An Adventure in London
I scraped myself out of bed at 7am this morning – a Saturday no less – and woke our youngest. An hour later – after having a wash, throwing clothes on, and trying to make our hair look a little less like we had just been dragged through a hedge backwards, we were on a train headed towards London.
By 9am we were in Paddington station, eating breakfast in McDonalds. Normally I wouldn't go near the place, but I had promised “breakfast in London”, and didn't want to waste ages sitting in a cafe before heading off to our ultimate destination.
So where were we going? The RAF Museum in Hendon, London.
As has become remarkably usual, the great British transport system throws an infinite number of spanners at you on weekends. On the one day you might be able to do something with your children, your life will be made more difficult – seemingly just for the fun of it (ok, ok – I get it – they are building the cross-rail infrastructure that will eventually lead to much faster travel times across the city, but still...). Rather than jump on the Circle line to get to Kings Cross, we had to get the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus, and then the Victoria line to Kings Cross. It turned into an opportunity for education in the end – with Miss Ten looking out for the colour coded signs as we traversed the various stations.
The final leg of the journey took us out of Kings Cross on the Northern line, eventually departing at Colindale. Another five minutes on foot, and we could see the Museum. As soon as my young charge saw the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane perched above the car-park, her pace quickened and I had a job keeping up with her.
Oh. My. Word. What a museum. I have to admit that I had been to Hendon when I was at secondary school – about 30 years ago. Going back as an adult was wonderful. Obviously the selection of aircraft on display has changed over the years, but there's just something about standing in front of the iconic aircraft that you made model kits of as a child – it makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.
We saw Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancasters, the remains of Halifaxes, and even a Vulcan bomber from the 1960s. We saw a Eurofighter Typhoon, we climbed inside a Chinook, clambered all over a Short Sunderland flying boat, took photos inside the cockpit of an F4 Phantom, walked under a B-17 Flying Fortress, and ate enough chocolate brownie in the cafe at lunchtime to make us both feel really quite ill.
For the best part of an hour after lunch we explored the Aeronauts activities for children at the museum – with all manner of things to do. A wind machine with variable pitch propellers caused hilarity, along with dropping bombs from radio controlled planes, and waggling the stick and pedals of a real helicopter – I don't think the swash plate above had a clue what was going on.
Towards the end of the visit we made our way to the Battle of Britain display, and watched a wonderful movie (filled with excerpts from the “Battle of Britain” movie, which we bought in the shop) that set the tone wonderfully for the hangar full of Spitfires, Hurricanes, Heinkels, and the various Junkers and Messerschmitts to come. The human story written large, and being played through various characters and dioramas all around really had an impact. We have all read the story in books over the years, but it was driven home again and again – we should have lost the Battle of Britain – the Luftwaffe made massive strategic mistakes. Hindsight is of course a wonderful thing.
As we wandered through the car park, I realised we had spent nearly five hours wandering around the museum. Our feet hurt. What better idea then, than to head towards central London for a further couple of hours pounding the streets?
I had promised our daughter that I would take her to “Forbidden Planet” – perhaps the best cult/nerd/geek toy/comic/collectible shop in the country. The one problem I had was remembering where it was. While hurtling back towards Kings Cross on the underground I dug through my phone, trying to figure out which underground station we needed to get to. Half an hour later we appeared, blinking, in the daylight of Covent Garden, and walked a few hundred yards along Shaftesbury Avenue in search of “the shop”. I spotted the stylized rocket ship logos from some distance away.
Oh. My. Word. I don't think I've ever seen our youngest daughter get so excited by a shop before. I guess it was predictable – seeing as they have a life-size Rocket Raccoon in the window, along with various Imperial Storm Troopers. We fought our way through the crowds to the heart of the shop and looked around the endless movie and TV show figurines – marvelling at how amazing, and how expensive they were. Finally went ended up downstairs, in a rabbit warren of comic books, and graphic novels. We left with two collections of golden-age super-hero comics. They were probably the cheapest bang-for-the-buck in the store, and our youngest had found them. I spotted a wonderful book of art from the movie “My Neighbour Totoro”, but even my other half (who loves all things Totoro) would have killed me. It wasexpensive.
Our final distination for the day was M&M World. I had promised it earlier in the day, and Miss Ten had remembered. The one plus to the whole thing was that we would need to walk through Chinatown to get there – and as the sun sets in London, Chinatown is perhaps the most picturesque, alive, chaotic, beautiful part of the city. We fought through a sea of chinese families out for the weekend, and teenagers buying bizarre food and drinks before finally turning a corner, and hitting the SMELL of M&M World.
I've been to M&M World before. No doubt I'll end up there again – and not by my own choice. You can buy the chocolate far cheaper at any high street supermarket, so the entire reason for going is kind of moot really. It's probably the most chaotic, busy store in the city – almost an instant headache.
Anyway. We survived.
While trundling back towards Paddington station below the streets of London, Miss Ten curled up next to me. She does that – burns out like a firework, and then shuts down. A woman a little further down the underground train pointed at her, and whispered to her husband – they both smiled at me.
A long day, but a good day. A day that will hopefully be remembered for years to come.