Family fun in... London

 In October half-term we spent a few days exploring London.  We took them a couple of years ago, and decided it was time for another trip following our successful city-break to Venice at Easter.  Here are my suggestions for great things to do as a family in London, based on our trip and trips in the past.

Accommodation
Depending on your budget there are lots of options for accommodation.  Last time we went to London we took the caravan and stayed in an excellent site near Maidenhead (Hurley Riverside Park) from where we could visit Windsor and Legoland as well as catch trains into London for daytrips.  The time we went to London before that we stayed at YHA London Thameside at Rotherhithe, which offered an en-suite family room at a very reasonably budget.  This time around we chose a serviced apartment on Commercial Road.  This allowed us a good base to stay with the children, allowing them some space and freedom, us the option to self-cater and space to sit up and chat later into the evening which we wouldn't have if we were all sharing a hotel or hostel room.

 Activities - 
Here are just some of the activities that we've got up to on our trips:

• Bus trips - lots of them!  We've previously done one of the open-topped hop-on, hop-off bus trips, but found that the children weren't really in to listening to the tour guide, so it's a bit of a waste of money.  Instead we found the Number 15 bus from just outside our apartment on Commercial Road went right past Tower Hill, and St Pauls Cathedral to Trafalgar Square.
• Boat trip - we went on a boat trip on the Thames from Tower Hill to the London Eye, which was pretty awesome!
• The Emirates Airline Sky Ride over the Thames was also a great addition to our day.  We had been to Greenwich so it was a short hop to the sky-ride and then back on the DLR to Shadwell to get back to our apartment.
• The London Eye is a favourite for our two.  Over three trips to London we have been during daylight, in the dark, and this time at twilight.  It's nice to get a broad overview of London.  I'm convinced that C and Bug spend more time looking at the touch-screen interpretation computer thingy than actually looking out of the window, but I quite enjoy the space to admire London from above.
• Museums and Galleries - we have been to: the Natural History Museum - great for budding geologists and naturalists, and of course dinosaur and fossil enthusiasts.  We went on our last trip, but not this time, which was a disappointment for C who has been studying Mary Anning at school and was keen to see the Icthyosaur fossil that she unearthed on the Dorset coast; the Science Museum - we went here for a good look at the Space stuff and enjoyed an IMAX show about the view from the Space Station, and a moving theatre experience about the shuttle trip to the moon.  Disappointingly you have to pay extra to get into the interactive exhibits and the queue was phenomenal; the British Museum - it's such a huge place that it's a good idea to have a specific theme in mind.  We aimed for the areas that we knew would fit into the History Topics that C will be studying this year - namely Stone and Iron Age and the Ancient Egyptians.  The Audioguide picks out highlights and explains them; I visited the Horniman Museum when C and I were much smaller, there's an interesting collection of artefacts, and a small aquarium in the basement; the Docklands Museum - another one we did when they were toddlers, quite an interesting look at the history of this part of London with a great interactive gallery for the kids with plenty of things to play with; the National Gallery - we didn't spend long in here, having already been to St Pauls and the British Museum on this day, but we again had a specific plan - Bug wanted to see Picasso and C wanted to see Van Gogh.  We went for those areas, admired a few other paintings on the way in and out and then left.  The AMAZING thing about all these museums and galleries so far mentioned is that they are all FREE ENTRY - only asking for a donation.  Of course, they won't be able to stay free unless people donate - so please do.  Finally, Greenwich Observatory, where we went on this occasion with cousin Rachel - a great place to learn about clocks, navigation, longitude and latitude etc.  I don't think the kids got it all that much, but there were just about enough interactive bits to keep them busy while the grown-ups did some learning.
• Other great buildings - St Paul's Cathedral - You'd think that a Cathedral wouldn't be a great place to go with children, but ours quite like the huge soaring spaces, the paintings and statues and especially the audio guide.  They were very taken with the crypts, where Bug was delighted to find the memorial to Edwin Landseer who sculpted the lions in Trafalgar Square where she had been sitting the previous day.
• Camden Market, Covent Garden Market, Portabello Market, Spittalfields Market - Portabello Market is great for antiques but not for children, only go if you don't have them in tow.  Spittalfields Market and Covent Garden Market also not that great for little ones, though there are plenty of places to stop for coffee and cake.  Camden Market on the other hand is a wonderful place to lose track of time and spend lots of money.  I particularly like the clothes on sale here, and C and Bug both managed to spend a large proportion of their pocket money.
• Other spots - we didn't go into the Cutty Sark, but walked around it admiring from the outside; Trafalgar Square - a place to climb on the lions of course!  I love the signs - not forbidding you to climb, but warning you not to fall off!
• A Show!  This time around we thought that the children would be old enough to see a show,  We looked into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Lion King and Matilda, and eventually settled on The Railway Children at Kings Cross Theatre.  It was wonderful, with a real steam train playing a leading role and chuffing into the stage at several points in the performance.

