We will fight them ...

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

S&E