Doing the tourist thing

Having finally finished my loft conversion, I can welcome guests. So I had a visit from a colleague of mine with her husband and two children. As they live in a village near Bath, the kids really wanted to see the sights of London. So this was a lesson in how to entertain an 8 and 10 year old in the Big City without blowing the bank.

So first up the classics for a wet afternoon, the Natural History Museum (positively swamped with ankle-biters being Easter holidays) followed by the Science Museum. Big win here was that the 8 year old had a passion for rocks, of which the Natural History Museum has many, from chunks of meteorite to displays of gemstones. So this made up for failing to visit the star attraction - the dinosaurs. For the very good reason that the queues were enormous.

That left us just enough time for a quick visit to the Science Museum, the top interest being the Shop. That is how museums make money. Pretty much every kid was after some bit of plastic, and the museum was there to satisfy their insatiable need.

 The next day I suggested a visit to a little known attraction for kids, namely the Emirates. This is the cable-car across the Thames near the Dome. It gives great views over London, which is basically its purpose since it doesn't really go anywhere worthwhile. But the round trip went down well.

 Attached to it is now an "Emirates experience" a little exhibition, the start turn of which is a cockpit simulator. Unfortunately, they wanted to charge another £40 to use one, which is a bit more than even the pester power of juveniles can extract from parents, so they went totally unused as far as I could see. A business idea that will fail due to unrealistic pricing.

 Then onto a bus to Greenwich. This is a great spot to go on a fine day. A climb up to the observatory was rewarded by a quick cake stop before seeing a show at the planetarium. Not been to this before and it was very good, albeit so wonderfully comfortable that the urge to nod off, or in Eamon's case, snore loudly, was almost irresistible.

Back down at the Royal Naval College we never got to see any of the College or the Maritime Museum, as the kids were totally engrossed by the Visitor Centre. So congratulations to the creators of that. They especially liked the building blocks from which one could create one's own Wren masterpiece.

I have never been on the river boat service, but that was the option we took for onward transport. Its very efficient at getting people on and off, so it wasn't a long trip back to Embankment, but did offer the chance to show the kids some of the sights. Then onwards through Trafalgar Square. Which was the biggest hit with the kids. Who would have thought that running round the base of Nelson's Column could be such fun? Just time for a pizza dinner in Palmers Green before bed-time. Still, the kids seemed to have had a good time, which was the main thing. And they were lovely fun kids, so they deserved it.