I would love this to be a post about all the cool things kids can see and do at the London Natural History Museum.
But it isn't.
Because, really, no matter how much you plan - or how far you travel - some things don't work out as planned.
In the lead up to our trip, I'd poured over the website and romanticised all of the wonderful learning that would take place... Ahhhhhh! Sweet, educational bliss ;)
What I didn't factor in was life.
And jetlag.
And that one child who gets grumpy.
And the other one who doesn't like having to be in the same room as stuffed animals.
And everyone being hungry when we arrived.
Parents included.
Yes.
You know those days that make you feel like old Atlas here? ;)
So, all I can tell you is that there is a really cool escalator at the entrance to the Red Zone. (There are also Blue, Green and Orange zones but we didn't get to them) and a lot of taxidermy downstairs * See above note re. stuffed animals.
And that there is lots of information about rocks upstairs and then what I personally thought was a cool timeline of the History of Earth from the Big Bang onwards.
Buuuuut - that's about it.
I can't say that it was a complete loss...
I'm sure they learnt something? Maybe.
Oh - and we like trilobites so that was cool.
But button-pushing was probably the favourite activity *smile*
So we did the best thing...
We left. We abandoned ship and headed for a park :)
Wide spaces.
Green grass.
We talked about getting back to see the rest while we were still in London but it never did happen. Maybe one day when my boys are taller than me they'll take me back (a mother can dream ;)
Have you abandoned any outings recently? Please share in the comments.
p.s. I read this article in the Huffington Post yesterday: 'To Parents of small children: Let me be the one who says it out loud' and could totally relate. One thing T and I realised when we first took our kids traveling was that life goes on no matter where you are. You will still have good days. And you will still have bad days. Life is never perfect. Maybe you can relate too. x
trilobites were our local fossils when I was growing up. unfortunately I never found one, but I was inspired to study geology at university years later and loved the work on paleontology...
ReplyDeleteas for paris, hmmm...our girls loved our last visit there as a family ( we had lived on a boat on the seine years before but that's another story) I don't recall visiting museums, but we did buy lots of delicious pastries and ate hot chestnuts out of paper cones and walked down the champs elysees to visit the Lido where their father had worked as a dancer...the louvre was not even an option, but walking in Montmartre was fun...seeing the artists painting in the place du tertre. Sometimes I think the museum is what is happening in the street.....xx whoops...please ignore all of the above or change 'paris' to 'london'