Penny Travels - Travelling the world, near and far, one step at a time.

Travelling with a baby – Airbnb with a baby

May 20, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

In our time together Bonn and I have travelled rather a lot. Especially around the UK. Jumping in the car, on a train or on a plane became almost second nature to us both. We could pack in a matter of minutes, always managed to find our way around somewhere new and knew exactly where to look to find a hotel that would meet our needs. Now that Tube Stop Baby has joined us and we’re travelling with a baby a few things have changed. We certainly don’t travel as light, but the other thing we’re reconsidering is where we stay.

Hotels always used to work for the two of us. Clean and simple and with all the amenities we needed. With a baby though all being in the same room isn’t always ideal. Nor is trying to calm a baby at 2am when they’re having one of those “I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’m going to cry and anyway and resist all your efforts to soothe me with milk” moments. I’m always petrified that we’re going to end up waking the people in the next room.

Last year saw us pop our Airbnb cherry with our honeymoon when we stayed in a friend’s barn conversion up in the Peak District. I always knew the accommodation itself would be lovely, but what we were impressed by was the whole process of booking through Airbnb. The way that they vet you before renting out a property to you and the whole process of checking in via the site too. It was straightforward and hassle free.

When looking for somewhere to stay in Cornwall recently we initially went for a hotel, but soon found that all the ones nearby were either full or above our work budget. One of us wondered about seeing if we could find something on Airbnb and I’m so glad we did. What we ended up with was just perfect and helped to change what could have been a relatively dull work trip into what felt like a special little holiday.

We ended up booking a small one bedroom private “lodge” that was only a five minute drive away from where Bonn needed to be for work. Far closer than any of the hotels we’d been looking at. For less than the cost of a hotel we ended up with our own private bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. The extra bonus was the stunning views and private patio area outside looking out over the valley.

Quite simply put – it was utterly gorgeous!

On a practical level it also worked perfectly for the three of us. We took TSB’s travel cot with us and there was plenty of room in our bedroom to put it up and still have plenty of room to walk around. The living room had enough floor space for me to put down a play mat and her to roll around to her heart’s content. Not something that most hotel rooms have space for.

We also had the space to prepare meals for ourselves to fit in with her schedule and to prepare food for her too. In the evening we could put her to bed and actually sit in comfort watching TV whilst she was in bed, rather than having to quietly sneak around a dark hotel room whilst trying not to disturb her.

Yes, the property only had a shower, but we just bathed her in the kitchen sink instead. Surely that’s a right of passage for babies anyway?

Really it just worked out perfectly and made us realise that whilst she’s young like this our hotel staying days may be behind us. Airbnb just gave us flexibility and comfort for travelling with a baby that most hotels simply can’t do – especially if you’re looking at the budget end of the hotel market. I’m also yet to find a Premier Inn that offers you a private terrace with gorgeous views!

We’ve already got a weekend away booked in an Airbnb property for later in the year, but we’re now using the site to book future work trips away too.

Disclaimer: We have paid for all our Airbnb trips in full and have received nothing for writing this post. We just wanted to share our honest experiences. I have included an invite link in this post that would make money should anyone join Airbnb and make a booking through it.

Tube Stop Baby: Hillingdon

May 8, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Compared to the vintage charm just one stop down the line in Uxbridge, Hillingdon station is completely different. The original station was opened in December 1923, but nearly 70 years later the widening of the A40 meant that the station was in the way. Hence in 1992 a new Hillingdon station was opened, all paid for out of the roads budget that covers the A40 widening. This means that Hillingdon is the newest station on the Metropolitan Line.

This new station is a glass structure, letting in huge amounts of light, but giving it a bit of a greenhouse feel. On a hot day it can also feel like you’re in a greenhouse temperature-wise too!

There is also a glazed passageway up to the station from the street and whilst waiting for the lift to take us between the platform and the ticket hall you get a cracking view of the A40 and the traffic on it, as well as a view of the trains as they come into the station from the east. As with many buildings of this type of construction, the station is starting to look a bit tired right now, so I do wonder if there are plans to give it a bit of a clean up at any point.

Those of you keeping a keen eye on the photos I include here will notice that the roundel actually refers to Hillingdon (Swakeleys). This isn’t reflected on the tube map though. I’m trying to find out why that isn’t the case. As far as I understood the official station name was Hillingdon (as show by the sign over the entrance) but I don’t know why the roundel has both names on it.

From the research I have done though it seems that Swakeleys was a part off Hillingdon, named after a local mansion, where a large part of the grounds were turned into housing. There’s a Swakeleys Park still in existence which isn’t that far away from Hillingdon station, but also a Swakeleys School which is actually closer to the centre of Hillingdon.

Hillingdon today is certainly not one of those stops that the tourists will flock to, but in July 2011 it did get added to the London Borough of Hillingdon’s locally listed buildings and just a couple of years after it opened it was Underground Station of the Year too!

