Business Trip to London

Buck in London
Near the Tower of London, looking toward the Tower Bridge

I recently travelled to London to attend a conference for work.  To save a large bag of cash on the flight, it was cheaper for us to go over a couple days early, so I had a chance to see a few fights the day before the conference started.

The Shard
This is the "Shard." It is the tallest structure in the EU.

The first thing we did was go atop The Shard.  This is the tallest structure in the EU.  From atop the Shard you get some spectacular views of London.  It was a bit hazy in the morning, but the weather cleared up nicely the rest of the week.

Looking up at the Shard
Looking up at the Shard
A view of London from The Shard
A view of London from The Shard

I met my buddy Simon, and we then visited two places I hadn’t seen in my previous visits to London.  The fist was the Cabinet War Rooms, where the British Government ran during WWII.

The "Map Room" within the Cabinet War Rooms
The "Map Room" within the Cabinet War Rooms

In the Cabinet War Rooms was also an extensive museum dedicated to Winston Churchill.  It was really terrific, tracing his life from his earliest days as a soldier and war correspondent to his second term as Prime Minister and his death.

A mockup of a trench in the Imperial War Museum
A mockup of a trench in the Imperial War Museum

I have been to London several times, but I had never gotten to the Imperial War Museum.  I had been told it was primarily filled with WWI artifacts.  Since that war doesn’t interest me much, this museum always took a back seat to other things I wanted to see, like the British Army Museum.  The ground floor is dedicated to WWI, and the displays are excellent.  The museum focuses on soldiers’ stories, not the battles and generals.  I really enjoyed it.  The other displays, WWII to the present were less impressive.

We passed this sculpture at one point.  Since I have played a number of pirate games, I had to get a picture of this.

The Globe Theater in London
The Globe Theater in London

That evening we saw an excellent production of The Taming of the Shrew in the Globe Theater in London.  This theater is an exact reproduction of the original Globe.  It was really neat to see Shakespeare in the Globe in London.

The interior of The Globe
The interior of The Globe

After three days at the conference, all of the folks I know headed home, but I stayed to attend the Partizan wargaming show in Newark on Trent, Nottinghamshire.  That is the subject of my next post.