My Sobering 24 Hours In London…
We began our summer holiday with 24 hours in London, a city I love and regularly visit. This stay was particularly poignant because we visited the Imperial War Museum, which offers a sobering reminder of how fragile our civilization is.
24 Hours In London: Culinary Contentment + Chilling Chronicles
I do love the Elizabeth Line, but after a long flight and when carrying a lot of bags, I find an Uber is so much more convenient. We took an Uber from London Heathrow to my sister-in-law’s house in Bermondsey, where we’d spend the night before our onward connection to Basel (at least that was the plan…) the following evening.
We spent the remainder of the first day just resting up…my sister-in-law lives along the River Thames in a quiet brick row house. London is full of a seemingly endless array of eateries, but Heidi and I stopped at Sainsbury’s and got some meat to cook and some greens to blend for our late lunch…it really hit the spot.
Then coffee at NoNo, a little coffee kiosk a few paces away, followed by the kids playing on the rocky beach looking toward the London skyline.
My sister-in-law and her husband were running a 10K in Southwark Park the following morning…but we slept in…followed by more coffee (hey, it was vacation after all!).

I had wanted to take the kids to the Tower of London, but we had not planned that in advance and tickets were sold out. So instead we decided to go to the Imperial War Museum, which I have not visited since 2007.
Truly, I could have spent 10 hours here…three hours was not even enough to get through the World War II portion, but the visit was a sobering reminder of the:
- Perils of unchecked aggression
- Importance of international cooperation
- Dangers of intolerance and xenophobia
- Enduring value of diplomacy
- Power of human resilience
- Importance of moral leadership
- Impact of technological advancements
- Shift in global power
- Responsiblity of the USA in promoting and uphodling global democratic norms
- Importance of remembering and learning from history
As the world changes so rapidly in this latest chapter, it’s sobering to ask whether we are on the cusp of a great readjustment or rather if this is a blip in a continuing story of progress. May we not forget the price of liberty and freedom. May we never forget that delayed justice is injustice and that the US has a solemn responsibility to be a force for good in this troubled world. Finally, may we not forget that appeasement in the name of peace is not true peace.
After our visit to the museum, we enjoyed brunch in a Tunisian restaurant called Tunisian Street Kitchen (12 Lower Marsh). The coffee was good…the green drink was good…the food was very good. I ordered the brunch special (£15.50) that included:
- Ojja: Tunisian eggs – poached in a rich and unique tomato sauce “shakshuka” style with mergez (Tunisian lamb sausage)
- Foul: Creamy fava beans laoded with delicious spices
- Hand: olives, cucumber, tomatoes, honey, jams and chamia (Tunisian sweet spread made with tahini)

Great place.
And that was that…we walked back to the house, grabbed our bags, and were soon in an Uber traveling back to Heathrow.
CONCLUSION
I’m in London often enough that I don’t feel like a tourist anymore, yet I’m so glad we spent a few hours at the Imperial War Museum. The WWII exhisbit was a sobering reminder of how Western nations rose to the challenge and how the US asserted itslef, depsite an ocean of separation, as a force for good, determinting the cost of not doing so was even greater.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.