We did an overnighter to London, mainly for the purpose of letting the boys spend their christmas Hamley's vouchers. We also did the Natural History Museum and Science Museum.
First good thing was the price of the train tickets. In advance I thought it'd be forty quid each for Clare and I and the boys go free but when we got to the station in person there was a twenty-five pound ticket for us, and a pound for thing one. That's the high speed and everything, bargain. And because the line between Folkestone and Dover is closed, there's free parking at Folkestone West too, so we left the car there overnight.
We stayed at a Premier Inn, all in one room, which worked about as well as can be expected. I like Premier Inn, they're comfortable and consistent. Checked in early, dumped our bags and went to the museums. Dinosaur bit was closed but it was fine, thing two still saw the Diplodocus and Stegosaurus and the animatronic sleeping dinosaur, and even a Tyranosaurus Rex skull. Plus all the manky animal remains and things. They loved it. We took a packed lunch and ate it there, for further frugality.
We had time to go to the Science Museum too, my favourite, mostly they like the Garden in there, the interactive play area with the water and building blocks.
We had dinner at Rainforest Cafe, I'll complete that in another post...
The boys loved travelling around by tube and bus. I think I beat the oyster card too, on my last journey I got a warning "there was not enough to cover this journey we'll take it when you next top up"... I have no plans to top up the oyster card again! It's the same price using contactless I think, so I have come out in profit haven't I? Unless I paid a deposit for the card, maybe... I'll hang on to it.
Nice fast easy journey back too, and the car was still where we left it, bonus.
💬 Rainforest Cafe is disappointing
💬 I had beer! At Kings Cross Parcel Yard
Paul Clarke's blog - I live in Hythe near Folkestone. Married + dad to two, I am a full stack web engineer, + I do js / nodejs, some ruby, other languages ect ect. I like pubs, parkrun, eating, home-automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.