London, England – 05/06 – 05/08

(Michelle) We arrived on the overnight uncomfortable bus at 6:15 am on Sunday morning. We took the tube out to our hostel to drop off our stuff and then headed back… look kids, Big Ben, Parliament. We sat in the park across from Big Ben with our coffee and muffins watching the cars circle the roundabout. Then we attempted to take a ride on the London Eye, but for 30 minutes it’s 16 pounds (about 32$ each) so not quite worth it. We headed on to what TJ was looking forward to, the Imperial War Museum. I thought it would be more regimenty stuff like at the Scotland War Museum, but this was actually a fantastic museum. Tons of actual memorabilia from WWI and WWII (an actual WWI trench is “recreated” for a walk through), but the most interesting thing in the museum is the two full floors on the Holocaust – although there were other exhibits we didn’t even get a chance to see. There were countless true individual stories from not only the camps, but the Warsaw (and other) ghettos as well. Other items included last letters, fake papers, and a whole case of actual shoes turned in by people at the camps. TJ and I spent 8 hours at the museum.
It was then 6 o’clock on a Sunday before a bank holiday Monday, which means that there were few options of things we could still see, so we took a walk by Buckingham Palace.
We shared a dorm room that night with 2 other couples, who we didn’t actual speak with, as we were the last ones back in the room at 10:30 pm that night.
The next morning, we pretended we were new money and went “shopping” at Harrods. The ultimate in Dept Stores, I really didn’t think I would be impressed, but I was.
Then we went to the cabinet war rooms. Yes, this is where all the major decisions were made during WWII. Recreated to look exactly as this bunker did in the 40s, it was quite impressive. We did not know, upon entering though, that there was a really well done museum solely on the life of Churchill. While I am sure TJ could say other interesting things about the museum, I would have to say that I was most interested to learn that Churchill basically invented the velour leisure suit. So, now I know where my J-Lo track suit really descended from.
We then took a 40 minute train out to the Chiltern Hills area to visit with my college roomie, Laura O (now W), where she is living with her husband Chris and 5 month old son, Thomas Jack… two TJ’s in the house.
Chris cooked us an excellent sausage and rice dinner! The next morning, the two Thomas’ slept until noon, while Laura and I had tea and caught up. We then had lunch at a real Elephant and Castle (there is a recreated Elephant and Castle in downtown Chicago). I was very happy to learn that my absolute favorite childhood author wrote the majority of his books about 10 minutes from where Laura lives. So in the afternoon, we went to the Roald Dahl museum. It is nice to feel like a little kid again for a while – I was right back to the schoolroom where my fourth grade teacher read us James and the Giant Peach. The museum housed (on loan) the actual coat, hat and cane that Johnny Depp wore in the new Charlie and the Chocolate factory, and in addition, there is a nice picture of Roald with the original Oompa Loompa’s from the Gene Wilder version. The outside of the building has the B.F.G. painted on it… my favorite children's book of all.

(TJ) I’d describe the Imperial War Museum as the Smithsonian of war museums. You walk in and there artillery pieces, tanks, shells and fighter planes hanging from the ceiling. In my opinion a must see. The cabinet war rooms were a bit of a surprise. I was expecting a deep bunker underground with mannequin’s displays etc. In reality there are the mannequins but the war rooms are only at basement level. They installed a 6’ thick slab of reinforced concrete before the war that probably would have been destroyed by a direct hit with a 500kg bomb. The museum also has a huge exhibit on Winston Churchill which was very interesting. I like his style of doing work in his bed until 10am and then slipping on basically a velvet jumpsuit to a full day of smoking cigars drinking wine brandy, port and champagne until and mixing in some work until 2am. Mind you he was doing this when he was 65. As a side note we found a toy soldier shop while walking to the Cabinet War Rooms which was extremely cool, good thing I can not buy any souvenirs. I’d been to Harrods last time I was in London and its still amazing the second time around. They have anything you could want, however you will pay dearly for it. I did not remember that you could buy groceries there the last time I visited. You could buy an apple for $4 or a pint of ice cream for $10 or a DVD of Eddie Murphy Delirious for $20?. The amazing part is that we saw people shopping there for groceries/etc. at these prices. All that said it’s an unreal store that makes you realize how poor/smart you are in relation to the individuals who shop there.

I felt like I was on field trip sponsored by my English class when we visited the Roald Dahl museum. I had never even heard of him when Michelle asked me about going. She is a big fan and read many of his books, I have seen Charlie and the Chocolate factory in IMAX and like to see Oompa Loompas at costume parties and sing their songs. Needless to say I was a bit disappointed that were no live Oomph Loompas at the museum and there was no pyscadalic boat cruise down a chocolate river at the museum.