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Hillingdon

Date of visit: 15 February 2019

Underground Line(s): Metropolitan and Piccadilly

Zone: 6

If you want to know more about our Tube Stop Baby Challenge then pop over here and have a read.

Tube Stop Baby: Uxbridge

April 30, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

I seem to be working my way through stations that being with the letter “U” at the moment. Hot on the heels of Upminster and Upminster Bridge was our visit to Uxbridge.

Right over the other side of London, Uxbridge is in zone 6, at the end of the Uxbridge branch of both the Piccadilly and Metropolitan Lines and I think it fair to say that it is one of the most splendid stations on the tube network.

Uxbridge station was designed by Charles Holden (who was responsible for designing many Underground stations in the 1920s and 30s, as well as the London Underground Headquarters at 55 Broadway in London) it really is an impressive building. Many people also compare it to the station he designed at Cockfosters, which is at the other end of the Piccadilly Line.

There are so many things to look out for when you visit Uxbridge and it is really worth a trip to the end of the line if you’re a fan of anything tube related. The ticket hall area has some lovely stained glass that catches the light on a sunny day.

You can also spot an old buffet sign in the ticket hall, which leads you to what is now a thoroughly decent cafe that serves a very good all day breakfast and mug of tea.

In addition to old fashioned light up train indicators you should also seek out the preserved old cigarette machines outside what is still a newsagent at the entrance to the ticket hall from the forecourt.

These really are something that you just wouldn’t see today and it’s beautiful to see that they are still there.

After passing through the ticket hall towards the trains, there is a large concrete canopy over the tracks and with the high up windows it gives it almost a cathedral type of feel. It’s no surprise therefore that the station buildings have Grade II listed status.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Uxbridge

Date of visit: 15 February 2019

Underground Line(s): Metropolitan and Piccadilly

Zone: 6

If you want to know more about our Tube Stop Baby Challenge then pop over here and have a read.

British Dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum at Tring

April 8, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

I think it fair to say that most people know about the Natural History Museum in London. It’s world famous. The dinosaurs there, especially “Dippy” the diplodocus who was there for over one hundred years, have been the reason for so many children (and adults) wanting to visit. There are about 80 million items in the museum’s collection and there’s something there to entertain and fascinate anyone with an interest in natural history.

What isn’t so well known, is that the Natural History Museum has a smaller second museum in the Hertfordshire market town of Tring. The Natural History Museum at Tring was originally the private museum of Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild and it is located in the grounds of the former Rothschild family home of Tring Park. If you’re at all local to Tring, you probably know of the Rothschild family from one of their other current houses, Waddesdon Manor, which is currently open to the public, under the care of the National Trust.

Natural History Museum at Tring

The Natural History Museum at Tring houses one of the country’s finest collections of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles and insects and there’s no wonder that so many local children simply know it as the “animal museum”. The history of how it came to be is fascinating, and the museum has a room dedicated to Rothschild and the life that he dedicated to the study of animals. At the age of seven he declared to his parents that he was going to “make a museum” and he did just that. There’s a short version of what he did over on the museum’s website, but the detail provided at the museum itself is well worth a read.

The museum has five other galleries with permanent exhibitions in which range from a zebroid foal (a hybrid between a horse and a zebra) to a whole selection of domestic dogs. If you have young children it is particularly lovely for them to visit and be able to get up close to so many animals, especially as many of the display cases are right down to the floor, meaning that children can see many exhibits for themselves without having to be lifted up. Gallery 1 has a beautiful vintage feel to it and walking around you can easily feel like you’re back in a different era.

British Dinosaurs

The reason for my most recent visit (and the second visit for four month old Tube Stop Baby – which shows how much we like the place!) was to see their most recent temporary exhibition in Gallery 2 – British Dinosaurs.

Photograph kindly provided by Natural History Museum, Tring and copyright The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

The museum in London may be world famous for their dinosaur collection, but this exhibition focusses on British Dinosaurs, and the ones that still live among us in our gardens and parks. As you enter the gallery the first thing that hits you is the large map on the floor, showing where dinosaurs are known to have lived. My kids knew all about the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, thanks to a recent holiday with their Dad, but they were surprised to find out that dinosaurs were known to have been in so many other parts of the country.

In Tring children can measure themselves against the femur and tibia of an Iguanodon (one of the first dinosaurs to be discovered). They can see the massive Baryonyx walkeri skull and think about how huge this dinosaur could be by looking at backbone specimens that were found in Surrey. Their teeth can be compared to Megalosaurus bucklandii teeth found in Oxfordshire.

There are also a couple of interactive exhibits that my kids learnt loads from. Any excuse to touch a touch screen and they’ll take it!

What we thought

At 6 and 8, Little Miss C and Master C really enjoyed the British Dinosaurs exhibition, as well as wondering around the rest of the museum again. They also seemed to learn plenty too, especially LMC who spent quite a while reading about all the dinosaur exhibits.

