Mark you calendar: Nov 01 Day of the Dead events for kids at British Museum 11:00 to 16:00

I love going to the British Museum, but really hate crowded places full of lost tourists–which is a bit of dilemma when taking the kids over there.  A weekend visit to the BM will 100% be crowded (be most brave if it is raining). The place is also immense, so dragging little kids around can be unpleasant as well. Then again, the kids seem to enjoy it there. And of course it is an amazing place full of spectacular things to see.

The British Museum is a favorite for kids, avoid the crowds and keep the visit short

I was still pumped up for museums after my visit to the Neues Museum in Berlin earlier this week That place is amazing also.

Anyway, we tried to get to the British Museum early this Sunday when it opens every day at 10am,  but didn’t make it in the door until about 12:00. The good news was I found a sweet parking spot behind the Museum (Montague Place), where there is an entrance as well.

My 5-year old daughter had already been to the Museum with her class. She wanted to see the Rosetta Stone (room 4) again. The kids love the giant fragments from Egypt that impressively reign above the length of that hall. They were also very intrigued by the Assyrian Winged Lions (room 7 entrance). The Lion Hunt (room 10) though sort of scared them with the violent scenes of some many lions be slaughtered.  Niether of the kids liked the Elgin Marbles (room 18)–but both did enjoy screaming really loudly in that long room.

We decided to check-out an afternoon special session for kids for Medieval Dancing. There was live music and a dance instructor shepherding the kids (and a few parents) into some athletic steps.  It was good fun for 20 minutes or so.  There is also a digital learning center sponsored by Samsung. The map further advises that the Paul Hamlyn Library (next to Room 2) has daily kids events and resources. There are also “hands-on” exhibitions for kids in rooms 1,2,24,33,49,68 from 11:00 to 16:00 daily. I guess ask the docents also if you can’t find anything.

I would say to avoid the Egyptian Galleries with kids on the weekends. It is way too crowded. Some of the mummies are also a bit creepy for kids. There are many other less trafficked areas — such as the Sainsbury African Collection (room 25) which is a bit hard to find (even though it is really in the center of the Museum).  Look for the steps down near the Easter Island Hoa Hakananai’a statue.

Guidebook: Masterpieces of the British Museum –> Cheaper at Amazon then at BM entrance to the BM is free–but watch for over-priced stuff once inside.

Tip:  Bring your own water, snacks and don’t plan to eat at the Museum.

Tip:  The Museum is really enormous–don’t stay too long or your kids will get tired/bored/OOC (out-of-control). Pick a few items in advance and get in/get out.

Tip: Avoid the book shop — there is tons of junky stuff that will send a tired kid into a meltdown (when you don’t buy any junk for them)

Upcoming Event on Nov 01 that looks fun for kids -- Day of the Dead

Medieval Dancing, part of a selection of family events on offer

Winged Lions are cool (Lion Hunts are scary)

Not so crowded African Collection with lots of things to make the kids go "oooo"

above: best thing, hang-out at the pool!

Well, the best thing to do for sure is hang-out at the pool and enjoy the day. But we all have such busy lives these days, I guess we feel that we need to do something each day. I suppose to relax too much can’t be a good thing either??

Prices seem to be way too high in South of France this year. Watch out as it seems that fewer tourists mean more effort to get more money from you.  Especially, watch the “farmer’s” markets, they  farming you mainly.  Good produce and local items at the Marche U.

Anyway, we had a great time down in St. Jeannet in mid-July and I wanted to share a few ideas on things to do–

For Kids:

• Marineland, see the whales and go to Aquasplash. You really need to go early.
• Beach at Eze is a nice locals beach, low-key and easy enough to park.
• Boat trip some options at Nice Harbour, Juan Les Pins, St. Laurent du Var port
• Poney rides up in the Col de Vence, there are two places as you wind up the road passed the Domain St. Martin. 2nd place has a longer trail and farm animals.
• Buy lots of craft stuff at Mr. Bricolage in Vence
• Hike the Baous–St. Jeannet or La Gaude from the village of St Jeannet. For the more adventurous you can also hire serious climbing guides from the pizza place in St. Jeannet

For Art Lovers

• Maeght Foundation is absolute must. Great Miro exhibit on now.
• Matisse Chapelle is absolute must.
• Chagall Museum in Nice is spectacular collection from this mighty creator.
• 2 Picasso museums one in Vallurius other in Antibe. Tiny Chapel with Paix and Guerre is incredible.
• Modern Art Museum in Nice, Leger (near Marineland)
• Avoid: Biot glass blowing tourist trap, main street in St. Paul art shops (they cater to cruise ships these days)

Others–

• Music Festivals at Juan Les Pin, Vence Nuit du Sud. Although it really seems that this year a lot of the normal music festivals are running shorter schedules.
• Visit the beach at St. Tropez
• Mountain Hiking at St Martin de Vesubie and the Alpha Wolves exhibit (kids)
• Good beaches: Nice, Juan Les Pin  Avoid: St. Laurent du Var water is not clean

Eating–

• We dont’ eat out too much these days, but when we do, in Vence Les Templiers. Chef is a genius.

