On June 8th, 2017 my fiancée Jennifer Holik and I visited the Imperial War Museum in London. Jennifer was in London for the first time and I have visited this museum many times before. I think the first time I went must have been 45 years ago.
First of all, the grounds, the building and the entrance are very impressive. Two big naval guns dominate the view and make it instantly clear you are about to enter a War Museum, not an Art exhibit or anything else.
Entrance is free, as is customary with British museums. After the obligatory security check (there are lockers available to get rid of your bag and coat) the entrance to the exhibits is a bit messy. Turn left you go into a gift shop which leads to the WWII exhibit or you can take the stairs down to the Main Hall. It may confuse some people.
To begin with, the Main Hall. The exhibits in this hall change from time to time and, to be honest, the items that I remember being there were more impressive than whet there is now. Hanging above you are still the Spitfire used in the Battle of Britain as well as V1 (buzzbomb) and a Harrier jet. On the ground there is a wreck of a car used as a bomb in Iraq and a V2 and, slightly tucked away, a Russian tank.
Gone are the items that stuck in my mind most and had been there for years: A Messerschmitt Bf 109, a London bus used in WWI, a British WWI tank and a German Jagdpanzer tank form WWII with a few holes in it. In my mind the gun on this thing was massive (same gun a used on the Tiger tank). I find the main hall not as impressive as it used to be. I was disappointed.
On to the WWI exhibit. I remember the very impressive Trench Experience but that is gone as well. Another disappointment. The amount and quality of the WWI items on display are impressive and the explanations are very well done but WWI is the only conflict they have done that for. No such thing for WWII. Also the explanations on certain WWII items are very sketchy and not complete.
Two exhibits are really well done. One is the Holocaust exhibit which is very emotive. I went to this exhibit for the first time when it was recently opened and it sent chills down my spine. It remained one visit and I have avoided going there in my subsequent visits as it was just too much emotionally. Jennifer visited the exibit and wrote an article called The Spiral of Healing. The other one is the SOE/OSS and Special Operations exhibit. Some great items and weapons on display here with good explanations and stories.
There are several shops (not all items on sale are available in each shop), a bookstore and a café. The shops sell a large variety of items as posters, cards, fluffy animals, WWII sweets, Churchill memorabilia, T-shirts etc etc.
For the first time visitor, it is still a pretty impressive museum although some areas will leave you puzzled. For a long time visitor the IWM is not what it used to be. I don’t need to go again. Shame.
© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center
It’s a beautiful day in the Netherlands. Our staff at the WWII Research and Writing Center have been busy creating new things. We can’t wait to share!
The longer I continue on my spiritual journey, the more I heal, and the more aware I become. Being an empath, I tend to pick up everything from everyone and everywhere. I’ve been told and read many times, that healing is like a spiral. We start at one spot, one event, one moment in time, and work through and release some pain. This could be from a past life or this life.
There is so much happening on this trip to Europe that I’m struggling a bit to keep up and document it all. As I write this, we just returned from 10 days in England. It was my first time there and so much happened. More on that in a future post. For now, let’s return to Friday, 26 May 2017, when we drove from Amsterdam to Thirimont, Belgium to be in the town where a client’s brother was Killed In Action (KIA) on 13 January 1945.
We kept driving and later stopped in Aubel, Belgium to photograph the 30th Division Monument there. It is a tall monument with flags on either side. This is not far from Henri-Chapelle cemetery.
Wednesday was a really fun day because I got to go to ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) to spend time with my sister in-law. Den Bosch is my favorite city in the Netherlands. It has Sint-Jan Cathedral, which I visit every time I am in the city. There is such peace there. I love the stained glass, smell of incense, lighting a candle for Mother Mary in the back of the church and, when it is open, walking through the back of the cathedral to see the niches for different saints. I was lucky that this time the back of the church was open. I was in Den Bosch four other times and only one of those visits was the back open.
Sunday we went to Amsterdam for a bit of shopping, lunch, and wandering. I wanted to stop in the P.W. Akkerman Fountain Pen shop in Amsterdam since we were unable to go to the P.W. Akkerman we prefer in 
Before we drove home we stopped at the Begijnhof to take a short walk. It was very crowded and noisy there as lots of tour groups had come out since it was a beautiful day. Johan took me there last year over the winter when it was very quiet. Usually it is a place of peace and quiet and you don’t hear the city noise once you are in the courtyard.
The World War II Research and Writing Center is now providing speech writing and speaking services for funerals, memorial programs, commemorations, and other military events. We have presented at the Ninth Infantry Division Association Reunion Memorial Service; 104th Infantry Division Pups Reunion Program; the Tilburg, Netherlands Liberation Ceremony in 2015; and in the Netherlands at Liberation Commemorations.