I’m not going to lie, if your children are expecting to see huge dinosaur skeletons towering over them, then you should head for London instead, but as part of a bigger visit to the museum it’s a brilliant opportunity to learn about the dinosaurs that used to live here. The kids enjoyed the opportunity to touch a dinosaur tooth and to think about just how old it was in comparison to their ages. They also made a point of finding the reptile skin I’m gallery 6 so that they could get a feel for what a dinosaur would have felt like.

The kids have been going to the museum since they were very young, but they still enjoy going back. Little Miss C even did a “Roars and Snores” event recently with Brownies where they spent an evening in the museum learning about the exhibits, dissecting owl pellets and under standing how taxidermy is done. They then all slept on the floor next to some of the exhibits. She did say it was a tad scary to wake in the night with a deer peering down at her!

Visiting the Natural History Museum at Tring

The British Dinosaurs exhibition is running at Tring from 5 April to 11 October 2019. The Natural History Museum is located at The Walter Rothschild building, Akeman Street, Tring, Hertfordshire, HP23 6AP and is a short walk from the centre of Tring. There is a car park on site, but it can get very busy, so you are sometimes better off parking else where and walking. Entry to the museum, including the British Dinosaurs exhibition, is free. For full detail of the museum’s opening hours, please look at their website.

The whole museum is accessible with a pushchair, you just need to go in via the entrance off the car park, rather than the main entrance which has steps leading up to it. There is a cafe on site that has recently had a revamp. I’m told it is very good, but every time I have tried to visit the queue has been out of the door! I’m taking that as a sign that it is as good as I’ve been told.

A final word

My final word would be to say that when you go, please go and look at the Emperor Penguins and work out why the one on the left looks so strange. A member of staff explained it to me when we were there last week and it’s a fascinating story. Make sure you ask them if you can’t work it out for yourself.

Disclaimer: We were guests at a preview opening of the British Dinosaurs exhibition at Tring and the kids were given a vast quantity of bread sticks and crisps to much whilst there. All opinions remain my own.

Tube Stop Baby: Upminster

April 3, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Remember our plan to take a photograph of Tube Stop Baby with the roundel at each station we visited? Well, our trip to Upminster revealed a bit of a flaw in that plan. It turns out Upminster doesn’t have a roundel. Nor do Barking, Richmond and Wimbledon.

The “problem” is that these stations are all not owned or managed by TfL despite being served by London Underground, hence none of them have the classic TfL roundel signage at them! Yet another example of why I should do my research before we head out with our Oyster cards.

Not realising the lack of London Underground branding until we got there made Upminster seem like a bit of an anticlimax in our day’s travels. After the Art Deco feel at Upminster Bridge, Upminster just felt a bit anonymous if you know what I mean.

If you look carefully, there is one roundel to be found at Upminster though. One the side of the District Line signal box that you can see at eastern end of platform 5.

It’s not really positioned so that we could get a photo of Tube Stop Baby with it, so instead we made do with the roundel at the bus stop outside the station instead.

As well as being at the Eastern end of the District Line, Upminster is served by the c2c trains out of London’s Fenchurch Street (a station that has to be visited purely because it’s on the Monopoly board!) and also is the terminus for the Romford to Upminster part of the London Overground.

If you head up towards the ticket hall, there’s a nice old Lightbox indicator telling you which platform to go to next for an Underground train. There are a total of six platforms at Upminster, with three of them (platforms 3, 4 and 5) used by the District Line.

Despite not being a TfL station there is still a labyrinth to find. Number 76.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Upminster

Date of visit: 29 January 2019

Underground Line(s) – District

Zone: 6

If you want to know more about our Tube Stop Baby Challenge then pop over here and have a read.

Tube Stop Baby: Upminster Bridge

April 2, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

One more stop out on the District Line from Hornchurch we came to Upminster Bridge. Yet another station where we only got to see the platforms and having done my reading up on the station afterwards I’m really kicking myself that I didn’t do my research beforehand.

Upminster Bridge station it seems is famous for what everyone walks over on their way in and out – a swastika pattern formed in the cream and brown floor tiles in the booking hall. Dated (as you’d expect!) before the Second World War, this was actually a popular decorative design when the Art Deco ticket office was built before its opening in 1934.

Despite not seeing the street level part of the station, which is incidentally is below the platforms which are up on an embankment with stairs between the two, the platforms themselves are with further discussion.

Continuing the Art Deco theme from the ticket hall, the platforms themselves have more than a slight mod towards the design of that era too. Especially with the seating on the platforms.

What I can’t yet get to the bottom of is whether these are original or not. Searching online I keep finding photos of the platforms at Upminster Bridge with different, more modern style, traditional TfL seats on them, but I can’t work out if these were taken away and replaced with the Art Deco style ones, or if they’re just at different ends of the platform and both are there. This really is why I ought to do so much more research before these trips so I can check all the facts out for myself whilst there! If you know any more about this though then please, please leave me a comment down below.

What I am sure about at Upminster Bridge though is the fact that there is a central island platform serving both East and Westbound on the District line, and then the c2c fast tracks run next to the Westbound District line track.