I probably missed a whole bunch of other stuff…but that list will keep you busy.

If you go now, you will catch the end of the spring flowers and start to see the opening of the rose blooms. By early June, I guess?, the roses will be a flowing, flowering blanket of bright colors, bees and scents. It is really something not to be missed here in London. For sure, the english roses are among the greatest in the world.

Kids will love to run around the open spaces. There are many fountains, meandering paths and more than a few ducks. Why do kids love ducks so much? And yes, there are a few playgrounds to let them loose at. You should also bring a ball and some picnic-able stuff. You will be in close distant to the London Zoo as well.

We got off to a bad start actually. The first room had an art piece that was on the floor. Yeah, my son went straight for it like it was made out of cookie dough. Immediately I was admonished by the gallery monitor to “get the child off the installation as a matter of urgency.” Frankly it was made of rubber and was on the floor–so what did they expect? Or maybe my experience with whisking my kid off the soft foamy surface was part of the statement of this piece of art?

There is plenty of stuff to attract little hands and curious minds. The prostitutes of Tehran was intriguing.  And yes, the crocheted codpiece was immediately eye-catching. The giant bed was perhaps the most entertaining area for adults to see little kids wandering around within. The most popular was the old geezers in the auto-pilot wheelchairs. That is a great thing to see really.

So as far as art galleries go–it is an ok place to drag kids, but really they had more fun at the old reliable primrose hill playground. There were more than few delicate/dangerous things to grab/break so you will need to keep the kids in hand tighly. But, it was nice enough for us to get out though and see a few things in the art gallery (more about the Saatchi for adults here). And it is free entry…

yes, still playing around with the iphone camera–and yes it is still not that great a camera, but it geo tags and sends over the 3G (when I can get it). Photo of the Kite Flying was shot with the iphone and then processed with the polarize free iphone app. The original photo is a lot sharper, but the scrawl title is kinda cool. Anyway, it was a nice day out on the heath even if it was cold still when the sun got in behind the clouds. We certainly had the fleeting idea that winter was over finally.

Blanket with water-proof underside is very useful. A quick stop at M&S was great, but actually really expensive. Better to hit the Budgens on Haverstock Hill (near tube station) to load up on food/drinks.

The kids also really loved running around with the kite. Could be a good call to have one of those in the car boot for the sunny/windy day.  Example of good single line kites for kids here.
Earlier this week I shot this spring, pre-flowering shot of the magnolia trees down on Belsize Avenue below:

Hamstead Heath Playground

It wasn’t that much of a battle really–they toss the flowers out at the crowd rather politely and usually with a big smile.

Of course, the giant smoke breathing dragon made a big impression on the kids. It made me think of a godzilla film as the mechanized beast motored passed the Negresco Hotel.

And what would a Carnival be without some feather boas? Nice was not about to let that ball drop at all–

and the previous week there were some amazing floats and tons of confetti and that gooey string stuff.

A bunch more photos here on my Flickr set: Flickr Longo Mai Set

More info on the official site here . We actually forked out €25 x2 to get Tribune seats, which actually was almost worth the hefty price as that side of the parade was a lot less crowded. It lasted about 90 minutes and the kids were very excited through it. I think it would be great to see the evening shows, but better for +7-aged kids at least.

Saturday

I, for one, was off to a slow start on Saturday after we had a good night out at the Paramount Club. Paramount (warning: useless, annoying flashing graphics on their site) is on top of Centre Point and offers maybe the best views of all of London in all directions. It’s a members club, so find someone to invite you for a drink if you can! Food was good, service good and it came in around £75/person all-in. So probably a little expensive, but less of course than it would have been when the pound was, ah, yes, worth more…

We finally got moving and out of the flat and then over to the usual Saturday morning at Spring Health where they finally finished renovating the gym. New area looks good enough and they have some new machines and other equipment.  Main attraction there still for us is the creche, where we drop the kids for a couple of hours while we workout, although our 5-year old is the oldest one there and maybe it is time to find her something else to do on Saturdays?

Then a quick provisioning run at the butcher’s on Englands Lane, Barrett Brothers. It is a great place to shop for meat, really there are not so many old-style butchers around any more (especially after Steele’s closed up on Flask Walk in Hampstead).

After lunch we decided to take a walk in Soho and hit a few shops on various missions. It was busy as usual in the Centre of London.  I am on this thing to get my daughter making stuff–so I remembered walking passed Creative Beadcraft on Beak Street, which seemed liked something sorta interesting in picking out beads, making necklaces.  They have all the stuff you would need.  Later we made a necklace which was a fun activity.

Then over to collect more art supplies at Cowling and Wilcox ( around the corner Cass is also a good spot). They always have lots of deal for art students–especially the 3 pack canvases and acrylic paint sets.

Final stop at Aquatic Design Centre to restock the tropical fish tank. We lost a bunch of fish over the last few months, despite cleaning and upgrading the pump. We had a great sales person in the store who knew maybe more than anyone I met in a fish store before about fish. He thought the main issue is the hard water here in London. So recommended that we put a piece of wood in the tank to soften it. We can also buy their filtered water to load the tank up if we bring a big container. Let’s hope the wood helps!

