England

A half-day bus tour from London to Stonehenge gave us enough of an opportunity to gaze in awe at this ancient sacred monument, learn a little more about its history and construction and make us want to return for perhaps a more intimate experience.

On the Hidden London Tour today we visited a number of curious places relating to the history of public transportation hidden in plain sight.

Off the beaten path is Hampstead is the more than three hundred year old Burgh House with a fascinating history. It’s now a community center, local museum, gallery, concert venue, event space, and more open to the public four days a week. We popped over for a bite to eat and to peruse the galleries to learn a little more about Hampstead history.

Ever since its debut on Broadway the two of us have wanted to see “Wicked the Musical”. Today we realized that dream. In the Apollo Victoria Theater in London’s West End we were witness to the incredible prequel to The Wizard of Oz, the story of the Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

London’s National Portrait Gallery’s temporary exhibition, “Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens” presents an amazing collection of portraits, jewelry, personal effects, books, costumes, and more to illustrate not only the lives of the six women who married the second Tudor king, but the effort across five centuries to keep their memory alive.

The purpose of our trek to Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham in the southwest of London was to see a recently recovered bronze bust of the Emperor Caligula but we discovered so much more in the recently restored 18th Century “little Gothic castle” built by Horace Walpole.

London’s Imperial War Museum in Southwark founded even as the First World War raged offers insights into the myriad costs of the wars of the 20th and 21st Centuries. It was a most disquieting but valuable reminder of the myriad costs of war.

The two of us have long been fascinated with the history of canals and their role in the history of transportation, industrialization, and more recently recreation. This stay in London has given us new opportunities to explore and learn more about how canals contributed to the growth of this great city and how they are being used and preserved today.

It was a most educational visit to the newly renovated National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square in Central London. We were intrigued with the contemporary approach to presenting British History.

It was at Bletchley Park that the Allied Codebreakers deciphered German military messages during the Second World War. A free guided tour gave us a good overview of the campus and the activities that occurred here from 1938 to 1945.