IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM/LONDON EYE

Is there life south of the river, I hear you ask, you cynical northerners. For historical reasons, most of old London is on the north side of the Thames, where Westminster and Londinium were founded and developed, but south of the river has its attractions. I am doing a walking tour of Brixton in a few weeks time - really must do some research for this, guides wanting to know everything - and yesterday had an excellent visit to the Imperial War Museum led by Alan Cross. Its name (and the big guns outside) suggest patriotism and even jingoism but the interior belies this. There is no shirking the horrors of war and they have a counter for the number estimated killed in conflicts before and since the millenium (100 million before,around 2 a minute since). They also have a model of the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 - obviously the original lost - next to the Tamzine, the smallest boat used to take troops across the Channel from Dunkirk, a little wooden row boat with sails and no engine. (Better than being stuck in France with the Nazis rampant I suppose.) There you have the sheer destructiveness of innocent lives contrasted with the valour of the brave fighting for soemthing they believed in within a few feet of each other.
Would I have dropped the bomb as Truman decided to do so? Probably, bearing in mind what the American soldiers were going through in the Pacific and from Iwo Jima upwards to Japan, but I am glad it was not a decision I had to make. As Truman said - 'The buck stops here' (a sign on his desk).
Off to meet brother Richard and his workforce at Waterloo for the more obvious south bank attraction - the London Eye. Due to reopen today after winter closure it seems to have been postponed because of gale force winds through London, so we will have to do an extended walking tour instead. Should be fun.
Last posting for a while as off to Italy soon. Pick up in Feb...