London
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As
the lodging I had been using was now full booked I also
switched today to the Stuart
Hotel -- also in Kensington. If anything, this new
location was even better and more convenient. The room
was a delight -- roomy and comfortable. The bus stop I had
been using was immediately outside the front door and the
subway station was 50 yards across the street. And
there was the best grocery store I saw in London also right
across the street. It had a fabulous deli / takeout that
provided fine dinners at bargain (for London) rates for the
last two nights of my stay.
The visit today to the Imperial War Museum was a highlight of my visit, as you might imagine with my love of military history. I spent an entire afternoon there.
The
Large Exhibits Gallery is in the heart of the building. In
this central space there are some of the most important
weapons and vehicles in the collections, including guns, tanks
and aircraft.
In
the "1940's House" I toured both floors of the faithfully
reproduced house of WW II London as well as part of the garden
with its 'Dig for Victory' vegetable patch and Anderson
Shelter.
The
exhibition included a reconstruction of part of a wartime
grocer's shop and displays about life on the home front
ranging from the Blitz to the blackout.
The
museum also offered a realistic adventure back to Britain's
war-time experience of what life was really like in war torn
Britain. I particularly enjoyed the "Trench" and the "Blitz
Experience" where you enter into a recreation of the real
thing. The Trench is bought to life with special
lighting, sound and smell effects. It is a walk-through
re-creation of a front line trench on the Somme in the autumn
of 1916.
The
"Blitz Experience" is a reconstruction of an air-raid shelter
and a blitzed street in 1940. Appropriate sights, sounds
and smells evoke sensation of being caught in the
bombing of London during the Second World War. The bench even
shook as the German bombs 'exploded' nearby.
This exhibition documents the life and
career of Field Marshal Montgomery, the British battlefield
commander of the Second World War - victor over Rommel at the
Battle of El Alamein.
Among the items on display are one of Montgomery's school
reports and his football cap; his infantry officer's sword
which he carried during the First World War; extracts from his
diary written during the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940; top
secret planning documents drawn up by him for the D-Day
landings in 1944; his orders, decorations and medals
(including the diamond-encrusted Order of Victory awarded to
him by Stalin); and the surrender document signed by the
Germans at Montgomery's headquarters in May 1945.
|
Copyright © 2004, diblings.com ~ All rights reserved. Contact our
Webmaster |
