Day 2 of included touring brought with it our earliest start yet at 7AM for Coach 1. All of the coaches were only spaced out by 10 minute intervals so the last bus left at 7:30AM. The first two buses were back by 4PM and the latter two back by 4:30PM. Today's tour was called Britain at War & Panoramic London.
The weather was typical for London with a rainy start. So of course our bus had to park just down the street from Westminster Abbey while our guide led us on a speed walking tour of London highlights to get us over to the Churchill War Museum.
We did use our listening devices during the walk as our guide pointed out various landmarks. It was tough to keep up with the group myself and especially tough for Dad. Thankfully, we could hear the commentary and we had seen all of the main city landmarks on our previous visit. It was all we could do to just keep the group in sight. We had packed our lined raincoats so we could use them for both cold and rainy weather days but we had not anticipated this lengthy walk so did not bother to grab the small umbrella we'd packed. Still being on these pre-cruise hotel days, there was not a Viking provided umbrella available to use.
Once we arrived at the Churchill War Rooms, we had the opportunity to finally tell our guide about how hard it was to keep up and ask him to please go slower or allow those of us with mobility issues to catch up before moving on. He was apologetic but kept insisting that we had to have rushed to make our scheduled time for this visit. While we did get escorted access down to the exhibits in an elevator, the walk had tired us out and Dad needed to sit out most of the spaces.
Viking and the museum had set up some pastries, tea, coffee, and water exclusive for our four buses in a banquet room between the two main exhibit areas. After we'd both got some water and rested for a bit, Dad had me go on to see whatever else I could while he took a break.
There was a self-guided audio tour that we were all given to use while down in the exhibits.
There were arrows around directing you as to what order to walk through the exhibits but even with just our first two bus groups, the space became very crowded.
This stretch between the first two exhibit areas with an offshoot hallway to the banquet room was the only place with seating - a long bench against the wall.
We asked our guide when Dad didn't feel up to walking amongst the exhibits anymore if the bus was going to pick us back up. The guide insisted that we'd have to do the same walk back because the bus couldn't get any closer. We asked Dee (who'd arrived with another bus) about getting a taxi to take us back and she told us that would have the same problem as the bus. Dee was a lot more willing than our guide to seek an alternative solution and offered to have one of the guides lead us back to the bus early before coming back for the group so that we wouldn't have to rush. We took her up on the offer (the guide chosen ended up being our assigned guide anyway) and agreed to meet the guide up at the gift shop by a certain time.
The pleasant surprise that we discovered when Dad was ready for us to slowly make our way to the gift shop is that you had to walk through the narrow passageways showcasing the glassed in room mockups. With everyone else either in the main exhibit areas or enjoying their refreshments, we were able to walk at our own pace alone through these passageways that would have been much more congested than the other hallways. This section was the main features of the exhibits that Dad had wanted to see so it was refreshingly nice to take our time and be able to see everything without being blocked by a crowd.
We ended up coming out of the small gift shop (at the time in the middle of remodeling) and had time for a bathroom break before our guide met back up with us. The walk back was much easier, especially since the rain had let up, and our guide stayed with us walking at a much more leisurely pace. This gave us the chance get some bonus commentary and questions asked about the area and his work with Viking as we made our way back to the bus. We were thankful to our guide and Dee for making such an accomodation and appreciated the time to rest on the bus while we waited for the rest of the group to finish their visit.
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