Penny Travels - Page 9 of 12 - Travelling the world, near and far, one step at a time.

[AD] Lee Valley Park Farms – Conservation Week Visit

February 25, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

There’s something magical about taking children around a farm. We’re quite lucky in that our usual journey to school goes through the countryside and past several farms. We often spend the journey talking about the sheep and lambs in the field, or the horses that we regularly drive past. We’ve even had the delights of a muntjac deer on the road infant of us and an owl flying alongside the car one morning! Not everyone is fortunate enough to see animals up close this regularly though, and that’s why visits to places like Lee Valley Park Farms are so good. Children can really get up close to the animals and learn so much from them.

We were invited to visit Lee Valley Park Farms during half term which was when they were running their conservation week. I’ve been to the Lee Valley plenty of times with the kids before, but this was my first visit to the farm itself.

As soon as we arrived at the car park we could tell that we’d come somewhere popular. It was a beautiful day (more like April than February) and despite arriving only an hour after opening the main carpark was already full and we joined other visitors parking in the overflow one. There was also a queue to get into the reception area, but I’m pleased to say that this moved reasonably fast.

Animals

There’s a great selection of animals at Lee Valley Park Farms. Everything from the expected pigs, sheep, goats and cows through to more exotic animals like meerkats, bearded dragons and miniature zebu (which I have to admit I’d never even heard of before last week!). The kids loved going round the farmyard area and seeing lots of familiar faces. You can also buy bags of food from reception so that you can feed some of the farmyard animals. Both Little Miss C and Master C really enjoyed this. It was Tube Stop Baby’s first visit to a farm and she was more than a tad wary of coming face to face with some of the animals for the first time.

We timed our visit so that we could attend a talk in Critter Corner and LMC was thrilled to get to stroke a bearded dragon as it’s been one of her favourite animals for ages. Master C and I also attended a birds of prey talk and it was amazing to see the birds fling around, close to the audience.

Master C’s highlight of the visit was getting to feed one of the guinea pigs. It’s something that he normally shies away from doing, but the staff encouraged him to have a go and he got a real thrill from eating it eat the lettuce he gave it. Although he does since keep telling anyone who listens that he fed a hamster! I might have to keep educating him on the difference.

Play areas

The other part of the farm that the kids loved were the numerous play areas dotted around the site. There’s indoor play in the Bundle Barn (which we didn’t visit) but also the Dino Dig and Splash where they spent ages digging in the sand, the Farmyard Adventure where they climbed and climbed, and also the Hilltop Adventure where they bounced for ages on the giant pillow. Near the Hilltop Adventure there is also the Alpine Adventure Toboggan Run which they thought was great fun.

Accessibility and Facilities

We visited the farm with all four kids and this meant that we had Tube Stop Baby with us in her pram. I should warn readers that the site is on a hill, and whilst it is entirely possible to get around all of it with a pram or pushchair, it is hard going in places. I certainly felt like my arm and leg muscles were getting quite a workout as the day went on. It is also worth noting that the only working toilets on the day that we visited where down by the reception area. This meant one trek back down with Master C when he needed the loo, and also alfresco nappy changes for TSB as we quite simply couldn’t be bothered to walk all the way back down with the pram every time she had a dirty nappy!

We took a picnic with us and as the weather was so glorious it was lovely to sit and eat it in the sunshine. There were plenty of places for us to sit near the play areas and full picnic tables up near the Hilltop Adventure. We also had no problem finding rubbish bins to put our waste in afterwards. The only problem we had is that the sun was quite unrelenting and there was no shade up at the Hilltop Adventure. There were some structures that that we could imagine some shade being strung between possibly, but I’d certainly make sure you take sun hats etc if you visit on a hot day.

For those that want to buy food there there was a lovely looking cafe down by the reception area and it also looked like a kiosk by the Farmyard Adventure, although this wasn’t open when we visited.

Lee Valley Park Farms – our thoughts

We had a great family day out at Lee Valley Park Farms. It was our first time out as a family of six and we were particularly lucky that we had perfect weather for it. They all had a great day out and seemed to particular enjoy meeting the bearded dragon and guinea pigs. The play areas were also a huge hit.

