7 March 2010
Warship museum
After the Tate (which might actually be the last museum I go to on this visit, no promises though, its hard to pass them up as they are free), I decided to walk further along Southbank, eventually I got to an old warship you can go on. OK its sort of a museum, but its not free, I paid the fee and was excited, Its the HMS Belfast and I had heard its great.
Theres hardly anyone else on it, and you can literally go everywhere, down 5 levels in the boiler rooms, in the gun turrets, up to the bridge, through the mess halls and showers etc.
It is quite dangerous, the stairs are narrow and I hit my head 3 times and im not exactly clumsy, I saw a woman actually crying who had fallen and hurt herself, others were helping her so I didnt have to feel bad for turning a blind eye.
I highly recommend this ship, it was fascinating, lots of info on what the ship had been through, and what everything did, they have a few creepy looking wax dummies around the place (as seen below). Its great how there arent security guards everywhere making sure you dont touch anything, you are left to explore the various hatches and whatever at your own pace.
I spotted the ship from afar, and decided I would go on it, it costs about 10 pounds which isnt cheap, but I think it was worth it.
Not sure what this is, but its next to the ship and the roof was pretty awesome.
Inside an aft gun turret.
Map of the ship, its really quite large, about 10 levels in total, 5 below and 4 above the main deck.
Creepy wax bakers.
One of the engine or boiler rooms, you can walk right around all of it, down 3 levels.
View from the poop deck.
The bridge, I sat in the captains chair for a good 5 minutes, no one else came on the bridge the whole time, as soon as I started giving orders some other people came to ruin my fun.
The tower of London is quite nearby.
After the ship, I went home, had some soup from Marks and Spencer for lunch and went to the laundromat, read above for a blow by blow description.
By the time this debacle was over, I had just enough time to get to Tescos before closing time, London is a ghost town on Sunday nights, theres no shows on, the stores all close, I decided to relax in my hotel room and type all this, I hope you are appreciative, actually I dont care.
My dinner is the low calorie thai red chicken curry tescos meal, which I have transferred to my bowl and which was fantastic, I know im going on about 'ready meals', but they really dont have these in Australia and they should. They arent frozen dinners, they are made fresh daily. The side dish is a pea and bean salad which is also delicious, I had it when I was here last time and remembered that I liked it.