After making a necklace and getting the fish into the tank, and getting the kids down in their beds, I fired-up the iron skillet and got the two steaks from Barretts sorted alond with a nice bottle of red (my dinner was £20/person). We turned on the tube and flipped around, finally picking a Virgin OnDemand Movie–Sex and the City. It which was about as interesting as the tv show, so your pick on whether that is worth watching or not.  But one observation is that there is a lot less sex in the movie than the tv show. It seemed to be mainly about whether or not women should forgive men.  At least at £3.99 to watch it, it is sort of a good deal.

Sunday

We were on a mission to go ice skating and decided to try our luck at the Queensway Ice Skating in Bayswater (see skating options).  For some reason of my own confusion, I thought this was located in the Whitley Center which is wrong, but at least Queensway is only about 5 minutes walk south. Whitley has a very nice parking though at £1.50/Hour.

On the way down Queensway, we stumbled into Travelzone (which is marked Surprise Surprise shop) as we noticed these cool Troop London canvas bags–all looked great and we bought 2–one is my 5-year olds first carry bag, big enough for a selection of art supplies and jewelry! There are all kinds of little, random and other foreign products shops on Queensway. We wandered into a Russian shop which had pickled tomatoes and herring, and of course wide selection of vodkas.

Queensway Ice Skating was really nice and a zillion times better than Alexandra Palace, although smaller. And Queensway has bowling as well as noisy arcade games. Kids love air hockey, but rest of games for little kids are either kinda worn-out or too sexed-up/violent.

Dim Sum at  Kam Tong (59-63 Queensway, London, W2 4QH) – +44 20 7229 6065.  Food was very good, service quick and friendly (£45for 2 adults + 2 kids).

Across the street from Queensway is this most excellent asian supermarket — Oriental City,  (26 Queensway, Bayswater, London, W2 3RX). I love all the asian ingredients and they are so, so much cheaper than Waitrose it is shocking.  500ml of Soy is £1.10 and Ocado sells 250ml for £1.35 . There is all kinds of sauces, dried mushrooms, spices (star anise 200gm for £1.99 and Ocado is £1.29 for 15gms! ), noodles, weird unknown stuff. We got a big bottle of aloe water.

Last stop of the day was local at Amy’s (13 Harben Parade NW3 6JP, Finchley Road) to pick-up some kitchen stuff. They were also having sales on top of their normal discount prices. I bought 2 new woks so I can make good use of all the new spices and sauces.

There are many, many planes, copters, some boats even at the museum. There is a good mix of aircraft from all over the world if you have a chance to check them out while the kids are dashing around/behind things.

There is an interactive area for kids, Aeronauts, but probable better for 7+ as it is technical about flying and there are some simulators that kids need to be about 1.5m to use (they also look pretty active=scary for tikes).  Although young kids can be easily amused by yanking at various flight sticks and getting wind blown in their faces by some strong fans.

The aircraft are very impressive. Jet, bombers, old-time planes in many variants are there to be seen. We were there for 1.5 hours, and we didn’t even make it over to the Battle of Britain hanger–will have to go back for that–and the kids left exhausted after running around. The place was not too crowded, but I would guess that even on a busy day it is less packed than the Natural History Museum (but even the tube station during rush hours are less packed than that place). So I would say that if you like planes that you will have as much fun here as your kids. And it is all free and the cafe was reasonably priced.

(make note to self: remember about airshows– Duxford , find more)

More info here: RAF Museum London

Anyway, the mission was to go and see Sleeping Beauty at the Unicorn Theatre. Shows there seem to be mainly for +6, but we thought we would give it a try with a 5 and 2.5–maybe we should have listened to them though. It was not great for 2.5 as it was long and had an interval. My 5-year old daughter seemed to like it, but really the plot was too complicated for her. But, they seemed to like being in this great theatre–modern, not crowded. So we will look for more shows for younger audiences and head back there for sure.  I think they would have liked something with more music, more action.

Unicorn has reasonably priced food–wow! Only £0.40 for an apple–is like being back in Kansas Dorothy!

There is lots to do down here as well or just stroll on the embankment (but it is colder and windier there usually so be ready for that).  Chek out the Tower of course, HMS Belfast.  So, could be a good day out of NW3 down there at SE1.

Parking is a nightmare down there–a good reason to take the Tube (either London Bridge or Tower Hill–and then walk over Tower Bridge). There is an NCP parking lot (shown here on this map). I couldn’t find it, but did manage to find a spot on the street just east of Tower Bridge Road.

Ideas for tomorrow:

• Show at the Little Angel Theater : Looks about right age range.
• Horniman Museum : has an aquarium, but looks a little far too away
• Roald Dahl Museum : also looks a bit far and maybe not great in winter
• Show–Brahms and Little Red Hedghog : Highgate, looks about right age, plus nice classical music

Hmm, either drive out of London or risk big crowds at museums in London. Could also try an early-ish shot into the British Museum for an hour or so.

So, maybe a show and some painting/activities local. Weather looks frosty again.