Day 7 - We Shall Never Surrender

We set off today to see the Churchill War Rooms.  The path took us by many school children preparing to march in the changing of the guard, and also some wildlife and greenery at Regents Park. 

The rain started and we headed to the famous basement headquarters of Churchill and all the British personnel who managed World War II military activities.  It was from there that the British war effort was coordinated and planned during World War II.  The war rooms were in a fortified basement of a government building and apparently pretty much abandoned “ as is “ after the war ended which makes for a very realistic glimpse of exactly how Churchill and company lived and worked during the war and blitz. This is the war rooms Churchill used - cramped tiny and at that time full of smoke from cigarettes and Winston’s ever present cigars. 

Most of the staff worked long hours and many slept here as well.  Because they saw no daylight in these dark basements they put the weather report up on the wall so people would know what things were like above ground. 

There are many fascinating things to see including war maps and casualty reports. 

Things were left so intact that one secretary’s sugar ration was left on his desk. 

 But lots of fun things too like Winston Churchill’s velvet “romper” and Churchill memorabilia. 

Afterwards we took the tube to The British Library. 

But not line 9 3/4 which was busy with many future wizards. My spork wand did not let me through. 

The British Library puts an ever changing display of some of its holdings on display for free to visitors. We saw original music notations from Beethoven and Handel:

Doodles and lyrics form The Beatles (no photos allowed) and the Magna Carta (photos allowed...I guess the Magna Carta not as valuable as Beatles doodles? 

Then we took a rainy walk over to the canal area of London.  We were supposed to go on a canal boat ride today but opted out because of the rain. 

My favorite canal boat was the Book Barge - books for sale right here on the canal.  You could feel the boat rocking on the water when inside. 

Last we participated in the very English tradition of Sunday Roast. It seems you can go to any restaurant on Sunday and get roasted meat (or nut roast in my case!) roasted potatoes and vegetables, gravy and Yorkshire Pudding (which is kind of like a large popover.) That and a pint is a fine dinner and end to our first truly rainy day. Sadly it looks like rain tomorrow too. But we will still enjoy our final day I’m sure.