For me one of the nicest things was just sitting in the sunshine as they played and looking around me. When you’re at the farm it’s hard to remember that you’re really not all that far from London and the busy M25. At moments it almost felt like I was looking round at the Yorkshire Dales instead!

Lee Valley Park Farms – what you need to know

Lee Valley Park Farms are located in Waltham Abbey, Essex, not far from Junction 25 of the M25 (the A10 junction). There is free onsite parking. And, if you’re inspired by my recent post on geocaching, there’s a lovely little geocache not far from the car park that is very kid friendly.

The full address is: Lee Valley Park Farms, Stubbins Hall Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 2EF. This postcode is the best one to use in a SatNav.

The farm is open 10am to 5pm every day from 16 February – 3 November 2019.

There are peak and off peak entry fees for the farm, with everyone over the age of 2 costing the same. £10 at peak times and £6 at non-peak. Grandparents receive a 20% discount on Wednesdays.

More details can be found on their website.

Disclaimer: We were invited to visit Lee Valley Park Farms as guests for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own.

Tube Stop Baby – Great Portland Street

February 19, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Just a short trip around from Euston Square (or a short walk up the Euston Road if you’re above ground) you come to Tube Stop Baby’s next station to tick off the list – Great Portland Street.

Above ground the station basically sits in the middle of a roundabout. But a very attractive roundabout if you’re a tube fan like myself. We didn’t manage a visit to the outside part of the station with Tube Stop Baby this time around, but I’m pretty sure we will return at some point. Possibly on a trip to Regents Park or nearby London Zoo.

Great Portland Street station is like its neighbours Euston Square and Baker Street in that it formed part of the very original Metropolitan Railway. The station has undergone quite a few identity changes though. It originally opened as Portland Road (1863), before later becoming Great Portland Street (1917). It hasn’t been the case ever since though. 1923 saw it become Great Portland Street and Regents Park although the Regents Park part was then dropped in 1933 and it went back to being Great Portland Street as we know it today. I had wondered if the Regents Park element of the title was dropped to tie in with the opening of the nearby Bakerloo line station of the same name, but a bit of research suggests that actually opened in 1906. I might need to do a tad more research to understand exactly what went on there.

Down at platform level the station has a really atmospheric feel to it (much like at Baker Street) mainly from the lights hanging from the ceiling. At the western end of the platform you can see daylight. Whilst this might be unexpected to some visitors it comes from the days when steam trains used to run along this part of the underground and they needed somewhere for the steam and smoke to escape.

This challenge so far is really showing me that I want to explore all these stations both above and below ground, but with Tube Stop Baby in a pram for most of the time this is quite a challenge at the moment as the tube network is far from fully accessible. It might just be that separate visits have to be made to each level of the stations for now!

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Great Portland Street

Date of visit: 10 January 2019

Underground Line(s) – Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan

Zone: 1

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

Tube Stop Baby – Euston Square

February 15, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Euston Square station used to be on my daily commute to university when I was a student in London. At the time it was a very nondescript station that you disappeared down into through a very plain looking entrance on the south side of Euston Road, at the top of Gower Street. Very occasionally a student night out might mean I had to take the equally nondescript entrance on the north side of the road and go through the underpass, but rarely. I never really looked at the station as a destination of any sort, but boy they’ve spruced it up since those days.

Euston Square was given a new entrance in 2006 on the south side of the road as part of the new headquarters of the Wellcome Trust building on the corner of Euston Road and Gower Street. There’s even lift access now to the Westbound platforms.

Euston Square is a bit of a strange station in that it so often gets confused with nearly Euston on the National Rail Mainline. Euston is served by some of the deep level tube lines, but the older cut and cover lines (Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan) are a short walk away at the separate Euston Square station. It’s not a long walk between the two (and the latest version of the tube map actually now shows the connection with a dotted line between them) but I always used to find confused tourists on the platforms trying to work out where their train to Manchester or Birmingham was going from. There has been lots of talk of creating a subway linking the two stations, and it may still happen, but as yet there are no firm plans to do so.