The Beautiful City of Venice (and taking children on a city-break)

We've just come back from our first European city-break with the children - to the gorgeous city of Venice.

Venice is breathtaking.  I'll tell you a little bit about the holiday, and throw in the things that we've discovered about travelling with a 5 and 6 year-old as I go along.

While C had been on an aeroplane before, aged about a year old, from Exeter to Edinburgh, this was the first plane trip that either would know about.  The airport and the aeroplane was every bit as exciting for them as the rest of the holiday.  We talked them through - several times - how the airport works and which bags would stay  with us and which go in the hold.  C got quite worried about having anything metal on his person or in his bag, so Hubby showed him the list of permitted and not-permitted items on the internet.  They packed their bags of things for the journey well in advance.  Despite my warnings about lugging a heavy bag around, C insisted on filling his with large hard-backed books about space.  Later, when he was beginning to tire of carrying the bag up and down steps and bridges in Venice, I made sure he kept hold of it!

We drove down to Gatwick on the Sunday afternoon and stayed in a nearby hotel, enjoying a meal at a local Harvester restaurant.  The hotel wasn't strictly necessary, but saved an unreasonably early morning drive, and meant that we were in plenty of time for the flight.  We used Purple Parking, who offer a hotel/parking deal and lay on a bus to the terminal.  This was, of course, all part of the adventure for the children.

Once through security, we made straight for the indoor children's play area.  One of us stayed and loosely supervised the children (did my puzzles), while the other went and browsed in the shops.

On the plane Hubby had booked two pairs of seats by the window, so we took a child each.  They had the window seat and we showed them all the exciting runway goings-on.  As we took off I handed out the sucking sweets - turns out not to be a good idea for Bug.  She was so busy looking about and chatting that she nearly choked on her sweet several times and had me worrying that we'd be turning the plane around and getting a paramedic!

On arrival at Marco Polo airport we got cash and bought our boat tickets across to Venice.  The Alilaguna boat-bus was quite low in the water and the windows covered in spray, but we still got a great view as we motored up the Grand Canal and disembarked just near the famous Rialto Bridge.  From there it was a short step to the hotel.  We actually weren't staying in the hotel (Ai Riali), but in a separate apartment.  Great tip for families by the way:  It didn't cost more than a room in the hotel, but our apartment (just behind St Mark's Square) had it's own kitchen, 2 bathrooms, sitting room and 2 bedrooms.  It meant that we could eat when we were hungry, the children had space to play, and we weren't stuck in the same room as them being quiet and dark while they went to bed early.  A porter from the hotel carried our bag and led the way to the apartment.  I nipped out to find a supermarket (marked on the map for me by the hotel receptionist) to pick up essential supplies.  I felt a bit like Audrey Hepburn as I trip-trapped along through back alleys and over little bridges.  I didn't even need the map on the way back!  I'm not sure Audrey Hepburn has ever been to Venice, but it felt like the kind of place that Holly Golightly would be very much at home.

