Visiting London

With this Christmas and New Year falling around the weekend, there is no better time to make the most of the extended holidays and visit our wonderful capital, London.

Since we have had children, New Years Eve has no longer been the expensive late night out that it used to be. So, as we didn’t have a sore head in the morning, last year on New Years day we decided to visit the Natural History Museum.

We arrived at the museum itself just before lunchtime and spent a good few hours discovering the delights that it held.

After we finished seeing all the exhibits, including the mammal gallery with its Blue Whale, the largest creature ever to have lived. We caught the tube over to Westfield White City for some shopping and a spot of dinner at Mexican chain Wahaca.

There are many other attractions to visit in London, with BuckinghamPalace, Hyde Park, Big Ben and the London Eye to see, you can count on a fantastic time seeing the wonderful sights that this city has to offer.

If you are looking for somewhere to stay then the Holiday InnKensington Forum hotel is in the perfect location, it is a short tube ride from the main attractions and is a great location away from the main hustle and bustle of the city.

The hotel also offers a wide range of events for its guests, from Theme Nights to the Caribbean Experience, not to mention it also having its very own Starbucks.

NB: This is a collaborative post with IHG.

A Visit to the Natural History Museum

New Year was rather soggy, not really caring about staying up till midnight we used this as an excuse to get an early(ish) night and head to Natural History Museum in London on New Years Day.

There was no traffic on the way down so it didn't take very long, we parked up at Westfield in Shepheards Bush and our adventure started their.

My husband is always in London where as I have only been a few times and the children never, so the tube was a big adventure and one the kids loved.

The museum itself can get very busy but it wasn't at that time on New Years day so we didn't have to queue and got straight in. After dropping the coats off in the cloak room we got down to some exploring.

Oooh whats this? Honestly I can't remember.

Seeing how different size stones fall faster in water and looking at the different rock.

If you watched Alive with David Attenborough on New Years Day you will no doubt recognise this beauty, the lovely Dippy the Diplodocus.

The ceiling is unbelievably beautiful and awe inspiring, in fact there wasn't one bit of the building that wasn't amazing

We had gone specifically for the dinosaurs for my son, shame then that he was petrified of the anamatronic dinosaurs on top of a display cabinet and didn't then want to see the main event a giant T-Rex, but we still had a good time spotting the different dinos. It is amazing how many we now know, I guess that is what 4 years of reading dinosaur books does.

The shadow's were as impressive as the skeleton.

Possibly my favourite animal out of them all was this pink fairy armadillo! So cute!

Last year my son did the lifecycle of a caterpillar and butterfly so this was a great display to see, although this area wasn't for the faint hearted with spiders and scorpions!

Crabs! What do they all have in common?

Even the newer additions to the building look good, I loved this passageway, it was a bit of a rabbit warren and I had no idea where we were most of the time.

Looking back at the pictures I couldn't believe how life like this was.

I love the Dodo, it is sad they are extinct and it was us humans that did it!

The building really is a beautiful object itself and I just couldn't stop myself looking at the walls and friezes.

Best of all the Natural History Museum is free, and we were there all day. The queue on leaving was huge even with only an hour and a half left. With lots of food on offer in the cafe's and restaurant you don't really need to leave though so can stay the whole day. Lots of exploring and nature to look at all indoors, which when on a typical British bank holiday was great.

Linking up to County Kids over on the Coombe Mill blog.