Day 2 of included tours - Part 2 - Covent Garden & The Imperial War Museum

Our second day of included tours continued with a bus ride to the Covent Garden Market. This shopping center is part brick and mortar shops and eateries as well as open air booths for craftspeople to sell their homemade goods. After a brief explanation of the area, we were left on our own to grab lunch and/or shop with a time to meet back at the bus. The market was decorated for the holiday season.

Dad and I walked through the market grounds which were even more crowded since the sun had come out. We didn't find much of interest in the shops but did stop briefly to watch a street magician. Making our way back to the bus, we came upon a small bakery and ice cream shop. Dad's lunch choice consisted of ice cream while I enjoyed a more savory option that looked like an inside out rectangular slice of pizza. No pictures as we were a bit too hangry by this point to think of the camera needing to eat first. 

Our final stop of the tour was to the Imperial War Museum, a stop that thankfully allowed our buses to pull up right in front. This visit was also self led with a time to meet back at the bus. There wasn't enough time to really tour every section so you had to be selective as to on which level you wanted to devote your time. We focused mainly on the World War II level.

This was a fun interactive feature that used a touchscreen to teach you how to set up an enigma machine with a new code key and decipher a sample message written in code.

We appreciated how there were several small benches throughout placed strategically near screens playing a loop of video footage. You could get a chance to rest in general or take the time to sit and watch the footage. I also liked to see that the video footage was accompanied by video of an ASL translator.

The view while standing on the front steps:

A section of the Berlin Wall on display as you walk back down to the street:

Looking back at the front door while standing by the above pictured piece:

On the drive back to the hotel, our guide and driver took us a longer way around so that we could get a view down the Thames River and see several of today's earlier landmarks at once.