Most days we breakfasted in the apartment, then headed out for the day.  We'd have a full hot meal at lunchtime, and then a lighter tea back at the apartment.  That's another tip for parents with children - Continental Europeans tend to eat later, and many restaurants don't start serving their evening meal until 6.30 or 7pm.  If your children need to eat earlier than this, then consider having your main meal at lunchtime, usually served between 12 and 2.
We bought a 48 hour tourist pass for the Vaporetto (boat bus) which takes you just about everywhere, and used that to space out the walking and give little legs a rest.  We also did one trip in a taxi boat, which felt very decadent (but was considerably cheaper than a gondola trip!).

It's worth heading to the toilet whenever you are in a cafe/restaurant or museum, because public toilets cost 1-1.5 Euros per person.  Most of the ones we visited were decent toilets, though I did experience one very dodgy one!

We visited the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.  It's full of contemporary art which allowed the children to interpret it in whatever way worked for them.  Bug was delighted to find two Picasso paintings, as she's learned about him at school.  We also visited a couple of beautiful churches to see the Tintorettos and other beautiful Renaissance Art.  The children looked at the pictures and statues and tried to identify Bible stories that they had heard.  We climbed two bell towers, with views across to one another, as well as across the whole of Venice: San Marco is the tallest campanile in Venice, in St Marc's square and waking us at 6 each morning; San Georgio Maggiore is on another island just opposite St Marc's.  We also paid a visit to two museums: the Natural History Museum of Venice and the Murano Glass museum.  The displays on evolution and adaptation at the Natural History Museum are superbly curated, but we were less keen on the "collections" of dead animals, including a beautiful gorilla killed as recently as the 1920s.  The Glass Museum had a video at the beginning showing some of the techniques still in use today to make the different types of glassware, and that brought the collection of glass over the last two and a half millennia to life a bit, but the children definitely needed a run around in the garden afterwards.

In between these visits we just explored the city on foot and vaporetto, stopping for ice-cream, lunches, coffees and shopping whenever we needed, heading back to the airport on Friday afternoon.

They say that Venice is a city of romance.  It's certainly romantic, and we saw plenty of evidence of honeymooning couples and weddings.  The setting is stunning; the architecture and history fascinating; the buildings all showing signs of faded glory in various stages of restoration; the canals and the life people live around them and the multitude of tourists are intriguing.  It's also a great place to go as a family - small enough that you can get around the whole place very easily, big enough that there's plenty to see and do, enough interest with transport alone to keep small children happy, the pace of everything slowed down by the absence of cars.  We had a wonderful time and I would definitely recommend it.

None of the links or mentions on here are in any way affiliated to me, nor am I getting paid in any way to write or endorse any products, attractions or accommodation.  All opinions are entirely my own.

Recipe for a super family holiday

Ingredients:

• a lovely campsite (we enjoyed our stay at Camping and Caravan Club - St Davids)
• sunshine (a bit of rain is acceptable and, let's face it, in a British climate inevitable)
• a good tent
• family
• time off work and/or school
• scenery and things to do.

Method:

Choose a destination with lovely scenery and activities for your type of holiday.  We chose beaches, cliffs and history.

Now arrive on site, set up your tent with a stunning West-facing view of the sunset.  If possible the best view on the campsite, and set up your home from home:

Go for lovely walks

Visit historic places

Take part in fun activities for the children

Play on the beach

Enjoy some pleasant refreshments.

Spend time with fantastic family.

And there you have it, a wonderful Summer holiday building memories.

Long train journeys with little ones

I was going to blog here about our recent train journey from Scotland to Devon (and back).  

Unfortunately, Thursday morning blew in some stormy weather here in the UK.  

