Planning the next trip

Having developed a new love and respect for New York over the weekend, I must plan my visit to London for April and make sure I can find enough to excite and interest the offspring whilst we are there. Hopefully we wont have too much rain to spoil our walks out and about.

What might be a good idea is to approach my planning more as a teacher than a tourist. Randomly moving about London to see different things without focus and attention might be distracting, so I'm thinking of teaching them about the Tudors. (I don't think either of them have encountered the Tudors in their Soical Studies classes yet, so this will be a good start for them).

Before we leave for England, I'll find some stories for them, so they can learn about the Tudors. Then, once in London, we'll go to the places that make them come alive. First we will visit Hampton Court Palace, haunt of King Henry VIII. If it's a nice day, the gardens are nice to walk around, and, of course, there is the maze which ought to be usable in April. The palace itself is a masterpiece of Tudor architecture and one of my favourite "stately homes". We will see for ourselves how royalty lived back then.

Next we'll visit the Tower of London where we'll see Traitor's Gate, Tower Green (where two of Henry's wives were executed, as well as Mary Queen of Scots and others), and the tiny cells in which some famous prisoners were kept for many miserable years.

Later we'll visit the Museum of London to learn about the development and growth of London through the ages, and perhaps we'll also visit Shakespeare's Globe but that will depend on how tired we are!

Finally I want to take them to Madame Tussauds to see the waxworks. I haven't been there in donkey's years and it's another of my favorite places. Last time I was there, I tried to pay a waxwork figure in the gift shop, thinking it was a real person!

I might well take them to the Science Museum or the Victoria and Albert Museum which are two of my favourites and which are also free and we'll definitely do the London Eye. Oh what fun! I can't wait!