After 13 days at sea, the MS Caribbean Princess returned to Southampton, offloading its 3,000-plus passengers as they went on their merry way in Europe or returned to North America. We took this opportunity to spend a few days in London, once upon a time the epicenter of world power and commerce.
Since this was the first trip to London for our 8-year-old daughter, whose prior exposure to the British capital was mostly through "Mary Poppins," we did the obligatory tourist stuff - The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and the British Museum. But on a blazing hot summer afternoon (as London was sweltering in 90-degree heat most of July), I snuck down into the Churchill War Rooms in the basement of the Treasury building at Whitehall.
The War Rooms underwent extensive renovations and expansion in 2003 and was renamed in 2010. Preserved with much of its original features after its opening on Aug. 27, 1939 - one week before Britain declared war on Nazi Germany - the War Rooms provides a vivid visual experience of being in the nerve center of western resistance to Hitler's war machine. Giant maps, telephone switchboards, meeting rooms and even Churchill's private study are faithfully restored to what they would've been like some 70 years ago.
Read Full Article »