Waking up as the wind howled around the house and turning on the TV news to see the bedlam, we realised that we might have some problems.  Checking the rail websites we found that all the trains in Scotland before 7am were cancelled, and that after that time there was only a limited service.  Our train was from Edinburgh at 9.08am and we were planning to catch the train from Inverkeithing (on our side of the River Forth) into Edinburgh.  We left at about 7.30am for the 20 minute drive to Inverkeithing.  On a normal day, any train before 8.30 would be enough to get to Edinburgh with at least ten minutes to spare.  The M90 motorway was already queuing for the Forth Road Bridge before our exit to Inverkeithing, so we knew immediately that there was absolutely no way we could drive into Edinburgh in time.  The train was going to be our only hope.  At Inverkeithing we wrapped the children in waterproof coats and headed through the gusting winds and freezing rain across to the platform - which was absolutely packed with hopeful commuters.  Normally there are about ten trains into Edinburgh between 8 and 9.  Today there were two.  The children started to get cold very quickly, but there was no space under the shelter or in the waiting room, so we stayed on the platform, as close to the edge as possible, knowing that getting on the train was going to be a challenge.  As the first train came in, I began to despair.  It was already packed in, with commuters standing like sardines before it even got to Inverkeithing - nobody could get on.  Certainly not me with two small children and a big bag.  We decided to wait for the next train and hope for the best.  Same story.  Luckily Hubby had waited with us to see us onto the train (making himself late both for a Doctor's appointment and work), and he was able to take us home again.  C was wailing in misery and Bug was howling with disappointment.  Both had been looking forward both to the train journey and to seeing grandparents, aunties and uncles and cousins on a long-awaited trip home for me.  We got them home, stripped off their wet clothes and gave them cuddles and hot chocolate before I headed out into the garden to try to put the greenhouse back together and return the garden furniture to its rightful place.  As it turns out, even if we had made it to Edinburgh, our train to Devon was having problems of its own.  I did think about driving down... but it's a nine hour drive, and I was already tired.  Plus I'd already spent out on train tickets, and the expense of diesel... plus the weather was really bad and driving would have been very tough!  However much I wanted to see my family this weekend, driving down for an entire day, spending two days there and then driving back for an entire day just seemed silly in those conditions.

Here are some of the things I was planning for the journey:

• Try to get a table seat for you and the children - you can do much more.
• Take plenty of snacks and drinks.  I aim to get some food out every hour.  Eating it provides a distraction, a change, and takes ten minutes.
• Make sure that you have a change of clothes accessible for the children, just in case.
• If your train journey is about 8 hours, then aim to have about 16 activities up your sleeve.  Allowing half an hour for any new activity, it means you always have something to do with your children.  My ideas included: colouring sheets, dry-wipe cards with drawing and mazes, a couple of story books, drawing books, a set of cards, a magazine to look at, an 'out the window' scavenger hunt, a catalogue to look through, a train timetable and map to examine, baby doll and clothes, handwriting practice, I-spy etc.
• Aim to keep the children sitting down at the table as much as possible so as not to irritate fellow passengers by your offspring running up and down.  At appropriate intervals (every couple of hours?) take a wander down to the toilets, and at some point, head an expedition to the on-board shop.  This will satisfy their curiosity and allow them to stretch their legs a bit.
• While its okay for your children to chat if somebody talks to them, and to peer between the seats and smile at the passengers around them, you don't want them to become annoying, so if your child is constantly playing peek-a-boo with the person behind you, then gently distract them and give them something else to do.
• If you have little tots who aren't walking yet, then firstly, encourage them to sleep as much as possible (breastfeeding on the train is absolutely fine).  Secondly, don't be afraid to ask kindly looking fellow passengers if they will hold the baby while you take the older children to the toilet.  The alternative is placing them on the lovely clean toilet floor!  Equally, it's okay to ask other passengers to watch the children for you while you go to the toilet, or while you change the baby's nappy.
• One thing I was worried about was if the train was busy.  Because children under 5 are free, you don't get a seat reservation for them.  I was planning to keep my seat reservation in hand, and go and find a free table.  If there wasn't one because the train was busy, I would have ended up with two small children on my knee - fun!  You can simply buy the tickets so that you do have enough seats.  It's much more expensive, but if you are on a long journey and you know the train is likely to be busy then it may be worth it.
• When travelling with older children, do get a "Family and Friends Railcard".  It will most likely pay for itself on that first long journey (1/3 off adult fares and 60% off children's fares, for £30 per year), and then you have it to use, saving you money on any further train travel during the next 12 months.

