Never, Never, Neve Give Up

The next day, we decided to go the long way to our next destination and take a little bit of a walk. We went in front of a few buildings that people seemed kind of interested in...

And then took a stroll through the park... 

Before getting to our ultimate destination. 

To say that this place is moving is an understatement. I can't even imagine having thousands of these falling from the sky onto my city and my loved ones. 

Nor do I know how I would have handled the cramped conditioned while waiting for the all clear that the enemy has finished bombarding us...for the time being. 

People would sleep in here while waiting for the air raids to finish.

The bunker was reinforced with steel...

...and concrete.

It was awe inspiring to be in the rooms where some of the most important decisions in the war were made.

In the map room, you could see the last official placement of troops when the war ended, and you could see the pin pricks of past positions held. 

Once the war ended, the workers in the Churchill War Rooms literally just packed up and left it as it lay, so you see frozen moments in time when you venture down there: 

The keys to all of the room, left hanging on the door. 

The last predicted casualties of the war before the official numbers came in. 

The final placement of troops in the pacific when the war ended. 

Even though I have always had a profound respect for the people who endured this war, the Churchill War Rooms put it into even greater perspective from a militaristic standpoint. I have always heard stories about the war from a personal perspective: my grandfather running through fields to get to the nearest bomb shelter with planes zooming overhead, my grandmother collecting scrap metal after air raids from the airplanes that were shot down or damaged, my grandfather going outside during a bombing (when it should have been pitch black due to the blackout curtains) and being able to read a newspaper from the flames of a nearby city, my other grandmother's first fiance, a pilot, being shot down by the Germans, my great-great-uncle coming back from a prisoner camp looking like a skeleton and screaming from the nightmares he would tell no one about. Those are the stories I've committed to heart. This museum helped me learn about the people who helped boost morale, stood firm, and helped win that awful war. 

After an emotional day underground in the bunker, my husband and I decided to walk next to the Themes and just drink in the city during our last day there. Immediately upon coming above ground, we saw the iconic Big Ben, standing proudly against the gray sky: 

We took in the simple beauty of the Thames

And took a moment to silently thank all the people who perished fighting for what was right. 

"All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." ~ Winston Churchill