Allen Family Adventure: May 2009

Rebecca, Christine, and Rebecca

Our Rebecca brought two friends with her to visit, both from North Carolina. Rebecca Snyder and Christine Ehrisman. As you can see, they have had a great time together. We have enjoyed their company.

On the left, Rebecca A and Christine asleep. On the right, Rebecca S and John laughing after taking their sleeping pictures.

Churchill's War Room

Winston Churchill and his Cabinet Ministers ran WWII from an underground complex underneath the Treasury buildings near Whitehall in London. It was built to withstand a direct hit from a German bomb, but luckily never actually was hit - they weren't sure if it could withstand a direct hit from one of the big, 500 pounders.

The complex was huge, you only see a small part of it. It housed over 500 people and had a hospital, a shooting range, and dormitories for those working there. Interestingly, on the day of the Japanese surrender, they all packed up their belongings, turned out the lights, and walked away leaving it after working there for 6 years. It is very much the way it was left in 1945. There is also a very modern Churchill museum in the complex, opened a couple of years ago, it is a very interesting look at his life. There is a letter displayed from the King talking about a conversation they had held the previous night. The King says, "you recall where we discussed we wanted to be on D Day? Well on further consideration, I think it makes no sense to risk both the PM and the Sovereign at this dangerous time in history. I am not going, and I ask the same of you." (paraphrased) Pretty amazing, the King and Churchill wanted to lead their troops onto the beach at D Day.

The picture at the top is my favorite. In the actual War Room the walls are covered by maps tracking the progress of the war. Someone stationed there in the bunker drew a cartoon of Hitler right on the map.

This is a lousy shot of the room where the cabinet met.

This is the War Room (that cartoon of Hitler is on the left wall)

This is the room from where the BBC broadcast the news of the war.

This is another of the war rooms. You can see the row of phones, each a different color, each connected to a different head of government somewhere in the world. The ivory covered one on the right end connected to the King of England. This was the home of the first ever "hot line" - a secure phone line connecting Churchill to the Presidents of the US, Roosevelt & Truman. Churchill kept that phone in his lavatory.

The bedrooms of the Churchills. Winston on the left and his wife on the right. It is said he only stayed there three nights during the war.

Benjamin Franklins House in London

The only surviving house in the world where Ben Franklin lived is - ironically - in London. It really isn't much to see, as you will note by the fact that I included but 5 pictures, two of molding. But what was interesting was the way they presented the house. It was done by an actress representing a real person in Franklin's life in period costume, who worked with audio and video. It was really impressive technology. She would take us into a room and then have "conversations" with the audio - obviously well rehearsed - while pictures or video was displayed on the walls. In the course of the 45 minute presentation you learned a great deal about Franklin. At a point in the "conversation" someone would call from another room, or you'd hear a noise, (all part of this sophisticated audio / video system) and she'd take us to the next room to respond to whatever the sound was. And in that fashion, she took us around the house, teaching us about what Franklin did while living there. Franklin loved London and spend sixteen years there while his family stayed home.

Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens a gigantic botanical garden. It is the world's largest collection of living plants. 1 in 8 of all of the plants species in the world are represented here. It all houses the world's largest collection of dried herbs in the 'herbarium.' In 2009 it is celebrating its 250th anniversary. They have free walking tours of the grounds and we took one guided by this little old lady, who clearly knew her stuff and was passionate about the park. It was terrific. The park is huge and really has to be experienced to be appreciated. Pictures do not do it justice. We were fortunate to go on a 'mostly' pretty day with many of the flowers in bloom.

The wood carving above was done by a school kid and was cut from trees that were blown down in a big storm a few years ago. It represents the park and show several of the more notable structures.

And it also is the home of the smallest of the 16 royal palaces, Kew Palace. (which we didn't go in- why bother? We have our standards. )

There is a Japanese pagoda. It is 163 feet tall, we are a long way from it taking this picture.

The have a greenhouse called the Waterlily House, that is amazing. The center picture is the pool in the middle of the greenhouse and those giant floating things are all one huge plant! The two pictures of flowers are also part of the same plant. Interestingly, the flowers are bright colors until a bee comes along. The flowers will close on the bee and slowly turn a dark red and cool off. think this lasts all night. Then the flower opens, and the bee, totally covered in pollen by this time loses interest in this dark colored, cooler plant and goes looking for warmer, brighter plants which it pollenates.

They have what they call the 'treetop walkway' which as you can see below, is exactly what it sounds like. It was great walking amoung the tops of the trees.

Below you see pictures of two of the older residents of this park. Remember the park is 250 years old, so there are some old trees. These two are on crutches.