An Escape to the Capital
Reviewed by Michelle Wright
We decided to go on a family weekend away to London – partly as a family trip but also as an educational adventure for my 6 year old daughter.
She had been learning at school about planets and the solar system so first on our agenda was the planetarium in Greenwich. I had visited the Royal Observatory and the Planetarium many years ago as a little girl and our experience this time around lived up to our expectations. We went to see a film at the planetarium about the lives of stars – what a fabulous experience to be practically lying down looking about as stars were born, exploded and died literally above our heads! This really was the highlight of our trip. My 6 year old LOVED this experience – as did we! I can't recommend this enough… Although some of it was a little too old and indebted for my daughter, it kept her attention all the way through it and we all learned something!
For more details visit www.rmg.co.uk
In our trip we also visited The Tower of London, without doubt, the highlight for my daughter being the moving floor by the side of the Crown Jewels which she went on over and over again talking of last year’s Royal Wedding and the Diamond Jubilee later in the year. I was really surprised how large the Tower of London was and how much time you could spend there. Make a visit there and learn about some of the famous prisoners who have stayed at The Tower, the Royal Beasts who have inhabited there, the medieval palace and of course the Crown Jewels. Check out their website for details of costume re-enactments on the South lawn of the triumphs and tragedies surrounding the Tower's past!
For more detail visit www.hrp.org.uk
Our trip wouldn't have been complete without the usual visits to Buckingham Palace, The Natural History Museum, Tower Bridge and of course as it's Britain's big year of hosting the Olympic Games we had to fit in a trip to The Olympic Stadium – a topic that my daughter will be covering in school in a few weeks.
We had a fabulously fun, educational and tiring weekend in London and can't wait to go back to do all the things we didn't manage to fit in!