Halifax

We spent the day in London at the RAF Museum in Hendon. They have a huge collection of aeroplanes and helicopters going right back to the early days of flight. There is also a timeline of the development of flight which takes up the full length of a wall in one of the halls.

It is an enormous place, with several halls containing a huge range of aircraft. My particular interest is in World War Two machines, of which they have many. It's strange to see a huge Lancaster Bomber sitting silently in the dim light and quite hushed atmosphere after some of the events which it must have been through. Also quite sad, because it should be out there and flying.

The blip for today shows the remains of a Halifax Bomber. It was hit during a raid and the port engine caught fire. The pilot managed to land on a frozen lake in Norway and the crew escaped. The heat of the fire melted the ice and the plane sank to the bottom of the lake where it lay until several years ago. It was decided not to restore it. You can still see the fire damage on the wing.

The match was good in that we won, but we didn't play wonderfully well. After a day of walking around London, I was quite looking forward to sitting down and watching a game of football. Unfortuntely, the Spurs fans behind the goal where we were all stood up, so we had to stand for the whole game! It was really good to get back to the youth hostel and rest my poor, weary legs.