RTW in F/J - Hand Carry Only - Iceland, Finland, Washington and a few other places

[WilsonM]

A quick update before brekkie:

Dinner last night was at Sketch: The Lecture Room, a 3 Michelin Star restaurant in London. Menu and wine pairing below:
View attachment 408896
View attachment 408897

The food and pairings were delicious and the service exactly what you'd expect from a 3* restaurant. I do have pictures but AFF doesn't make it easy to upload and manipulate them to make them presentable so I might have to come back to that one. By the end of it though I was starting to hit a bit of a wall, largely due to fatigue - I think I'd been up at this point for almost 24hrs, having effectively gone back in time since leaving Singapore.

Plan for today is a Full English Breakfast in the dining room at the VSC, followed by a tube trip to the Imperial War Museum. Then, at 1400 I've booked in for a package tour of Buckingham Palace which includes the Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography at the King's Gallery, a tour of the Royal Mews and a tour of the Palace itself. This is apparently the last day that the tour runs as it is only available seasonally - so very fortuitous timing!

After that is a good old fashioned pub crawl with some UK people I've worked with - they very kindly have offered to train it into London from across the UK. I need to make sure I don't get too sauced, as it's an earlyish (0800) flight to Reykjavik tomorrow morning to kick off the Iceland part of my trip - and I might meet a few familiar faces on the way!

Enjoy the IWM of course, but honestly apart from the BL15's out the front I found it a bit light on detail - I reckon it focused on the general public compared to something as in depth as the British Museum - keen to hear your thoughts!

Nothing like a full english to get going - you might be better off getting breakfast prior to your flight - I haven't heard steller things about the dining at BA's T5 lounges

 

[Sprucegoose]

Plan for today is a Full English Breakfast in the dining room at the VSC,

That's a rite of passage there; they take it very seriously. Did you get the Black Pudding?

Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography at the King's Gallery, a tour of the Royal Mews and a tour of the Palace itself.

A brilliant day for all monarchists!

Do you recommend accommodation at the VSC?

 

[Sprucegoose]

Enjoy the IWM of course, but honestly apart from the BL15's out the front I found it a bit light on detail - I reckon it focused on the general public compared to something as in depth as the British Museum

That is most probably the case. The narrators I have spoken to focus on personal stories and broader narratives for wider general appeal. You can't beat the IWM for oral history and as an excellent research platform.

 

[DC3]

That's a rite of passage there; they take it very seriously. Did you get the Black Pudding?

And make sure it contains plenty of pig’s blood for authenticity.

 

[PrezRegan]

Enjoy the IWM of course, but honestly apart from the BL15's out the front I found it a bit light on detail - I reckon it focused on the general public compared to something as in depth as the British Museum - keen to hear your thoughts!

Nothing like a full english to get going - you might be better off getting breakfast prior to your flight - I haven't heard steller things about the dining at BA's T5 lounges

The IWM was definitely interesting but i agree that it seems to be a bit light on detail, which I suppose it has to be given it tries to cover the entire sweep of WWII. It does have some interesting mementos like the pen used to sign the armistice imposed between Germany and France, and a few other things. Basically a large part of the museum seems dedicated to WWII and a little on WWI but doesn't touch on anything before such as the Boer War or earlier.

There's also a holocaust exhibition which seemed a bit odd as it doesn't have much to do with Britain. It had an interesting coverage of the road to war from Germany's point of view, detailing the rise of Hitler, naz_sm etc., and it did cover the ghettos, the SS, the concentration camps and so forth. It was good content but again, not sure of its relevance to British military history.

The "psychology of war" exhibition was a bit average, seemed to go over a lot of the generic road to WWII stuff and not as much on the in depth psychology part such as mirall injury, psychology of violence, coping with returning home, propaganda etc. there were a few individual exhibits that touched on that topic but not very detailed. There is a new exhibition coming on drone warfare which would've been very cool to see. It seems pitched at high school level and a bit 2D in its examination.

My biggest gripe is that the museum seems to gloss over the more recent conflicts. There's only a few items on the Falkland War and the Troubles, which are two very interesting periods I wanted to know more about as they are uniquely British. There was also not much on Afghanistan or Iraq, besides a few individual things in the psychology of war. I honestly think the AWM back home does a better job but it's got a lot more space to play with.

There is a hall of valour similar to the AWM's VC Display but is again a little limited with not much info on the individuals. Admittedly they have a lot more history and people to cover.

Overall, it was worth going to and definitely lots to see but a bit disappointed it didn't cover more contemporary stuff like the AWM does.

 

[PrezRegan]

That's a rite of passage there; they take it very seriously. Did you get the Black Pudding?


A brilliant day for all monarchists!

Do you recommend accommodation at the VSC?

I did get black pudding! I do like it. The fried bread was... interesting, it's literally just toast that's fried. Can't see the appeal tbh, it's just greasy.


I would stay at the VSC again but a caveat to the general audience that accommodation or even access is only available for members and their guests. Given the location and price it's excellent value for a solo traveller and they do have nicer rooms I'd you're not travelling solo.

 

[PrezRegan]

@Sprucegoose I can confirm the gift show at the portrait gallery is a monarchists wet dream, I've never seen so much monarch related memorabilia in my life