Archive for the ‘Days Out’ Category

We all know how difficult it can be finding suitable activities to do with the family around the country and with the summer holidays upon us there’s nothing worse than being stuck inside the house with the kids climbing the walls.  Silver Cross Days Out is a website dedicated to helping parents, families and guardians find places to take their little ones to throughout the UK.

The site has been pre-populated with 500 destinations and families will be able to search for specific types of attraction such as zoos, parks, aquariums, museums or places to eat. Alternatively you can enter a postcode to discover what attractions there are nearby.  Because Silver Cross Days Out is a community site, parents and guardians will be able to rate and review the venues, as well as adding their own destinations.

So when you’re looking for things to do over the holidays check out Silver Cross Days Out first.  And once you’re back home, why not add your own review and help other parents out.

I first visited Portsmouth Historic Dockyards when I was 10, maybe 11 years old.  In those days there wasn’t a great deal there; the HMS Warrior 1860, HMS Victory and the Mary Rose being sprayed down with salt water – the parents didn’t bother with anything else and we just followed.  The day out held interest for me only because we’d recently studied the Mary Rose at school.

Portsmouth itself, however, holds a special place in my heart: it was where the husband and I first met (in real life, that is).  That first day we shopped in town and walked out to Gunwharf Quays late afternoon.  Our first flat was in Portsmouth and we frequently visited Gunwharf and loved the Victorian Christmas festival.

When I saw that Have A Lovely Time were looking for someone to visit the Dockyards¹ I whipped up my hand and shouted Me! Me! Me!  But I didn’t hear anything back.  I should have known the husband would have gotten in first.

In 15 years Portsmouth Historic Dockyards have changed a fair bit and it now makes a completely packed day out.

We started in Action Stations, a museum which  brings the modern Royal Navy directly to you with an exciting mixture of physical challenges, simulators and technological experiments.  There was plenty for kids to try out and help them understand about how little corners of a naval ship works.  The upstairs of Action Stations is more scientific where the downstairs is more hands-on, allowing you to try things like shooting helicopters out of the sky (TB and I totally thrashed the husband!), pilot a helicopter and activities based on a Royal Marines assault course.

Next we visited the HMS Victory, the ship on which Nelson sailed and died.  I should’ve guessed it wouldn’t be easy when we had to leave the buggy outside (there are no locks so don’t forget to take a buggy clip!).  Getting on to the ship wasn’t a problem, nor was getting up any of the steps, but getting down again, that was a different matter.  Depending on which area of the ship you’re on, the stairs range from steep to might as well be a ladder.  Not exactly practical when you’re carrying a baby; I feel for families who’ve got two or more non-or unsteady walkers.  Despite the inherent difficulties with traversing centuries old ships, they’re an excellent way of learning about the past.  Even TB, with his limited six year old attention span was captivated by the simplest of things.

A day out in Portsmouth wouldn’t be complete by only visiting the Historic Dockyards.  We wandered over to Gunwharf Quays and went up in the Spinnaker Tower.  Soaring 170 metres above Portsmouth Harbour and the Solent, the Spinnaker Tower is taller than the London Eye, Blackpool Tower and Big Ben.  In 2003, when the tower was being constructed, I worked the 06:00 shift at one of the stores in Gunwharf Quays.  In the mornings, as I rode my bike to work, roads would be closed to accomodate double-length lorries transporting pieces for the Tower.  If it hadn’t been so early in the morning, Portsmouth would have been in chaos, and it didn’t surprise me on our return to the UK in 2004 that the Tower still hadn’t been completed.  The Spinnaker Tower opened in 2005 and its high-speed lift sends you up to the viewing towers at 4 metres per second – just a little scary.

Of course if you really want scary, you could try walking across the glass floor on View Deck 1.  At 100 metres high it’s certainly a drop to the ground below.  If views across the land are more your thing, you can see for up to 23 miles around 350° of the Tower.  If your day out isn’t quite as sunny as ours was, you could always invoke the Tower’s view guarantee.  If you can’t see the 3 Solent forts on the day of your visit, the Tower will issue each member of your party with a ticket to return for free within three months.²

There’s always something going on at Gunwharf Quays and until 29 August, unlike the rest of Portsmouth, Gunwharf has a sandy beach complete with traditional Carribean food and drink vendors and a steel band.  There’s more than enough to keep your kids occupied whilst your other half watches them and you go off to sample the events.  TB was lucky enough to go on the water walkers, or hamster balls as he called them – my aim is to be under 10 stone by the end of the summer so I can try them too³.

And if, like us, you can’t be bothered to cook after your packed day out, there’s more than enough places to eat at Gunwharf.  We rocked up to Chiquitos as TB wanted fajitas, but having regularly visited over half the bars and restaurants at the Quays both the husband and I can safely say there are no bad ones.

^{1: Have A Lovely Time and Tourism South East arranged and funded the day’s events as part of their ‘Beautiful South’ campaign
2: Ts&Cs apply
3: Keep your rude comments to yourselves!
We had the pleasure of Emily ‘BabyRambles’ O’s company; unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to leave the men and kids and go shopping!}

When I heard that Have a Lovely Time was looking for someone to review Tankfest and the Tank Museum I jumped at the chance.  Even now I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking.  No, I remember, that both TB and the husband would love it.  I just thought it had potential to be interesting.

We started out early on Sunday morning, armed with a packed lunch, plenty of water and sun cream.  Google thought the journey would take almost two hours.  Past experience told me that three quarters of the journey could be done in an hour so I guessed an hour and a half.  What I’d forgotten was that awful traffic that hits around Rownhams.  Yeah, three hours was more like it.  Three hours stuck in that oven of a car with no air con.  We were more than a little roasted by the time we finally arrived.

We pulled into a field turned car park manned by some young lads wearing combats and TB was immediately taken with excitement.  “Marines!”  Erm no.  Cue the husband trying to explain the difference between the various armed forces before TB really managed to insult someone.  It wasn’t a long walk down to the museum but it wasn’t entirely practical either; our monster truck three wheeler buggy coped with the dusty bridleway pretty well but it was still a bumpy ride for Mr A.  The track was quite thin in places which wouldn’t have been a problem if the traffic was all going in one direction; as it was more than a few teenagers felt the need to try and shove the buggy off the path.  Our feet were filthy once we reached the road but at least it was only dust.  Had it rained in the few days before though, it would’ve been a different story.

Lunch was first order and whilst I fed Mr A, TB tried to make up his mind whether he’d rather eat or play on the mini zip wire.  Yeah, the park won out.

Whilst the displays were on hold over lunch we decided to take a look at the museum.  Despite being a massive warehouse-style building and having no apparent air con it was quite cool inside.  The tanks were absolutely crammed in but there was still plenty of room to manoeuvre the buggy around.  It did mean there was a lot of information to take in and I think after a while TB was more interested at looking rather than learning, but then at six years old, I wouldn’t expect his patience to stretch as far as reading every info board anyway.  The husband did a good job of giving him an easily digestible run down of each tank.

Now here’s the thing.  Although the husband and TB were having a whale of a time, after about the sixth tank they all seemed pretty much the same to me.  I’d have loved to spend my time wandering from tank to tank, taking in the details and the history.  Instead I was pushing the buggy, trying to get Mr A to sleep, and chasing after the boys as they raced around trying to cram everything in.  In my opinion, the Tank Museum has a lot to offer, but it shouldn’t be rushed.  There’s lots of side activities and info for kids to look at; interactive mini-displays showing things like how to aim a tank’s gun and fire when you can’t see.

Once the worst of the lunchtime heat had passed we headed back outside to the arena to watch some of the displays.  The arena is basically a large patch of grass surrounded by a moat (for want of a better word), chalk barrier and then a grass seating area.  On one of the hottest days this year so far it was perfect to sit on, but like that path down to the museum, if it had rained recently it wouldn’t have been much fun.  Also, because there was no seating, it was difficult to position the buggy without blocking the view of the other spectators.  We gave up in the end and parked Mr A by the barrier whilst the husband took photos and I slathered on more sun cream.

Despite the prospect of seeing tanks in action, the limited view for TB and the wait between vehicles whilst we listened to the history aspect was too much to keep his attention and we decided to take a look around the displays.  This was where the words living history really came to life.  Of course the baking heat did it’s best to prevent the re-creation of a WWI trench but TB was still fascinated with what it was and why it worked.  It was a good chance to get up close and talk to people who really knew their history; here were the real enthusiasts.  They could also be found amongst the stalls and if I hadn’t been there to stop them TB and the husband would probably have brought home and assortment of aged combat gear, rifles and a gas mask.

We had a fab day out and TB and the husband are already planning next year’s trip.  Next time though I won’t be the one holding the baby.