The RAF Museum at Hendon

For some reason, I'd never been to this museum, and thought that it was too far away and too difficult to get to, but, in fact, it's only the other end of the Northern Line.  Plus, it's free to enter, so I thought we'd take the boys there today.  Of course, it turned out that they had been before.... but I hadn't been, and I wanted to go.

We met the boys at the Pret a Manger in Warren Street, where we were having coffee while waiting for them - although we were still queuing when they arrived.  So we dived back down the Tube to the Northern Line platforms, to discover that all trains were going to High Barnet (why?) and we would need to change at Camden Town.  However, this is not particularly difficult, and one of the joys of the Charing Cross branch is that it stops at Mornington Crescent, which I am never quite sure is a real place!

Once we were on the Edgware branch, it didn't take long to get to Colindale.  I had hoped we could catch the 303 bus to the museum gates, but there wasn't one for 8 minutes, so we thought we would walk on to the next stop and see what happens - turns out that the bus must go a different route, as the "next stop" turned out to be outside the Museum!  But it was not a long walk. 

We spent awhile looking at the "Guard" Spitfire at the pedestrian entrance

and then went into the museum proper.  After the obvious bag checking, we split up, agreeing to meet in about 90 minutes to have lunch.  Boy Two and I put our rucksacks into the lockers provided for the purpose, which did mean we had to go back there when we wanted a drink of water, but that didn't matter - they were token-operated, although I could only find one token in my purse so we had to share.  I did have two in there, I found later!

I really think Boy Two is just the wrong age for this museum - he is too old, really, to enjoy sitting in the scaled-down model aircraft

and not really interested in the actual aircraft as such.  I liked them, though.  What he did like - and which amused me, too - was the undressed model in one of the exhibits - we wondered what would happen if we pulled on the strap round his bottom!

We looked at Hangars 1 (Meet the RAF), 2 (First World War) and 6 (Facing the Future), and passed Claude's Café on the way.  We went to have a look at the menu and discovered that there were several options on the children's menu, including a child size macaroni pesto with salad leaves.  Boy Two instantly said he'd have that.  I teased him that he was eating very healthily, to which he replied that he'd been eating very unhealthily all weekend (he and his family had been camping with friends) and needed to make up!  His brother, however, ordered chicken and chips..... the Swan Whisperer and I had the salad bar, which was excellent, and then I treated all who wanted - the Swan Whisperer didn't want - to an ice-cream.  The boys chose salted caramel, even if Boy Two did accidentally call it "salt and vinegar"!

After this, I was done, and the boys didn't really want anything more, either, so we went to the playground while the Swan Whisperer had a quick look round Hangar 2, which he hadn't yet seen (he and the Boy had done 3, 4 and 5, or parts of them, which I think covers the rest of the time between 1918 and the end of the 20th century).  I would have liked to have seen them, but was tired and had had enough.  The boys spent about 10 minutes playing in the playground, and then came and sat next to me and told me rather more than I wanted to know about their school's annual talent contest, and when the Swan Whisperer said couldn't he PLEASE have another half an hour, the answer was a resounding "No!"

We were taking the boys to their father, so it made sense to get the bus up to Mill Hill Broadway station and catch a Thameslink down to Blackfriars.  Of course we just missed a train, but they are pretty frequent over that section of the line, and we didn't have to wait long.  Both boys - and, it has to be said, their grandparents, too - were fascinated by the site of the former King's Cross Thameslink station, now called "Do Not Alight Here" (this had to be explained to them) - and then we were at Blackfriars and there was their father, so we said goodbye until the end of the month, as they will be enjoying family holidays until then.

Anyway, I think the Boy, now aged 9, enjoyed it rather more than his brother, who is very nearly 6 ("Only six more weeks until my birthday!"); it has masses of stuff for very smalls, and of course the older ones are interested in it for what it is, but Boy Two is just the wrong age!  Ah well..... maybe our next outing with them will be more of a success!