Trip to London to the Natural History Museum
An adventure! Or a series of adventures really.
First there was the train - in a strange happenstance, Facebook alerted me to the fact that it was a year ago that we took her on her first train journey. (She's grown so much, but the cheeky grin hasn't changed) The train on the way up was fairly straightforward, Sally was mostly content to look out of the window, even if Pip was determined to walk around the train and Husband vanished off with him for most of the trip.
As soon as we got to Paddington people appeared to help get the pram up and out of the train - there is nothing like a pram in jeopardy to bring out the helpful in people.
Then it was time for adventure number two - THE UNDERGROUND. I have taken Sally up to London and on the underground before, but she was only just two and doesn't remember, so she was also very excited about this train. There was also the fun intermediary adventure of getting the pram to the platform. (Husband is strong which helps)
Here we are waiting for the tube to arrive...
And then were were on the underground to South Kensington and the Natural History museum, where whilst we had lots of fun, I failed to get any decent pictures of us all enjoying it. We also saw Uncle Donald and failed to get any pictures of him at all!
Sally loved the dinosaurs, especially the massive animatronic T-Rex - what a surprise. I haven't been to the NHM for a long time, not since I was a kid, I have vague memories of the actual museum, but better ones of the V&A and the Science Museum, we'll take the kids there at some point, but not for a little bit I don't think. It really doesn't disappoint, the building itself is beautiful enough for a visit, and the dinosaur exhibit is epic! It must be the effect of living with an engineer for so long, but I was almost as impressed with the steel work running through, but not touching, the building, as the dinosaurs. But the dinosaurs are pretty epic - the massive ones, and the tiny delicate ones - I would have liked to have lingered long enough to read the information and learn bit, nevertheless there is something sublime about just being in their presence.
Of course we saw the Blue Whale diving through Hintze hall, and got shaken in the earthquake feature, but strangely I think both the children loved the space and freedom in one of the oldest exhibits - the gallery of rocks and minerals. Sally charged about pretending to be an aeroplane and Pip climbed down from his pram and toddled about inspecting the displays and the floor - except unlike when we tried this
in one of the dinosaur halls - there weren't lots of people for him to get in the way of. I tried to persuade him that the rocks were exciting, but I think he was more interested in the ventilation covers.
Uncle Donald was tasked with taking a few photos - most of them ended up as comedy photos with Sally trying to squirm away or hide - this is probably the best of them, and then we retired to a cafe for some tea and cake.
We made it back to Reading and to our drive serenaded by the snores of two exhausted children. As we pulled up to the house Sally flopped forward in her sleep and remained there for quite a while - Husband bought me tea and I had a teeny bit of quiet after a delightful but exhausting Sunday.
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