This weekend we went on an organised trip to the Imperial War Museum and Bletchley Park. The pleasure of these outings is augmented by the company and opportunities for eavesdropping on fellow travellers. Honestly the couple of ladies near us talked incessantly for over two hours. You think I talk a lot but compared to these two I am a complete novice.
These are the naval guns that are outside the museum
After number of hours stuck in traffic we reached the museum. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
The top floor was devoted to displays of soldiers and civilians who had won either the Victoria cross of the George Medal Every individual had descriptions of what activity they had accomplished to be awarded the medal facsimiles of newspaper articles and details of what had happened to them afterwards. I learned a great deal and found out a great deal about people who had won various medals. We spent quite some time browsing the exhibits.
The next floor down was devoted to a massive exhibition on the holocaust. It was traumatic to go through that but I thought if people had lived through it I should at least be prepared to examine the exhibition. Although I could only stand the holocaust part for a limited time before I had to leave.
This is a V1 flying bomb
Lower floors had exhibitions on recent wars as well as the second and first world wars.
This is a Japanese Zero
One of the most moving exhibits was a series of sheets of stamps each sheet was an image of one soldier killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. At the edge of the sheet there were details of how old they were and some were only teenagers which was quite upsetting.
Obviously this is a spitfire
There were some excellent displays, I learnt a great deal and your father was in his element. especially when he spied the military hardware from the second world war.
This is a Russian T34 Tank
We stayed in the museum until just before we needed to reassemble missing a lovely sunny day outside. We stayed at a generic hotel but it was comfortable. In the morning the breakfasts were late which engendered an avalanche of moaning and when the cooked breakfasts finally arrived there were no eggs. This produced more moaning. If there is something we are good at in Britain it is complaining.
We got to Bletchley Park mid morning and spent five hours there. The place is full of interactive touchscreen displays and problems to solve.
Here is a picture of an enigma machine
I was like a pig in clover as underneath I am just a big kid so I went from exhibition to exhibition solving ciphers and loving every moment. We took a photo of Turing’s teddy. Well who wouldn’t?
I had a photo taken with the Alan Turing statue it was an unusual moment for both of us. Probably the closest he has got to a woman in years.
Many of the buildings were as they were at the time. There were displays of costumes and sets from The Imitation Game and stage props such as bicycles.
Anyway the weather was lovely and stayed dry we had a good time and I spent quite a lot of money in various bookshops. It was possible to buy a make your own enigma machine which was tempting until I saw the price.
Quite a few rooms had been restored to the way that they were
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