Rugby Museum, Rugby

Last week I went to the town of Rugby in Warwickshire for work, at lunch I had a quick tour of the town and visited the Rugby Museum, the William Web Ellis statue and the field where the game was invented.

The museum is housed in the building where the shoe and boot maker James Gilbert, nephew of William Gilbert, made the first rugby ball in 1842.

The museum was packed with heaps of rugby memorabilia, including the original Richard Lindon (inventor of the "oval" rugby ball, rubber bladder and brass hand pump) . Traditional handmade rugby balls are still made at the museum.

RAF Museum

The Royal Air Force Museum (RAF Museum) is a museum dedicated to the history of aviation, and the British Royal Air Force in particular. We decided to make our way out here before we headed to a BBQ at one of Melissa's friends places. It has to be one of the best museums I have ever visited, I would probably rate it even higher then the Imperial War museum.

Some of my favourte planes included the German dive bomber called the Stuka (the only one in Europe) and the Lancaster bomber.

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Imperial War Museum

After numerous requests about posting some photos where we are not damaging our livers we decided to have a quiet Saturday night and make a visit to the Imperial War Museum.

I had been planning to go here for ages but just didn't get around to it. It was definitly worth the wait. I was finally able to see in person all the machines of war that you have seen in the movies and on documentaries. Some of the most notable were the Jagdpanther German tank killer, the US Sherman tank, the British Matilda Tank, the T34 Russian Tank, The German 88 flak gun, The German V1 and V2 rockets as well as a replica Little Boy atomic bomb. There was also a Spitfire, Mustang and Messerschmitt Me 109 and a British Bomber. Outside the main entrance of the museum are mounted two massive 15" naval guns from former Royal Navy warships.

There was also a Holocaust exhibit showing the true horrors and brutality of what occured, its not for the faint hearted and Melissa only lasted 2 minutes before heading back outside.

Brussels

We arrived in Brussels in the miserable rain, we finally found our hotel but were drenched. After it stopped raining we went up to the shops to get some samples of local beer, I came back to the hotel with about 10 different beers ranging from 12% to 8% alcohol, they sure do make them strong here. The next day I had headache to match the percentages. We walked around the city and saw most of the sites including the Mannequin Pis. We also visited the cartoon museum, Brussels is the home of Tin tin etc.