Wellcome Museum, London Dungeon and Imperial War Museum

Today is another small post day, but not because I have little to talk about. I'm currently sitting in Stirling, Scotland, and I've had a great trip and I've only been here a few hours. But I've written already a massive amount of stuff about Scottish history already and want to keep my sections bite-sized. So I'm going to keep this fairly short, but rest assured the next post or so will be filled with Scottish vacation information.

Wednesday was a double class excursion day. We had to combine two trips into one day because of a scheduling conflict, so in the morning we went to the Wellcome Museum.

This private museum had originally been setup by a Dr. Wellcome, who seemed to be a collector of many things, but mainly had objects relating to issues in medicene and science. His collection had been gathered from every culture, and were filled with oddities.

 Things were presented in an artistic manner. For example, in the obesity section there was a model of a man, whose upper half was covered in huge flags of fat, appearing to be a disgusting human boil.

In the evolution section, there was artwork on display by an artist who depicted humans if they had evolved different, like a a dog or fish. The nervous system section had a photograph of the entire nervous system, with the spinal column arched and the nerves flying out. It was creepy. And then we went into his personal collection, a assortment of what I can only describe as horrors. A mummified person, tattoos collected from the skin they were once attached to. Shrunken skulls, a painting of a childbirth in progress; this museum was disgusting and horrifying.

Don't try to picture these things I'm describing. Think of these kittens instead. You'll be happier.

After looking through the exhibit on human waste and dirt, I left to try to stomache down some food.

A few hours later, we headed to the London Dungeon.

 I'm not sure if this place was ever an actual prison, but today it's more of a haunted house. I had heard it was cheesy, but the girls were still apprehensive about the whole ordeal, so I was made to promise to stay close and in the front of the pack. If anyone knows me, the one thing I am terrified of is mountain lions, but alas for the London Dungeon, they were unaware of this fact and I lead us through the house with a shred of fear. I would crack half-witty jokes the entire time when I felt the atmosphere was a little too frightening, which seemed to be appreciated by the women. Some of it was cheesy, but most of it was pretty good, and one part was actually pretty scary for most of the group, so all in all in was a enjoyable experience for a field trip. Some people had difficulty with it though; one girl not associated with our group fainted before a Sweeny Todd part, possibly due to the heat. Thankfully our group made it out okay.

Thursday we went to the Imperial War Museum.

A giant twin-barreled cannons in the front of a Museum is usually a good sign.

I was much more excited about this museum than the Wellcome Museum, and my hope was not in vain. The museum was utterly fantastic, walking in you were surrounded by tanks and other fighting vehicles.

 Since this was an excursion from our child psych class, we had to first visit the Children in War section. This exhibit was actually quite erie; there was some monuments to those who had died during the London Bombings, the youngest being eleven hours old. It also talked about how children had been evacuated out of London, with many helping the war effort by growing vegetables, and the older ones helping with fire watch or messenging during air raids. I actually got to speak to one gentlemen who had been alive during this time as a child, and his story was quite intriguing. He told me how he actually found the war quite exciting as a child, and that while women would stay in bomb shelters, the men would sit in their houses, stubbornly refusing to head towards safety.

After the Children in War part, I decided to visit the World War I section to cheer me up. This was a fantastic part of the museum; objects from every faction and military force tht served in World War I, models of planes and boats used, even a huge walk-through "trench" to simulate what trench warfare was back in those days.

The walk-in trench demonstration.

Mulling through this took a few hours, and I decided to leave to prepare for my Scotland trip, and return later for World War II and the other exhibits.

But good news! I bought a new camera. So pictures from me next post.