Another good war museum

One of my favorite London museums (of which I had many) is the Imperial War Museum.

Or, as I like to call it, the Peace Museum. Since its display of the details of 20th century wars is meticulous, but not laudatory, and the net effect of a visit is reinforced pacifism.

Last weekend we visited a nearby museum with a smaller focus—the National Museum of the Pacific War. But within its more limited scope, it's just as meticulous, just as well-designed and thought-out, just as respectful, and just as pacifism-reinforcing.

The quaint hill country town and shopping destination of Fredericksburg isn't the first place you might guess for the location of this fine museum. But it was the boyhood home of Admiral Chester Nimitz, who commanded the U.S. Pacific Fleet in World War II. And the current museum grew out of an earlier, smaller, enterprise that just showcased his life.

So this charming little town finds itself home to this world-class museum.

We had other activities planned for the gorgeous spring day in this area (read about them over at Hometown Tourist) and so were totally unprepared for how long we discovered we wanted to spend at the Museum. Its footprint is small, but it's so cleverly laid-out that its density means you'd need many, many hours to do its displays justice.

The main attractions of the place are these multitudinous displays, many interactive, its wonderful detailed maps, and its poignant artifacts. It was hard to take good pictures in the dim light of the galleries, but I had to snap this display, celebrating the Flying Tigers that my father-in-law served with:

But the museum also makes room for bigger exhibits, like this seaplane:


The grounds of the museum, connecting the older Nimitz family hotel (see picture at the bottom of the post) with the new expansion containing the main displays, is a lovely park-like area. The picture of Hal and Carey above, under one of its handsome trellises, and the memorial plaques shown below form parts of this peaceful area:

Only rarely since I've left London have I found a museum that I wanted to rank with any that I visited there. But here, in little Fredericksburg, I think I found one.

I was so taken with its innards, in fact, that I neglected to take a photo of the impressive Victorian Nimitz Hotel part of the complex. But fortunately Wikipedia Commons had one I could borrow:

I'm already planning a return trip!

More museums revisited

More re-visits of museums that need more than a light once-over to feel like you've really been there—British Museum, Imperial War Museum and Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. Wow! What a lot of different kinds of history!

The BM is truly an unforgettable experience as a building as well as for the amazing collections it holds. Above is a picture of its Grand Court, taken from a peephole on an upper floor. What a wonderful place to meet friends who went to different galleries, have lunch, and just hang out. I made it to some galleries I'd missed during my first visit, like the American and Asian ones. And I caught an interesting talk about ancient Iraq/Mesopotamia. The attractive game board at the right is from that gallery.

The IWM is a much more focused experience, but none the less impressive and educational. This was my fourth visit, and it might be my last, as I was able to spend the whole time Monday in the World War I and II galleries. There is still a lot I just ran out of energy and wasn't able to take in. I think they have the densest exhibit cases, in terms of what you can learn in each one, for any museum I've ever seen. Since I don't believe I've posted pictures from it previously, I thought I'd include a shot of this nice WWI diorama—a good perspective on trench activity, set up to show a section of the Battle of the Somme.


My previous visit to the Churchill Museum was a hurried trip with my class, for which I was a little late, just coming in from the wedding in Denver. So I thought it deserved a more measured perusal, and I'm glad I went back for another go. Henry and I spent about 3 hours there this afternoon. The museum is very interesting and entertaining in its coverage of "Winnie" from birth to death. But the really unique part of the place is the restored War Rooms where he sheltered with his cabinet and military advisers, safe from the raids of Blitz, doodlebugs and flying bombs (V1s and V2s). It really gives you a feeling of "being there" to wander through the warren of hallways and peek into rooms like this command center, with its multicolored phones and maps all over the walls.


You'd think the mannequins they have positioned in the rooms would be a cheesy touch, but they really add to the realism and more than once I glanced over and thought there was really someone there. It's not as scary as living with the real fear that Hitler would invade England at any moment, but it's spooky, as well as fascinating, all the same.

London entertainments

As I've mentioned before, most of my time last week was spent catching up with work (and blogging). But I did have time for some very London-like entertainment breaks.

