The Imperial War Museum (Sort of a bust) and Picadilly Circus

Well every day and every sight you see during a journey can't all be fantastic and life changing, this is real life after all, and Friday's visit to the Imperial War Museum galvanized that truth. After taking a convoluted series of trains back to one of the busiest railway stations in London, Waterloo, we got off the train and being that our breakfast of Special K was pretty much used up (hey it tastes good, that doesn't mean it necessarily sticks with you) we decided to grab a bite at the place known for it's good food, a train depot. Actually, and here's a fun fact, the British seem to LOVE food, and unlike what we have been led to believe all of our lives, the British have much better food available to them at any given time than we do back home in the states. Take the Train Stations for example. Where only some old sandwiches and candy bars in vending machines might be in our train depots, here at Waterloo station we had a choice of about fifteen to twenty restaurants, coffee shops, deli's and bakeries to choose from. So we made our way to the second floor overlooking the main station and had a couple of breakfast sandwiches before heading out to a cold and dreary morning.

The museum isn't in the best part of London but we soldiered on dodging piles of dog shit and surly ruffians. We rounded the last corner and spied some gigantic cannons out in front of a beautiful building. Well that's got to be it!

And it was.We'd been to quite a few quality museums lately and this one just didn't stack up. It was worth a visit just for the Holocaust Exhibit though. It was by far the highlight if you can call it that. It's on the 4th floor and that where we started due to the crowds of schoolchildren on the lower floor. There are photos and displays of memorabilia and the history of how Hitler came to power.  There are videos of survivors talking about their experiences in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. The level of starvation is evident in the pictures and the suffering endured! The will to survive in some people is what keeps them going. I don't know if I could endure that kind of suffering and survive.

This exhibit was somber and everyone was quiet and really trying to read as much as they could about it. Then the hordes of French and Italian teenagers and their teachers arrived!!! They were on their iPhones walking through in groups of 20 or 30, not looking at the exhibit at all. Talking, giggling and horsing around, making it difficult to concentrate and see the somber exhibits for the rest of us. What is the point of taking large groups if they're not even looking at the displays or reading the history? It was all you could do not to throttle them, and their woefully inattentive teachers. But we understood that a scene like that in the Holocaust exhibit would be less than OK... So Anyway!

                                           The main room with different planes and rockets

Russian T-34 Tank 

American Sherman Tank 

The tanks and different vehicles were interesting to look at. There were lots of kids and family groups so it was pretty loud. We didn't take very many photos so that tells the story. David's a history and WW2 geek to boot, and even he didn't find it that stimulating. We actually walked out of two different exhibits- the paintings of war and some other abstract things that we couldn't understand at all the minute we walked in. It's not what we go to museums for. We also didn't like the flow. Lots of dead ends and that just doesn't make sense in a museum. We've seen it done well by curators of other great museums so you'd think maybe they could have taken some pointers, but no...

We walked back outside and down to the tube to make our way to Picadilly Circus. Kind of famous and something we should see. Its status as a major traffic junction has made Piccadilly Circus a busy meeting place and a tourist attraction in its own right, London's equivalent to New York's Times Square. It's known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftsbury memorial fountain and statue, which is mistakenly believed to be of Eros.

It was interesting just being in such a busy and vibrant part of London but after a few photos the need for nourishment beckoned us onward.

We decided to head through China Town on our way to find a Pub

We actually found a Dutch pub and had a few beers and some corned beef sandwiches. Not so good but we ate them anyway. The chips were amazing.

After lunch and a couple of ales we stumbled back down to the tube station and whisked our way back to Chelsea. Tomorrow would be our last sightseeing day and we planned to go to the Portobello Market. Glad we did and on a Saturday too. Don't miss this market!!!