Transport Museum

On Friday we packed our bags and drove to Lancaster.  Settled the car into the station car park and then had a look around the town.  OK it is a city, but the town centre really is just that, a town centre, not much to it, although found two really good looking butchers and a fishmongers so we will be back if only to use them.  Matt and Tom went off to get their hair cut (both of them were looking quite untidy in the hair department) whilst I had a snoop around - this was my first time in the town.

Once the boys were done, we went for an early lunch in a rather dodgy town centre pub (sticky floors, toilets with no locks etc) where we got surprisingly good service and good value nosh.

We then headed back to the station and got our pendolino to London Useless (that's what Tom calls Euston - I think it rather appropriate).  The journey was very quick and smooth, it takes 2.5 hours to get to London as it only stops at 3 stations on the way.  There was enough to keep Tom occupied for the time as he was quite happy to sit looking through the window and chat.  Fab.  Bob came to meet us at Euston and then we flogged our way through London to East Sheen.

Oompus the Omnibus

On Saturday we headed to Covent Garden and the London Transport Museum.  We had thought that this might be a good idea and Bob and Pat also suggested it, so away we went.  Yes, it was a good idea, we had a brilliant day out there.  At first we were a little shocked at the price - £13.50 each, but in the end we decided it was worth it.  The museum was absolutely packed with things to do - many of which were aimed at pre-schoolers, but plenty to keep adults happy too.  I could quite easily have killed the best part of a day there on my own.

Riding on the front of a steam engine

The museum took you through transport through the ages.  The first vehicle was an Omnibus (horse driven carriage).  We know these already as Tom has an old book of vehicles which includes one called Oompus - Tom laughs every time we reach Oompus because it is such a funny name.  We were able to clamber aboard it which was good.

Driving a bus

Next stop was a floor with a steam train and the first diesel trains.  Tom made a beeline for the steam train (of course), we sneakily stood him right on the front of the engine for this photo.  We also found a modern London bus on this floor which Tom had a go on.  He looks quite at home in the driver's seat don't you think?
Next, we headed out of the museum proper to the cafe for some lunch.  Unusually the museum food was of good quality and cheap with good service.  Will happily eat there again.

The next section of the museum was dedicated to underground trains.  We had quite a bit of fun here, clambering on old carriages and getting to play with driver simulators - of both old trains and new trains.  Surprisingly the museum wasn't completely crowded (you would think it would be on a Saturday) so we all got a chance to have a go on the simulators.  (I didn't do too well, the emergency brake had to be automatically applied as I went through a red signal - something to do with being distracted by a small  boy shouting at me!)

Driving the underground

The Youngs riding the 1st electric underground train

Needless to say, Tom had the best time, in fact, he spent most of his time there mega excited, so much so that he forgot to go to the toilet and had an accident.  Shame. Both Matt and I said that we wouldn't be surprised if he had an accident as he was so excited, we should have acted on our instinct and not trusted him.  Oh well, it meant that we had to use the special parent and child toilet (we thought we had been transported back to Japan as it was a room with a large toilet and a mini toilet and plenty of space for changing clothes and a small and large basin - big thumbs up from us)

We finished off the rest of the museum which was dedicated to buses: trolley buses, routemasters and the latest bus, which had been chopped so just the driver's cab and the seats immediately above it were present.  Children were invited to clamber and sit in the driver's seat here as well, so Tom did.  We took a video of this, we will load it up here later this week.

Anyway, it was a very good outing and I would quite happily go back there again.  We went back to East Sheen via bus, train and bus giving Tom as much opportunity as possible to ride on the double deckers which he enjoyed.

It was a tired but happy boy that arrived back.

Now, when Pat and Bob knew we were going to be down this weekend they offered us tickets to see Fascinating Aida at the theatre in Richmond.  We happily accepted.  They also suggested that we would want to have dinner out as well.  So a proper night out.  We left Tom with them around 5.00, he didn't even blink, in fact he was excited to be left with them and from all accounts was well behaved and ate dinner and went to bed nicely.  We had a nice dinner in a local cafe and then headed to the theatre.  We had a great night out - Fascinating Aida were very funny indeed and the 2 hour performance sped by.  We treated ourselves to drinks at the bar before the performance and during the interval.  G&T for me and 2 x half pints of red wine for Matt (since when is half a pint a measure for wine?).  Result of this was that we got some chips to eat on the way home to help soak up the alcohol, haven't done that for a long while.

In all a very good day, we fell into bed exhausted but happy.