Day 11: Down in the War Rooms

Posted on July 10, 2011 by mreece85

At this point in the trip, I was really thinking about where I want to live.  I can’t believe that I was looking for a home in Chicago earlier this year.  After seeing more, this is what I currently have decided I would like.  I want a country estate with a nice cottage-like home with big windows.  I want a pond with a weeping willow at the edge of the pond.  As for animals, I would like ducks, chickens, a pig, a rooster, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and dogs.  I want to have a nice garden with a veggie section and flowering section.  In my flower garden I would like hostas, gladiolas, poppies, lilies, and many others.  I want neither a suburban life nor a city life.  How can I afford this dream?  Not through just teaching.  Perhaps photography or writing.  I want a studio overlooking my grounds.  This is all what I think I want right now, who knows if I will ever know exactly what I want, but I think I am getting closer.
The morning began with a trip to the Churchill War Cabinet Rooms.  I enjoyed this place and the Churchill Museum.  There was this awesome expandable timeline that went into more depth as you touched it.  My favorite part of the experience down there was learning of Churchill’s paintings.  His hobby was to paint and he used it to fill his mind.  I’d like to further investigate the hobbies of great people and compose a book of short stories to show the need for escape that everyone experiences and how people achieve it.
From the war rooms we rushed our way to Buckingham Palace to catch the changing of the guard.  It is quite an extravaganza that happens every day.  I would never want to be a guard.  I wonder what they are like in person.
After the war rooms, we went to Hyde Park.  Speaker’s Corner was interesting.  We listened to two men.  One that spoke of Jesus and another that spoke of one army.  It seems like it is mostly an opportunity for people to argue and make fun of each other.
This was a very tiring day and we struggled to make our way through the British Museum.  I always feel like I will be excited to see something (like the Rosetta Stone), but then it ends up being kind of disappointing and much less exciting.  When many people are crowded around an encased artifact, it loses its appeal.  I would love to see many of the artifacts we saw in a recreated room that shows what it would have looked like where it actually would have been located.  For example, display mummies and canopic jars in a dark, stone room, appearing as if the mummification act is taking place.  Wouldn’t that be much more interesting than: here are canopic jars behind a case, here are mummies behind a case, etc.?  We did not spend much time here because of the exhaustion.