On Saturday my guests and I attended a performance of Spamalot, which I've been wanting to see ever since I first read about it several years ago. Although our seats gave new meaning to the term nose-bleed (I have never sat in such steeply pitched seats!) we thoroughly enjoyed the show. I didn't realize I would remember so much from the movie, so it was a pleasant surprise to find myself anticipating the bits coming up so eagerly. What a hoot!

It was especially welcome to indulge in such silliness because we'd spent a rather heavy whole afternoon in the Imperial War Museum. Yes, I went back there again, and still haven't seen it all. I spent most of my time this visit finishing up the Holocaust exhibit and wanted to listen to all of the video survivor accounts. I was very pleased that my guests found the museum as a whole as rewarding as I have and that they wanted to stay there that long.

The next time I go back, I want to concentrate on the World War I galleries. There have been a lot of fascinating documentaries on BBC Four (my new favorite channel in the whole world—I surely will miss it) dealing with the Great War since the upcoming Remembrance Day (November 11) will be the 90th anniversary of the Armistice. It still infuriates me no end that the war was fought at all, but it really is a fascinating subject and I want to spend some more time seeing what the IWM can teach me about it.

Backtracking a bit, I have to tell you about the other English cultural experience we had, namely, a football match. Unfortunately, it was held on probably the coldest night of our visit, but still was great fun. Another somewhat unfortunate factor is that it was between a couple of bottom-dwelling teams, Fulham and Wigan, but although it seemed not a very even contest to me (Fulham won, 2-0) the level of play was still quite pleasing for American audiences and my students and I all enjoyed ourselves enormously. The stands were full of enthusiastic Fulham fans—even though our tickets were marked as being in a "neutral" area (they have to keep the two teams' fans separated to avoid bloodshed!) and we all got into cheering for the home team.

The trip to and from the grounds was part of the cultural experience as the tube was absolutely packed, especially on the way over there, and our short walk through Bishop's Park was in the company of hundreds of Fulham fans. No chance of getting lost!

It was pretty hard to take pictures with my little camera that showed any of the action, or even the crowd, properly, but in the shot below I can point out an England luminary. The second gentleman from the right, in the blue stripes of Wigan, is Emile Heskey, who's played on the English national team for several years. He didn't have much joy this night, though, as his mates couldn't seem to get him the ball. But that was all the better for Fulham, who might just avoid relegation again this year.


Another important highlight from the match: Fulham's lone American player, Clint Dempsey, came into the game with about 20 minutes to go and acquitted himself admirably, although at that point they were playing pretty defensively, being up 2-0, and he's an attacking player. But we all cheered him enthusiastically, which had the added advantage of helping us keep warm!

Repeat visit required

After class yesterday I made my third visit to the Imperial War Museum, this time with a willing guest visitor. He enjoyed it so much, in fact, that he spent almost the whole two hours we were there on just the main floor! I couldn't believe it! There are 3 more floors, not counting the art galleries, with substantial exhibits. So he'll definitely have to go back on his next visit to London. He took the picture at the left of the motorcycle T.E. Lawrence (he of Arabia) was riding when he had his fatal crash. So cool! I had somehow missed seeing this on my previous visits.

I spent my time yesterday going very slowly through their excellent Holocaust section. Two hours was enough time to get about 2/3 of the way through, but that was really enough for one session. As one of my students described it: very intense. But also extremely interesting and educational.

We're awaiting another guest's arrival today, and I'm looking forward to our break week next week. I do love my students, but thinking about almost 3 weeks with no classroom teaching (we have site visits planned for the week after break) makes me smile. The next time I'm in the classroom will be election day. Yes, I've put my ballot in the mail, after consulting with Henry about local judges. If Obama loses Texas by one vote, I'll know it wasn't my fault.

In addition to over-visiting museums, another favorite travel activity of Henry's is car-tourism, and the picture below is of him ogling a noteworthy specimen along the Victoria Embankment. He's an expert at this arcane pursuit and has been treated to a lot of memorable sights already on this visit. Apparently London is a very interesting town for the car-tourist.


