Our first residential home ed trip - part 2.

On Tuesday, we didn't get going particularly early, unsurprisingly, but since the museums open at 10am and none were more than 10 minutes drive away this didn't really matter.  We walked down with 4 other families to the Museum of the Gorge, where we looked at the 12 metre long model of the Gorge as it would have been in 1796.

Looking up the Gorge.

The Iron bridge in 1796.

After having a look around the museum, we then all watched the video presentation before K, M, A & I left the others, rather reluctantly on the part of K & M, to have a look at the bridge as it is today, before heading back to the hostel for the car.

The bridge in 2013.

We then met up with my second cousin for lunch.  Last time we met was almost 3 decades ago, which he has no recollection of, but I recall quite clearly as I ended up in A&E getting gravel scrubbed out of my knee!  We had a lovely lunch together, chatting and playing Shake Spell, before he headed back to work and we headed for our third museum, the one that K & M had been most looking forward to, Blists Hill Victorian Town.  A couple of weeks before our trip, K & M had asked if I would make them Victorian outfits for them to wear here and had been rather put out when I had said no, with a couple of rather busy weeks leading up to our visit, but when it came to it I don't think they'd remembered that they'd wanted to dress up.  We had a couple of hours here, visiting various shops and cottages, including the druggist, the Post Office, the sweet shop, the photographer's, the chandler, the wood turner (who was also the undertaker), the doctor's surgery and cottage and the bank, but there was plenty more to see when we returned on the last morning of our trip.  As Blists Hill closes at 4pm and Enginuity doesn't close until 5 o'clock, we returned there, to show A, for the last 45 minutes or so, before a quick trip to the supermarket to get something for tea and then heading back to the youth hostel.

That evening, having played Shake Spell with F, between the first museum and lunch, I got it out to show A, F's mum and quite a few of the adults ended up having a play, which was quite fun.  K & M again had a sleepover, this time with 6 of them in the room for 2!  A & I nearly had our own sleepover with L (who is French), who asked if she could come and sleep in our room and that her mum, Au, had said it was okay, and when I told her that K & M wouldn't be there, she told me that it was me she wanted to share with because I speak French.  Au and her children, N, L & T used to live in Nottingham, but are now in Liverpool, so it was really lovely to catch up with them.  I am particularly fond of L, since Au told me she asked her why I have English children, when I'm French, after I talked with her in French at a mutual friend's birthday party!