I’m feeling a little more human this morning after a full night of sleep. Our first stop today is a visit to the Churchill War Rooms. We took the bus/walked to Westminster. Crossing the River Thames via the Westminster Bridge offers beautiful views of Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye. We popped into a Café Nero for coffees and water before slowing walking a loop around Parliament and Westminster Abbey. I love these buildings and the gorgeous architecture! Bonus, the preservation and maintenance work that has been ongoing the past few years seems to have been completed and there is no scaffolding or tarping blocking the views!

We joined the queue for the Churchill War Rooms and finished our drinks. Tickets are based on a 30-minute timed entry window (you can enter any time within your selected window) and there is a quick security check for bags. The Churchill War Rooms are the underground complex used by Winston Churchill and the British government during the Second World War.

The first main stop on the tour is the Churchill Museum which gives a more detailed view of Churchill from the lens of his family life, his political career, and his personal quirks. The museum isn’t exactly linear so pay attention to the dates to piece together his life story in chronological order. Continue along the tour for a view into what life was like in this complex during the war. There are meeting, dormitory, and dining rooms as well as switch rooms (think server or telephone-like rooms) and map rooms. You complete the tour at your own pace and use an audio-guide to listen to prerecorded information about each location or time period. There is a café at roughly the halfway point of the tour which offers light refreshments such as tea, coffee, scones, etc. A small gift shop and toilets are available at the beginning/end of the tour. 

We took the tube to Notting Hill and ate lunch at Pret A Manger to keep to our time commitments. Pret A Manger is not especially popular in the US, though some larger cities have locations. They offer solid hot and cold sandwich options at an affordable price and in quick time. It wouldn’t have hurt us to have a slightly heartier lunch before our next activity though we managed it fine.