Much Ado About Wilsons: London Part Two

The next part of our London saga was to see "Wicked". I have seen it before with my sisters, but Mark hadn't. So a few months back, we planned to take a few days in his half term break and go see the show and then spend the night in London and explore the next day. This we did and had a blast! We also walked over half of London, so I feel I got my exercise in. There is so much to see and do in London and, aside from the cost of getting there, it is largely free!! So on this trip we went to the Imperial War Rooms, the Victoria and Albert Museum and into the world's largest toy store. The pictures I took of the war rooms are largely for my dad and other history geeks. If any of my former students are looking at this: be jealous. Be VERY jealous. :) (Which you should be since history is the best subject as I'm sure you all remember.)

As we arrived, this is what greeting us outside the station. I was seeing pink elephants? Already??!?? :)

British naval guns outside the museum.

Full shot of the front of the museum to give you an idea of the size of these guns

This is me, looking rather pleased with myself for being there. (I was)

Mark likes the guns

More size scope. Yes, I could basically STAND inside that thing!

If you look up as you walk into the museum, behold the Spitfire

No, I don't know what sort of gun it is. I just know it's WWI vintage and cool

This is Tirpitz the pig. He was onboard a British ship in WWI that was hit and yet he survived, swimming in the ocean. A sailor jumped in and saved him and he became their mascot for the rest of the war. He lived beyond that in a zoo I think to a ripe old age and was stuffed upon death and given to the museum. I thought this was great.

Really fabulous painting of the Treaty of Versailles

The enigma machine. History people should know what this is.

More great weaponry.

I loved this inspirational poster. If I was still teaching, I would totally have bought a replica for my class. :)

This my friends, is the Rolls Royce engine used in the fighter planes.

And THIS, this nearly had me keeled over I was so impressed. It is indeed the Eagle from above the Reichstag when Berlin was taken by the Allies. You can see the bullet hole in its wing. Whew!

Harry Potter fans would know which film this shows up in. But I think St. Pancreas station is lovely without being in movies. :)

Since I taught Peter, I had to take this for him.

This theatre was fantastic!!!

Mark and I had a lovely Italian dinner before the show, and decide to get TWO packages of cookies from Marks and Spencer for dessert. No regrets!! :)

The dragon above the stage

And you can sort of see how cool this theater was.

This is the giant statue in St. Pancreas of two people meeting after a journey. I really like it a lot

There are loads of fabulous bakeries in the UK. This one made me think of my own wedding (colors) but also of Kathryn, so the next shot is for her too.

All of this is edible by the way. Spun sugar flowers and edible gilt. Wow.

And this part is for the kids! This is the world's largest toy store with five floors of joy! This bear said hi when we came in.

This was a section on the girls floor. Naturally I took this picture for Amara and Madeline. :)

And look who I found you guys! I was riding the escalator up to the boy's floor and there was Wall E! He's very nice and he said to say hello to Hobbes, Madeline, Amara and Asa. He'd like you to come visit him soon!

Mark and I have started getting into the habit of bread and cheese for lunch on outings like this. This is one of our favorite combos: White stilton with cranberries. Mmmmm.....