Surviving a long car trip with small children

As promised - hints and tips on surviving a car trip with small children...

Last Thursday I trekked from Scotland all the way down to Devon in the South West - left at 8.45am and arrived there at around 6pm I think.  I broke the return journey, driving on Monday from Devon to Stoke-on-Trent, around 9am - around 2.30pm.  And then on the Tuesday from there up to Scotland, unfortunately encountering a large accident on the M6, so despite again leaving at around 9am, still not arriving until 4.30pm.  Phewee!  That was some trek.

Not sure now that I can actually offer much advice, as my two were just angels the entire trip!  However, here are my pearls of wisdom:

1. Don't do it.  Make people come and visit you.  I like rail travel because you can wander around and you can interact with the children.  However, you are then reliant on other people having car-seats and ferrying you around at the other end, also with very small children you are as exhausted by entertaining them and preventing them escaping as you would have been with the driving.  And one final negative for the train is that with very small children you are needing to take them both to the toilet with you every time, and as the journey progresses you really don't want to be putting the one who can't walk yet on the toilet floor (yuck!).  As the children get older and more able to settle themselves with colouring, card games, books and puzzles I intend on using the train more often.
2. Plan your timing.  I know some people who try to drive into the night so that the children sleep.  I don't like this as it means that I am too exhausted to drive, and it's not very nice for your host.  Instead I left every time just before Sis's morning nap at 9am, then stopped for a lengthy break for lunch at around 11am, returning to the car in time for both of them to settle for a long mid-day nap.
3. Don't use motorway service areas.  You'll spend far too much and end up back in the car with bitter resentment in your heart because you've spent all your hard earned cash on very poor food and service.  I used Google maps to make a note of where there were large supermarkets within sight of a motorway junction on my route.  I stop there, make use of their cheaper cafe, much cheaper fuel and perfectly adequate toilets and baby changing facilities.  On Tuesday we needed lunch and I didn't know the nearby supermarkets, so ventured off the M6 at junction 27 and ended up at a little cafe called La Mama on High Street in Standish.  Very decent food.  There's also a Spar and a Co-op down the road if you want to buy anything.
4. Provide toys and entertainment.  I don't think children need portable or in-car entertainment systems.  I certainly don't think that they need hand-held gaming devices.  I think that children develop their own methods of entertainment using their imagination, learning to drift off into a world of day-dreams, and as they get older a few simple interactive games such as I-spy.  Sis had a teddy - that's it, and spent most of the journey snoozing.  C had a bag of toys which included a car, a notebook and pen, a book and a few other bits and bobs which he had enjoyed selecting.  We also had a couple of BBC Schools Podcasts and a Winnie the Pooh audiobook, which we listened to at various points in the journey.  In between, I listened to whatever radio programme, podcast or music I wanted.  We also did a fair bit of chatting when he was awake.
5. Provide sustenance.  The principle that I operate on is, "If in doubt - Feed them."  It seems to work.  I packed a few drinks for us all, a few packs of mini-Cheddars (easy to get out of the packet, not too messy) and some sweets.  Every now and then, if they were starting to get a little unsettled, I would just pass something back.  C can just about reach Sis to make sure that she was getting some too, and as the journey progressed she got more adept at reaching forwards to take whatever I was offering.  Avoid chocolate like the plague - it gets very messy as any that is dropped immediately melts.  Apples are good, but the unwanted core gets wedged somewhere in the recesses of the carseats.  Dried fruit such as apricots are a good option.  

That's it really.  Oh, and to really score points with your other half?  Fill the car with fuel and take it through the car-wash on your way home, so that they smile when they get back in it to go to work the next day.

...and my last recommendation?...