UK Tourist & Leisure Attractions

Quite an imposing sight on arrival at the Imperial War Museum with those two big guns pointing out!  The IWM is in Lambeth just south of the Thames, nearest tube is Lambeth North.

The museum entrance leads into the main Large Exhibits Gallery with war aircraft suspended overhead plus tanks, rockets and other weapons and vehicle collections.
 

Up in the elevated galley at the Imperial War Museum, we found the big guns awesome.  Wouldn't want to be the receiving end though!

Here's the fuselage remains of a bomber which we also entered to see its innards, all affording pretty basic levels of comfort for the crew.
 

In the Large Exhibits Gallery we see the V2 rocket and a very old London bus.  The queue was for tickets for the temporary Ian Fleming exhibition which we visited too.

Now looking to the other side of the Large Exhibits Gallery at the Imperial War Museum and a navy rocket, some more air weapons, tanks and aircraft.
 

We visited the museum's cafe which was adequate but not too exciting.  There's an extensive park area outside for eating on a suitable day, the weather wasn't conducive on our visit though!

The Imperial War Museum runs talks throughout the day.  We also visited the 'For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond' exhibition, devoted to the life and work of James Bond's creator.
 

Venturing into the Secret War Gallery at the museum we found an original German Enigma cipher machine used for sending secret coded messages during WWll.
 

During wars regular soldiers are tasked with recording the battles on film.  Here's the sort of kit they used, somewhat crude by today's standards of course.  No, Mike doesn't want one, he's quite happy with his modern digital camcorder!  Wouldn't want to have to lug that bulky camera around during battle!

More gallery areas at the Imperial War Museum, this shot shows an example of the various displays exhibited.

Many links to our visits are on our UK tourist links page.

The First World War Gallery had a fascinating walk-through re-creation of a front line trench on the Somme with effective lighting, sound and smell effects.  This section was similar to the one at the Tank Museum we've previously visited.
 

Now in the Second World War Gallery, here's Belinda reading up on how the wartime pilots navigated to their target!  What, no Sat Nav?

Still in the Second World War Gallery Belinda admired the men in uniform with their huge weapons!  The Blitz Experience was particularly interesting.
 

We also went round the extensive Holocaust Exhibition which was rather shocking, sad and moving.  Here's Mike posing against some of the exhibits in the Large Exhibits Gallery on the way out.  The IWM website is on our tourist links page.

Typical tourists taking pictures of everything!  We certainly enjoyed our visit to the Imperial War Museum, if visiting do allow a full day as we ran out of time to see everything, what with taking in the Ian Fleming exhibition too.  IWM entrance is free.