Greetings, blog enthusiasts!
This week, we have officially departed from Cambridge. Instead, we are now staying in London for a few days, before moving onto Portsmouth, then Normandy.
It’s already been quite a busy week! On Monday (the 22nd), we got to sleep in a bit – we arrived at the Science Museum at 10am. This is the second time we’d visited the Science Museum, and this time we were looking at a specific display called the Networks room. This room was dedicated to six different networks that changed the course of human history: telegraph cables, broadcasting, phone networks, the internet, cell networks, and satellites. My favorite part was the telegraph section; shown below is a piece of an early trans-Atlantic cable, directly connecting Britain and the United States for near-instant communication.
A section of the 1975 trans-Atlantic telegraph cable
The internet section was also very cool, demonstrating – among many other things – some early supercomputers and the advancement of microprocessors over time.
Later that day, we had time off, so myself and two classmates decided to go to the British Museum. For those who don’t know, the British museum is a museum with artifacts from all around the world collected in big, elaborate displays to show off different world cultures. At the British museum, we saw mummies in the Egyptian exhibit, as well as art and armor from the Roman and Greek exhibits. We also saw some cool clocks in an exhibit about the origins of clock-making.
Monday night, my roommate suggested that we go somewhere with a view. So James and I headed to the Skygarden, a top-floor garden/restaurant on top of a skyscraper called the Walkie-Talkie. The name comes from the tower’s unique, bulging shape, which curves outwards near the top.
After a moderate wait, we were admitted to the tower, riding the elevator 35 stories to the top. There, we got some truly spectacular views, including the Eye of London and the Gherkin.
The following day, Tuesday the 23rd, we went on a guided coach tour of London, guided by our wonderful guide Ruth. She showed us sites related to World War II (or the Second World War, as they call it here), including: a controversial statue of Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris; St. Clement Danes Church, the central church of the Royal Air Force which has a hole in it from the blitz; the Battle of Britain monument, paying tribute to the airmen, ground crew, and observer corps who participated in the battle; Big Ben, covered in scaffolding; Westminster Abbey, the location of Britain’s parliament; and finally the Churchill War Rooms and Museum, the reinforced underground rooms where Churchill lived and lead during the Second World War.
Big Ben, covered in scaffolding for major repairs 
A statue of Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris in front of St. Clement Danes 
The meeting room in Churchill’s underground war rooms 
A portion of the Battle of Britain monument, with the foreground soldier meant to honor the Observer Corps
So far, our trip within a trip has been amazing and incredibly informative. I look forward to whatever comes next!