Wars....sadly

I am still pretty emotional over The Ferryman, especially coming fresh off a week in Ireland and learning the history and struggles of this country that is just glossed over in our history books.  It is true that we lived a great deal of the Northern Ireland /IRA conflicts in modern times but we did it from America.  When we heard the times recounted from our tour guide, Martine, who witnessed it first hand, it was especially poignant.  Dom & I actually did not remember that it was Bill Clinton who brokered a peace between what is now known as the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in 1998, not 20 years ago.

The Ferryman takes place in 1981, all in the Carney family farmhouse in Northern Ireland.  It definitely involves a cast of characters from the family priest to the intruder who I would liken to a mobster.  Without giving anything away, the message of the play is fiercely powerful and the ending quite shocking.  I hope if it does come to Broadway that it is received in the moral sense that it is meant to be and does not foster more division in our country.

Today we went to the Churchill War Museum where visitors are completely immersed into World War II.  Churchill and his staff and advisors conducted all their business, day & night out of this underground 'bunker', that despite have a concrete coating installed around it, was still not 'bomb proof'.  We saw what would be called today the "War Room", the living quarters of Churchill, his officers, the support staff and even the kitchen; the decoding, messaging and map rooms....all underground.

After viewing the bunker, you are taken back to how it all began; the war, that is.  I again became emotional, thinking that even though Hitler was defeated, there is always a monster right around the corner, looking to continue annihilaton.
Churchill was quite the character, as you know, and he had a way of reinventing himself throughout  his political life so there was a lot of material.
We spent 3 hours there and really enjoyed it.

No trip to London is complete without a spin through Harrod's.  It is quite the spectacle but the crowds can be overwhelming.  We were glad to leave.

Dinner tonight is at a restaurant we went to last time that we really enjoyed:  the Chiltern Firehouse.

Tomorrow back to LA.  I think Dom is really ready to return.  And I miss everyone.

Thank you so much for reading my blog.  I started blogging about our big trips a few years ago so that I would have a lasting memory of them for myself.   I told a few friends and they said reading the blogs made them feel as if they were on the trip with me and urged me to blog again last year and again this year.
Dom took the liberty of posting each installment on his FB page so that others may also enjoy our adventures.  I hope you have continued to enjoy reading them and maybe even gotten a chuckle or two out of the posts.