Squirrel in St Jame's Park |
This is our last post to the blog while we are overseas as
we come to the end of our holiday. There are certainly mixed emotions as on one
hand we have been dreading this time but on the other we are looking forward to
getting home. Yet another of the paradoxes which we all have in our lives. We
certainly have an appreciation for what a wonderful country we have the
privilege to call home but also an appreciation for the cultures of this
amazing world.
Map room in the War Cabinet Rooms - there were even 3 cubes of sugar from a person's rations left in a drawer. |
We started our final day with the obligatory visit to
Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately the area outside the front gates smelt like a
sewer and so fairly quickly we headed off for a fascinating visit to the
Churchill Museum and War Cabinet Rooms near Westminster. The War Cabinet Rooms
were developed in a basement under offices and then reinforced to hopefully
withstand bomb attacks from the Germans. As it was not a purpose built bunker
there was doubt that the War Cabinet Rooms would actually withstand a direct
hit and so the greatest protection was that the fact that the location was kept
secret. The Rooms were made ready 2 weeks before the declaration of the WWII
and continued to operate 24 hours a day until the day after Victory in the
Pacific was declared. At that time the doors were closed up and locked and it
remained that way until Mr George Rance the custodian of the Rooms started to
show people around on tours. The dedication and commitment of the people in the
War Rooms were quite amazing from all the heads of the armed forces, cabinet
members, advisors and office staff who would work in excess of 18 hours each
day and then sleep in the basement. Some of the people virtually never left the
basement for the duration of the war. The Rooms are basically as they were left
at the end of the war.
Guard at Horse Guard Museum - the horse is just beautiful! |
A change of pace as we headed to Westminster Abbey. It
started as a Benedictine Abbey which happened to be the closest church to the
Royal Palace so effectively became the Royal church until the time when Henry
VIII closed all the monasteries. The Benedictines left and fortunately the
abbey was not destroyed. Similarly to St Patrick’s in Dublin, Westminster Abbey
almost seemed to be a museum rather than a place of worship. They did try to
keep the sense of reflection in the abbey by asking people to stop each hour as
they prayed a reflection but it didn’t seem terribly effective. The most
interesting part were two old paintings that had been discovered behind
memorials which were damaged and were part of the original decoration in the
abbey from the time of the Benedictine monks. To us they were much more
impressive than all the tombs of the various kings and queens. In actual fact
we are probably returning to Australia more republican than when we left given
all the history we have covered during the last few months.
Big Ben Clock Tower with bus in front |
To complete our tourist time we headed to the Charles
Dickens Museum in a house in Doughty Street where he lived between 1837 and
1839. Again it was quite fascinating and I didn’t realise that Dicken’s father
ended up in debtor’s prison when Charles was a child. His father had a good job
as a clerk but was not good with money and it meant that Charles had to leave
school and work at Warren’s Blacking Warehouse as a 12 year old to pay for his board
and help the family. These experiences contributed to his writing and he was a
champion of social justice.
Tomorrow we have a final day in London before making the
long flight home. That will give us just enough time to use up the spare pounds
still in the wallet to save changing them back to Australian dollars. Not
surprisingly Elizabeth has volunteered to look after than for us.
See you all soon.
Love to all