We have now been (as a family) three times to Covent Garden where the London Transport Museum is located, but each time previously, distractions caused us to miss one of its main attractions, the London Transport Museum. This time we showed steely determination in marching past the street performers and straight to our destination. It was worth the effort. The girls loved climbing on wagons, busses, trains cars and tube cars, and Mom and Dad marvelled at the details of the contstruction and operation of one of the most complex public transportation systems in the world. We were surprised to learn that the system itself is more than a century old and that our western suburb of Hammersmith was one of the earliest suburban areas connected to Central London. The girls also got the chance to lie down in a mocked-up air raid shelter replicating those which were used for refuge by 130,000 Londoners nightly during the Blitz, and we contemplated together what London must have been like 100 years ago when the Thames was giant sewer and the smoke and "fug" of industrial smoke (that's an English word) hung heavy in the air. Something must have sunk in about all that with Olivia because when we left, while her sisters insisted on keeping their souvenir entry cards with 13 hole punches carefully collected at various stations around the museum, Olivia decided to deposit hers back in the recycle bin for the good of the environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment