Thursday 24 May 2012

Greenwich-the good, the bad and the ugly

Greenwich has an amazing amount to do so we wanted to make the most of a home education trip there. The actual trip was a nature afternoon run by the Field Studies Council which included watching the deer from a hide and pond dipping.

Since the organised trip was only for part of the day, we decided to add in the Maritime Museum and a little bit about the Olympics. Greenwich Park is due to host the equestrian events in the London 2012 Olympics. Work was very much on going with over the paths which were frequently closed to allow heavy vehicles though. We couldn't avoid seeing the work and a view of the stadium. Important, doubtless, but it does seem a scar on the face of the Park.


The Maritime Museum has something really special outside-Nelson's ship in a bottle. This is fairly new and I'm impressed.


One of our primary aims was to see the Titanic exhibition to fit in with the book that we read about this recently. The exhibition was quite small although it was amazing to see a slipper that one of the  survivors was wearing as well as a soft toy that escaped the disaster with its owner.

The Maritime Museum has a great children's interactive area. My connoisseurs, of such places, tell me that they rank it second only to the Science Museum children's area; high praise indeed. Just outside the children's area is a ship simulator. Middle Son enjoys this but managed to capsize his frigate. It felt scarily real.

Then a dash back up the hill, past the Observatory, to a picnic lunch on the first properly hot day of the year and onto the nature trail.

A full and interested day but the downside was that Mr Exuberance, having walked or run everywhere that we went, was tired. It didn't help that I had totally misjudged the weather and dressed him in winter clothes. The inevitable happened on the way home and he slept soundly and couldn't be wakened until sometime after we got home. Of course, we had one wide awake child, all evening. I wish I knew how to keep young children awake on journeys in the late afternoon.

I do recommend Greenwich-there is far more to do that we didn't even try to fit in. We ought to go back to visit the Observatory, the Old Naval College and the Fan Museum, not forgetting the Cutty Sark.

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