Hello!
Sorry that this one is up late. It was a long day and I was already low on sleep, so I just got back to the flat and crashed (well, I edited all the pictures first, then I crashed).
Yesterday, we went to this place:
ISO 125, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/4000
The IWM was founded to record British civil and military involvement in World War One. Since then, it has expanded to include all conflicts in which Britain has been involved since 1914.
Our first stop was the massive and incredibly powerful World War One exhibit.
ISO 1600, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/80
.....I just realized I was staring at this picture instead of writing more.
Once again, I didn't take very many pictures. I was just looking at—and thinking about—everything that I was seeing rather than taking pictures.
Because of that, the next part is from the Secret War section of the museum, talking about espionage. There were things from MI5 (domestic espionage), MI6 (international espionage), various special-ops organizations, and modern counter-cyberterrorism.
My internal cryptography and math nerd was thrilled to see the Enigma Machine. The Enigma is possibly one of the most secure, complicated, and—in my opinion—elegant instruments of cryptography ever created. Look it up. Learn.
ISO 3200, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/20
As with the WWI section, I was too busy learning stuff to get artistic pictures. I got pictures of cool things, but nothing was as good as what I normally do (I was just trying to capture things, not really do too much artsy stuff).
The next one, though, I can't help sharing. If I remember what I read about it, this shows the connection and divide between Britain and Northern Ireland. I don't remember exactly how, but I know there's some metaphorical representation of both and possibly some satire. (I should have taken a picture of the sign describing it.....)
ISO 800, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/80
Yes, ladies, gentlemen, and variations thereupon, this is a literal suit of armor.
After that, we stopped in the gift shop and I took some pictures of the tank guarding the restrooms before we left.
ISO 400, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/80
ISO 640, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/80
Outside, while we were figuring out where to go for some food, I got some pictures of the anti-aircraft guns in the garden outside. Not something you see every day.....
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1000
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For later in the day, we had reservations at a place called HintHunt, which is an escape room. Basically, we were locked in a room for an hour and we had to solve various puzzles and find things all over the room to get out. If I may say so myself, I did a great job of finding things and solving puzzles. I would love to do something like that again. (We got three minutes added to our time at the end, but we didn't need all three. We escaped in 61:12.)
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After HintHunt, Dad and Nico were dying to watch the France vs Portugal Euro final (they had the woman in charge of the escape room give score updates on the TV in the room), so we walked down to a local pub to watch the screens through the windows outside. It was too packed to find room inside.
Even I, the one who knows next-to-nothing about sports and didn't pay attention to any matches other than the final and France vs Iceland while we were there, still enjoyed watching and cheering on the French. (Sorry for the elaborate sentence structure there.)
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/160
While we were watching the game, I looked over and saw this behind us.
Even though Portugal won, it was still a great night and a really good day.
That's all,
Alec
Alec