sleeping quarter walls! (I have decided I want maps to decorate our bedroom now).
It took Dave and me about 2 1/2 hours to see everything. If you have issues with tight spaces, this is not for you. Also, the rooms are kept quite dim so it was a little bit of trouble to read some of the smaller print placards.
After the morning and mid-day at the British Museum, Dave and I spent the late afternoon at high tea at the Palm Court at the The Langham, London then headed over to Harrods to see what all the fuss is about.
The tea was spectacular and there was way more food than Dave and I could even finish. The sandwiches and pastries were absolute works of art.
We took a double-decker bus from the Langham to Harrods. It was fun to sit in the front row of the top level.
Pro tip — like the Louvre, get the free tickets into the British Museum for nice and early in the day.
Most guests aren’t bothering with the timed tickets anymore and had long waits to get in. Dave and I had nearly an hour almost to ourselves with the Rosetta Stone and Parthenon carvings before it got uncomfortably crowded.
The last photo shows how busy it can get with tour groups standing in front of exhibits for tens of minutes at a time.
We met a man decked out in Penn State gear in the Parthenon gallery — after all, it’s game day! — and we chatted for a while about the controversy surrounding Britain kinda helping themselves to all this stuff.
I don’t think I’ve seen a more-serious play like this since I was in high school. The Duchess is based on The Duchess of Malfi, a 1623 play by a Shakespeare contemporary: John Webster. Really really dark.
This play reimagines the setting into the 1950s, but most of the dialogue is preserved. The Trafalgar Theatre is a small intimate venue and I might have been fangirling a little at getting to see Jodie Whittaker perform live.
The theater is adjacent to Trafalgar Square, it was cool to walk around it at sunset just before the show.
#travelswithdaveandpatricia ??????
Mission planning for the next leg of our journey! #travelswithdaveandpatricia #gwr #greatwesternrailway #londonbound??
Okay, slight change of plans today, but I could NOT pass this up! I was invited to join Dave’s group today at the UK Met Office. We got a tour of the full UK Met Office facility…which included seeing the ORIGINAL D-Day weather maps!
We also saw other foundational documents in the UK Met Office’s history, including some of Matthew Fontaine Maury’s first “pilot charts” — plots of ship reports from the 1850s (most of which are in the Library of Congress), and the first attempt at station models in 1859 by Vice Admiral Robert Fitzroy, the founder of the Meteorological Office, part of the UK’s first attempts at weather forecasting based on current observations.
I won’t be surprised if this is the highlight of my entire week. My original plans for the day were to go to the beach in Exmouth, but I’m glad I didn’t. Besides, the weather wasn’t super pleasant. Tomorrow…London!
Today, while Dave was in meetings with the UK Met Office, I wandered around the city of Exeter. I’m still absolutely in awe of how OLD things are here!
I watched folks sculling in a canal right after breakfast. Then, later in the morning, I took advantage of a cool program where they offer 2x daily free walking tours of the city with volunteers leading. I met a group at 11am and did a two hour tour of about 3/4 of the perimeter of the Exeter city wall, originally built between 50-60 AD by the Romans. The wall continued to protect the city for centuries afterwards including during the British Civil War in the 1600s.
After the walking tour I had a pasty and Ribena for lunch, then spent the afternoon in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum looking at incredible artifacts from the history of Exeter and Devonshire (as well as artifacts from around the world from during Britain’s colonialism).
When in Rome…er…London… Due to all the rain in the forecast I thought these shoes would be a good choice anyway. Definitely comfy for the 1+ mile walk from our gate to customs. We have arrived to a rainy morning. ?????? #travelswithdaveandpatricia
This REALLY OLD pub is right next to our hotel in Exeter. Sir Francis Drake, known for being the first Briton to circumnavigate the globe (among other more sinister achievements related to the slave trade), was known to frequent @theshipinnexeter and wrote kindly about it in his correspondence.
Dave and I met up with some of his colleagues for steak and ale pie for dinner, and some pints. ?
#travelswithdaveandpatricia #exeter