Euston Square was originally opened in 1863 as Gower Street station, which makes sense seeing as it is on the corner of Gower Street, but it was renamed in 1909 to give it the current name.

If you look carefully on the platforms there you will see some slightly different roundels in the tile work. Alongside the station name there are two roundels in solid colours instead of the traditional red and blue.

One is yellow and the other purple, and across the centre they say either Circle Line or Metropolitan Line. These date form 1983, before the time of the Hammersmith & City line, hence the fact that there isn’t a pink version.

I’m told that the only other place on the Underground where you see the name of a line on the bar of a roundel is Holland Park. I’ll have to try to remember to seek it out when we visit there.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Euston Square

Date of visit: 10 January 2019

Underground Line(s) – Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan

Zone: 1

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

Geocaching for Beginners

February 2, 2019 by Penny 1 Comment

As a parent I’m always looking at ways of getting the best for my kids. This might be in terms of their education, but also their general health and wellbeing. I’m a firm believer in getting children outside as much as possible. The fresh air and exercise can do them the world of good. But at the same time I’m also very aware that as they become older it can be more of a challenge to drag them away from screens and they also seem to become more aware that staying at home on a cold and wet afternoon can be far more inviting. Kids can need motivation and that’s where I’ve found geocaching to be the perfect solution.

Geocaching is one of those things that I’ve been meaning to try for years, but only actually got round to in the last six months or so. It’s a hobby that lots of people have heard of in general, but not everyone really knows what it really involves or how it works.

What is geocaching

For those of you not in the know, let me start with the basics. Geocaching is basically like a big treasure hunt where you use your phone, or a traditional GPS, to find “treasure” in the form of a cache that other geocachers have left to be found. A cache could be anything from just a simple log in a waterproof container that you’re asked to sign to show that you found it, right up to a larger box containing objects that you can exchange. Quite often the attraction is in finding the cache rather than what is inside it. Also a good lesson for children in doing something not just for personal gain.

Different caches

Caches can also come in all different shapes and sizes. In my time geocaching we’ve found everything from large Tupperware boxes down to film canisters or keyring sized things with a small pieces of paper acting as a log rolled up inside. You sometimes have a bit of a clue as to what size of cache you are looking for so that it can help you know where to look, but other times you simply have no idea, so have to look everywhere!

How to find a cache

We made a start by downloading the official Geocaching app on our phones and signing up for a free account. Based on your phone knowing where you are it then shows you a map with local geocaches shown on it. For each cache you can then drill down and see a more accurate location and a “description” of the cache. These descriptions can vary quite a bit depending on who left the cache. Sometimes it’s a general description of the area where the cache is – possibly a park or similar – whilst other times it can be a more detailed set of instructions as to where to find the cache. This is often the place where you might find out that you need some extra equipment to extract the cache. Depending on where it is tweezers or even a magnet might be required. I’ve heard stories of more complex caches that have even required you to take water and batteries (I’m assuming not to be used together!) but these are a bit beyond me for now.

That’s the thing with geocaching – there are caches out there to suite geocachers of all abilities. The basic caches just involve you finding one cache, yet there are also “series” that you can complete where a number of caches have been left following a certain walking route or similar. There are also puzzle caches where you might have to solve something first to help you find a cache, or you might have to collect a series of clues from the caches in a series to give you the coordinates of a final cache. In other words it’s a mental workout as well as a physical one.

Premium caches

It is possible to upgrade your geocaching account to a paid for Premium one. It’s not necessary by any means, but it does give you access to some additional “premium caches” and also (the thing I’ve found most valuable) enhanced maps which show footpaths and tracks on them. It’s obviously possible to use an old fashioned paper map (or a digital OS one) alongside your geocaching app, but it’s so much easier to have everything in one place.

Being a geocacher is a bit like becoming a member of a secret club. In so many cases caches are hidden in plain few of unsuspecting members of the public and I’m always amazed when we find a cache that is somewhere that we’ve walked or driven past hundreds of times before without noticing it. It does mean that when you go to find or recover some caches you need to be careful not to be caught by “muggles” for fear of them removing a cache, but it adds to the fun and the thrill of it.

