June 14, 2016 - Westminster Abbey, Churchill War Rooms, Trafalgar Square & Tortilla

As we set off to find breakfast this morning I noticed what a great view we have from the street just outside of our apartment.

We could not take pictures inside the Abbey.  My favorite area of the Abbey was Henry VII's Lady Chapel, which this is a picture from the outside.  The ceiling is gorgeous.  Mary Queen of Scotts in intombed on the left and Queen Elizabeth the first is on the right directly across from each other.

We took advantage of the fact that there wasn't a crowd to take some pictures of the outside.  We had hoped we could find someplace close by for breakfast since we wanted to tour the Abbey when it opened at 9:30.  All I can say is that we headed in the wrong direction for food where if we would have went north there were closer options.  Although I did like my warm bacon sandwich.  I mean how can you go wrong with a fresh warm baguette with thick bacon inside all toasted....oh just thinking about it makes me hungry for breakfast.

There were a lot of bike riders in town today.  Not sure if that is because tonight they are having a nude ride.

We were suposed to get to go through the gardens but this is as far as they let us go.

I am not sure who lives in the Abbey but I thought their doorway was worth a picture.

Yes we should remember them.

While we waited for the rain to let up a little I did some shopping in the gift shop and picked up my London Ornament and a magnet with my family coat of arms.

We then headed to the Churchill War Rooms.  We had to stand in line for about a half hour to get in.

We took advantage of the break in the rain to take a picture of the boys.

The breaks in the rain were few so back on with the hoods.

This is where the military leader met every day at 5:00 to discuss their strategies to win the war.

Roger could not get passed the security outside the door.

Can you imagine working in these closet like spaces for years and hardly ever get to see the light of day.

Because they were underground so long they would have to sit under a sun lamp so that they wouldn't get sick.

The detectives/bodyguards of Churchill even had to sleep two to the small room.  But they must have done something right because they have a carpet in their room.

Sorry about the ghost hand in the picture but wanted to show you the second nicest bedroom.  This was Mrs. Churchills sleeping quarters.

They were always working even while they were eating.  Churchill did have a small private dinning room also but again my ghost hand was in it.

Churchill did have his own personal chef and this is the kitchen she used to make his meals.  You want to talk about no counter space I can't even imagine trying to cook a regular meal in this kitchen but apparently she made some top notch meals here.

It takes a couple of hours to walk through the War Rooms and the museum so if you see an empty chair take advantage of it like these two.

The switchboard operators could never leave their station.  They even had a special gas mask to wear so that they could still do their job.  When they did get to rest their bed was in the same room that they worked in.

Mind you these women could not tell anyone what type of work they were doing until after the war ended.  

I think I would go nuts having to work and sleep in the same room. 

This facility was not made to be a military stronghold, it was for storage so all of the braces are wood.

It was someones job every day to put pins in the maps to track where all known military action or presence was going on.

They had different color pins and string.  Also had to make sure they had plenty of safe places to put their smoked cigarettes and Churchills cigars.  They said that some  of the rooms were thick with smoke since there wasn't much air filtration.

This is the room that Churchill himself worked and slept in.  He made speeches from the desk that was broadcasted to the world.  I have to say I think we all felt that this was a great place to visit.

When we walked out of the War Rooms the sun was shinning so we decided that we would head to Trafalgar square.  As we were walking we saw this womderful military monument to remember those that faught and died in the Great War from 1914-1918.

Of course right after I took that picture they heavens opened up and threw buckets of water down on us.  We were all drenched all the way down to our socks instantly.  We tried snuggeling up against a tree which did help but then we made a mad dash to cross the street to get under an overhang of a building.  When it finally let up at little bit we decided we needed to hurry and head back to the apartment and hope we could find something to eat along the way.  We would see Trafalgar square another day.

But guess what...we accidentely stumbled across it on our way and since the rain had let up we decided to check it out.

The running joke on this trip is that if you ask Dave where he wants to eat, he says "Mexican food".  So when we saw Tortilla with the words Real California Burrito's & Tacos written under neath it, we knew we had to try it.  If you like Freebirds or Chipotle you will definitly like this place, it was great.  The owner of the restaurant is from California.

We finally found a grocery store so we picked up some items for breakfast.  When we got back to the apartment we had to do some laundry, since we had mud splashed all over the bottom of our pants.  Lucky for us we have a washer in our apartment the only thing is it is the size of a childs play washer.  I did find the directions of how to use the washer which told us how to do a quick 45 minute wash the only problem was that I could not get it to set that way.  So 3 hours later the wash was complete.