It’s been a great year for playing tourist in your own town, especially if you really hate people.
History
It goes without saying that anywhere where you have to surrender your toddler’s buggy and also they’re not allowed to touch anything is going to be a nightmare.
Thankfully our kids both love frolicking amongst the stuffed skins of deceased animals, so we were laughing here.
All that was left was for me to get over myself and my crippling fear of… well, most things, and just get on the sodding boat.
It is quite nice being able to look round a museum without every other bastard in London being there at the same time.
It’s a castle but, I’ll be honest, we were only really here for the playground, which is also a castle.
This month, join an art club from your kitchen table, rave it up in your pyjamas and discover major exhibitions from the comfort of your sofa.
This Tudor-palace-meets-Art-Deco-mansion might look like it’s in the arse end of nowhere (and ok it kind of is), but it’s still only in Zone 4!
I’m still recovering from the Dickens degree module where we had to read one novel a week, so this was basically aversion therapy for me.
The museum’s literal and metaphorical centrepiece is the Coronis, a narrowboat built by the same company that built the Titanic.