We may have only scratched the surface with geocaching so far, but it’s certainly worked its magic as a way of getting the kids out of the house and exploring the countryside willingly. They also need to pay a lot more attention to the things around them. Sometimes it needs a bit of encouragement, but they’re getting there. I’m keen to try my hand at some of the more involved puzzle caches – I just need to find ones that I can reach with a baby in tow!

Tube Stop Baby – Southwark

January 31, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Southwalk was our final stop on a day of exploring some the Jubilee Line extension and for me it was a bit strange being back as I spent a summer working in the area once and getting out there every day for about 8 weeks. This was the first time I’d been back in a while and we used the opportunity to not only see the station, but also some of the area above ground as well.

When the Jubilee Line extension was planned, a station between Waterloo and London Bridge wasn’t included. Southwark station was only added after lobbying from the local council. The station though is actually west of the centre of Southwark which is served instead by London Bridge and Borough underground stations.

As you come out of the station and turn left under the railway line you can see the remains of the old Blackfriars station, which was later renamed Blackfriars Road to distinguish it from the modern day Blackfriars. Blackfriars Road was situated on the South Eastern Railway line between Charing Cross and London Bridge. Only open for five years (from 1864) it was replaced by Waterloo East.

As you walk along Blackfriars Road you can clearly see the old entrance to Blackfriars Station, as was, on the Charing Cross Railway.

Speaking of Waterloo East. On the tube map Southwark is marked as being an interchange station with Waterloo East and passengers can come out of Southwark, following the signs for Waterloo East and find themselves in a small no-mans land between the ticket gates for the Underground and ticket gates to go into Waterloo East. It has a bit of a feel of the area between two hostile countries that can’t quite agree on their border requirements.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Southwark

Date of visit: 3 January 2019

Underground Line(s): Jubilee

Zone: 1

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

Tube Stop Baby – North Greenwich

January 28, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Our exploring of the Jubilee Line extension continues with the station that was really the whole motivation for the extension – North Greenwich, home of what was formerly known as the Millennium Dome.

Now I’m old enough to have first moved to London before the Millennium Dome was open and it’s fair to say that at the time no one quite knew what to make of it. Yes, everyone wanted to celebrate the millennium, but no one was entirely convinced that the Dome would be finished in time, or that people would want to go and visit it.

I’m probably one of the few people who did make the trek to North Greenwich in the year 2000 and it was for the sole purpose of visiting the Dome. I came away feeling a bit meh, but having enjoyed the Blackadder screening in the building outside, which many people had described as a highlight of the trip. Looking back, it wasn’t really that bad at all, and I do seem to recall being quite impressed at the time by the huge human body that you got to walk through in one exhibit.

Nowadays, the Millennium Dome has been re-branded as the O2 and it’s a fantastic leisure venue with cinemas and restaurants alongside the major entertainment venue. I’ve been there on another occasion for a blogging conference, and we’ve also taken the older kids there when we took them for a ride on the Emirates Airline over the Thames (a trip I’m sure we’ll take Tube Stop Baby on one day too).

North Greenwich may be known now for the Dome, but the idea of an underground station in the area was first proposed way back in 1973, as part of what was then called the Fleet Line. The station would have been on part of the line from Charing Cross to Beckon via Fenchurch Street. The line got approval, but no funds, so North Greenwich station didn’t actually happen until the Jubilee Line extension got the go-ahead in the 90s with the route south of the river to Stratford in the East. The track layout at North Greenwich has been designed so that a future extension branch to Thamesmead is possible, but at present there are no actual plans to do so.

Knowing what there was to see and do, we took a trip above ground at North Greenwich. We may well return on a day that a bit warmer, and when the whole place isn’t swarming with people there for Disney on Ice! Until then though there’s the rest of the tube map to explore.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – North Greenwich

Date of visit: 3 January 2019

Underground Line(s): Jubilee

Zone: 2 and 3

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