And, of course, a favorite activity of both of ours is sports tourism. Here's the scene as we were leaving O'Neill's after watching a satisfying World Cup qualifying win for England over Belarus. Good game, good brew, good atmosphere!

The Big Guy Himself

I got great directions from Transport for London's wonderful website and was ready to strike out on a hybrid tube-bus journey to the War Museum yesterday. (There was too much I didn't have time to see the first time I went to the Museum and I had to talk to the kids in my WWII class today about it.)

The first part of the journey involved a tube ride to Westminster station and when I got up to the street I looked around and was a little surprised—although I shouldn't have been—to find myself right at the feet of Big Ben's clock tower. (Big Ben isn't the clock or the tower, but the bell that sounds the hour, or so I've been told.) What a spectacular structure this is! I had to snap a picture before looking for my bus stop— which is always a challenge.

I eventually found it, though, and hopped up to the upper deck for a short ride to the Museum on the other side of the river. More good pix from the window of the bus. Can you believe that's where I took this one?

The War Museum was fantastic, again, and I got to see lots more stuff that I had skipped the first time around. I plan to go back several times, until I've seen it all!

The day ended pleasantly, with a faculty reception at which I learned about all kinds of wonderful sights to see and pubs and restaurants to try in my neighborhood. I'm glad Hal's coming tomorrow—we've got lots of exploring to do!

Gimme a V! Gimme an A!

....and also an "H" and a "IWM!" I've been very busy since my last post and have lots to catch up on.

I was successful yesterday in catching the correct bus and getting to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The hour and a half I had for the excursion was just enough to scratch the surface of this amazing place, though. I'm thinking I need to make a separate special place in one of my notebooks for "places to go back to." I'm so fortunate to have enough time to be able to do that!

The main reason I went to the V&A was to see the clothing gallery since I'd read there were good examples of WWII utility clothing that I might want to recommend for my WWII class. That exhibit was actually a little disappointing, as there were not as many items as I had hoped. But the bright side is that gave me more time to check out some other exhibits of interest. I was unable to find the musical instruments gallery (the place is a maze) but I did make it to the jewelery section and WOW! that was worth the trip. An astonishing array of historically interesting, and just flat-out gorgeous stuff.

The rest of yesterday was spent getting provisions for, preparing, and having a little party for our students at the flats. It was a lot of fun. I think I might have mentioned before, what a delightful group of kids they are? They went out to karaoke last night but my colleagues and I were partied out and made early evenings of it.

Today, though, we were hyper tourists. The "H" referred to above was Harrods, and what a hoot of a place that is! I don't know if I would ever actually buy anything there (except for food, which is scrumptious and some reasonably-priced stuff can be found, especially in the bakery) but it was certainly fun to look around. The Christmas section is spectacular (and I might return at some point to get a souvenir ornament...) and I really enjoyed the lighting department. I've never seen such unusual lamps and chandeliers. The games area might have been my favorite section (except for the food). This foosball table for the man who has everything—a bargain at £5000 since they only made 50 of them—was a particularly interesting find.

After fortifying ourselves at Harrod's Food Hall gelato bar, we headed south of the river for a completely different experience at the Imperial War Museum. This is one of the main visiting points for my WWII class and I have been eager to scope it out.

What an absolutely fabulous museum! You could spend days and days in there and never see everything—and everything is so fascinating and so well-displayed. We particularly found the Children's War exhibit moving and absorbing, and they have so many interesting little items from WWII that I know I'll want to go back prior to my class' visit, and several times thereafter. There's a whole gallery just on D-Day! Plus there's the First World War stuff I want to see. And the Holocaust Exhibit, which I only had time to run through quickly, looks so interesting, with lots of background information and studies of the events from different angles. As well, of course, as the heartbreaking stories and personal accounts scattered throughout.

This museum tells a sad, but very important, story, and tells it very well. I think it should be a required stop for all London visitors.

We came out of the museum to a lovely afternoon, but are certainly thinking about our friends and families in Houston. Let's hope Ike fizzles out and only brings y'all some good rains.