With the chaos of 2016 showing no signs of calming down, and a new house to save for, we opted for another ‘staycation’ this year.
With Sara and the boys off for their usual 6 week school holiday, I was lucky enough to be able to take a week away from the office and spend some quality time with them at home.
As well as a few cross-country trips to stay with various family and friends, we spent a couple of our staycation days doing “day out” stuff, including a trip to Legoland and some trips to local parks. But on Tuesday, we made a trip into the ‘big smoke’ for a day out in our capital city, London.
Now a day out in London isn’t really a novelty for me – I’ve been commuting into London pretty much daily for the past 11-odd years now. But my children very rarely get to head into the city, so when the nice people at ‘City Cruises’ offered us a family pass for one of their Thames-cruising river ferry things, we thought it was a good opportunity to make a day of it.
As well as the boat trip, our itinerary included a visit to the Cutty Sark, a look around the Observatory at Greenwich and a visit to the National Maritime museum – all handily located at the end of our boat journey in Greenwich!
I’ve included a few photos below so you can get a flavour of our day out, but needless to say we had excellent fun – helped partially by the unusually good weather and a very economical off-peak train ticket (circa £40 down from about £160!!).
The boat trip was a really nice change from the usual views of London – they cram quite a few people on so you might want to take something to do while they’re loading an unloading – and it certainly made a nice alternative to the baking-hot underground. We really couldn’t have picked a better day for it!
The Cutty Sark is a joy to behold – especially considering the fire which did its best to destroy it a few years back! Tonnes to look at, touch and learn about, and really nicely laid out for child-sized visitors. Not too expensive, either.
The Observatory at Greenwich was a great spot for some stunning views of London, and contained some really interesting exhibits and items. It was a little too busy for my liking (hardly surprising on one of the peak days of summer, though) but it’s such a lovely spot I’d happily visit their again any time of year.
The observatory’s Camera Obscura was particularly popular with my boys (see photo above!) – a nice surprise given how much technology they are usually surrounded by!
We topped the day off with a meal out at Bills in Baker Street, then headed home exhausted and happy.
