My first trip to London was as a schoolchild, I believe I was 10-11 years of age, to the Imperial War Museum. Like any trips to London by non-London natives we also got the bus tour of the highlights, including BuckinghamPalace, The Tower of London, Downing Street and Sherlock Holmes’ reported residence.
Like any school kid on an outing I was excited, particularly as we were going out of town and we were going to a World War II museum which just so happened to be one of the few subjects in school that could hold my attention. The fact that we were going somewhere I had never been also thrilled me. My first trip to London, the nations capital.
So how was it? Well, to be honest it was just like a school trip through any other city I’d been to with the addition of a couple of, “On your left is Buckingham Palace”, “Peer down the street to the left and you may see 10 Downing Street”. That aside the most thrilling part of the trip was the museum itself rather than the city.
Being a youngster who enjoyed learning about the war, the Imperial War Museumwas a great place to visit. Providing a wealth of new information my young mind was yet to have taken in, and also providing some much needed visualizations of trench life, aircraft, weaponry, etc. The ImperialWar Museumwas a good way to spend my first day in London, and was capped off by the extremely large piece of the recently (at the time) demolished Berlin Wall stood just outside the exit. Oh, and there was also a vagrant passed out on the lawn just outside the museum. We first thought he may have been dead, but when he stirred and yelled as we threw chips (or fries for those in the States) at him we realized he was just a drunkard enjoying some sun.