#CountryKids in London and Berkshire

This weekend was our annual pre-Christmas trip down to London and Berkshire. We took the 6:21 AM train from Oxenholme to allow for time in the city before heading out to Ascot. My son's aunt and uncle met us from the Northern Line and took us to the RAF Museum at Hendon. He will be studying World War 2 this year at school so this was an ideal location. 

Here are a few of our favourite airplanes:

Lancaster Bomber

He was amazed at the size of the plane but also at how small the places for the crew were.

Spitfire

Of course this is the iconic British fighter from World War Two. We have seen the Dunkirk film which highlighted the vital role this plane played in saving Britain from Nazi invasion.

Vulcan Bomber

My son could not believe how big the Vulcan was. It was the largest plane on display. We then wandered across the site to the building dedicated to World War One which was full of of plenty of planes that didn't all look safe enough to fly in:

I put together a video of the other photographs I took if you want to see even more planes and vehicles:

After lunch it was time to cross London to head out to Berkshire. We accidentally took the wrong branch of the Northern Line and ended up at the Elephant & Castle instead of Waterloo:

The station is quite deep underground but my son didn't want to wait for the lift so shot up the stairs... Apparently this sign saying 111 steps is inaccurate and there were more (it certainly felt like it carrying a backpack):

On Sunday morning we headed to Woodley Junior Parkrun with our friends:

My son had luckily travelled in his running shoes and borrowed some adult sized kit. Luckily for him he wasn't bothered by the cold:

The route took them twice past the frozen duck pond:

Then after a lap of the football pitch they had a sprint finish:

Yesterday we had to head home and took a train to Waterloo so that we could walk back across London and take in the sights such as the London Eye:

Waterloo Bridge provides some awesome cityscapes:

Using Google Maps we were easily able to navigate across the city playing Pokemon Go as we went! There are some fascinating bits of architecture to spot on the way:

We first discovered the Forbidden Planet store by accident last year so this year we made it a goal:

Unfortunately we were too broke to buy a lot! Then it was on to Euston station where we discovered that all trains were cancelled due to an incident on the line. So we had to come home via Kings Cross and Leeds. It will be Easter time before we next have to brave the national rail network: