Impending rain and weary arms coincided for once for a perfectly timed rest day.

First on the cultural itinerary was the Los Alamos Bradbury Museum, giving an insight into how they spend a mind boggling  $2bn each year here (clearly a fair chunk goes on PR as the museum is excellent, if a little self – justifying).

Covering the history of the Manhattan Project and the latter day role of the Lab in the management of the decommissioning of the nuclear arsenal, there’s plenty to learn – and it’s thought provoking to say the least to ponder the huge ethical dilemma faced by those who chose to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Full sized replica of the Fat Man bomb. Named after Churchill apparently!

…and also to get a hint of the buzz that must have existed at the time in this “Town that didn’t exist”

My favourite quote is from Oppenheimer.

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hinduscripture, the Bhagavad-Gita… “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Next stop Santa Fe and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Great stylistic capture of the New Mexico desert scenery

… but rather more of her flowers than I’d have preferred.