#CulturedKids October 2021 #69

Welcome to the October edition of Cultured Kids, a blog link-up open to all culture lovers! Find and share blog posts on family cultural days out, travel, events and activities, from all over the world. Theatre, art, museums, exhibitions, historic houses, castles, festivals and more – you’ll hopefully discover new places and writers through this regular link-up.

Everyone is welcome to join in. Share one of your own posts, or read other people’s posts. One of the things I love about culture is how it brings people together, and this link-up aspires to do the same. All joining instructions and linked blog posts are at the end of this post.

 

So what have the Museum Family been up to this since my last post in July?

For our summer holidays, we avoided the uncertainty of international travel and instead explored more of England. Our tent saw more use in the last few months than it has in the last five years!

In Sussex we returned to Swallowtail Hill, had tea with alpacas at Fisherwood Farm and ripped through Rye Harbour on a Full Throttle boat ride. Unfortunately I couldn’t share my footage as my phone was stolen the next day on a visit to the appalling Marble Arch Mound. Always back up people!

But after the bitter came the sweet, with many more enjoyable travels and days out.

 

North Yorkshire had almost too much to offer this culture loving family. We finally made it to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which is so big and beautiful we’ll be back many more times. The kids loved taking ever more precarious leaps over the prehistoric Brimham Rocks, and crossing the rope bridge to the playground Skelf Island at Castle Howard. Steve Massam’s These Passing Things brought colour and fun to the stunning Studley Royal Gardens. We were impressed by the world’s largest piece of jet in Whitby and the first ever locomotive at National Railway Museum.

North Devon was a much more sedate affair – I even took a break from posting on my Instagram grid! We lucked out with the weather so spent our time beach hopping along the stunning coastline, searching for quiet coves. Our National Trust membership came in handy, with free parking at Baggy Point and Heddon’s Mouth. Our highlight was a day trip to the unspoilt Lundy Island, where a school of dolphins followed our boat and seals watched the kids play on the beach.

 

As if to make up for our shaky start, London gave us some very special experiences this summer. We picnicked in Buckingham Palace Gardens, my first ever view of that side of the iconic Palace. Museum Teen and I saw the Northern Lights over Greenwich thanks to artwork Borelais. And we had our first ever family skateboarding lessons on a pedestrianized Strand thanks to Somerset House and Skate the Strand.

It wasn’t just firsts – we had really enjoyable repeat visits to old (and new!) favourites, including Museum of London Docklands, Alice at the V&A, Fantastic Beasts at Natural History Museum, Fairy Tales at Discover, Dickens Museum, London Transport Museum, and the Postal Museum. I even braved a return to Marble Arch Mound – the Lightfield exhibition by Anthony James was worth it!

 

Back to school and work has brought a change in pace and season. There’s so many new exhibitions and cultural events happening in London that it’s impossible to keep up! My highlights have been catching bubbles filled with forest smells in Silent Fall at Superblue Art and the spectacular floral art for Chelsea in Bloom.

I’ve taken on paid content creation work, including being the London eyes and ears for East Midlands Railway. It’s an incredibly exciting time for me and the blog, although it does leave me less time to write here, and over on Instagram. Between juggling work work, blog work, home, kids and birthdays over the last few weeks I hope you can understand why this post is a little later in the month than I would have liked.

 

Thanks so much everyone for joining in last time, we loved reading all your posts. ZenBaby Travel’s favourites were:

An essential guide to a Road Trip Northern Island with kids by Holidays from Hels

15 very best things to do near Cardigan, West Wales by Chimp Trips

 

 

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