London Transport Museum

A journey getting around London in the past 200 years. The permanent exhibition takes you through early omnibuses, horse drawn trams, etc; many of the exhibits can be boarded, and in fact the barriers preventing the rest were small enough to allow B free access when I wasn't looking!

Further on one fines various ages of tube trains including an underground steam train and finally the main room contains various old busses, trams, trolly busses; a picnic area with transport related toys. The opportunity to sit in the driving seat of a big red bus. Surrounding the large exhibits are various smaller models; information posters and old adverts. Finally each child is given a card to stamp at various points throughout their journey keeping them entertained throughout.

This was a fantastic museum with a huge amount to engage kids and enough to be interesting to adults too. However, I went on a Monday which I had taken off work, given its Covent Garden location I would imagine that this could become very crowded at weekends.

What: London Transport Museum
Where: Covent Garden
Cost: Adults £10; under 16s Free
Going again: Probably
Try: Science museum, Kew steam museum
Top tip: The cafe seem to be happy to feed your children with food taken from home assuming you buy something for yourself.

Tower Bridge (opening)

Tower Bridge; or Clever Bridge as D (3) calls it, is one of many across the Thames, but, without doubt it is the grandest and, to my knowledge, the only one that opens.

As the bridge was built in the late 19th century when most shipping was powered by wind the bridge was required to allow for tall masted ships to pass; many designs were submitted and Tower Bridge was selected with its visual design in keeping with the near by Tower of London and its ability to raise the main bridge. Now such shipping is fairly rare but frequent enough to require regular lifting.

Most openings seem to be early(ish) morning and late(ish) afternoon; I found that an afternoon opening provided just enough time to get home in time to get the kids in bed.

I found three reasonable spots to watch from. On the north bank in front of The Tower, from The Tower's walls (requires entry to the Tower), oposite the Tower on the south bank of the Thames. We chose the first, which was a mistake; D's view was partially blocked by a railing and I was forced to carry B.

D watched transfixed holding his arms in imitation for the duration of the event; it turned out to be one of the highlights of his weekend.

What: Tower Bridge raising
Where: Closest tube is Tower Hill; map
Cost: Free
When: Permanent - check times
Going again: Yes, next time I will take them to the exhibition too
Try: Open for suggestions!
Top tip: The Starbucks in Katherine docks provides good coffee, cakes and views of yachts.