We had been entirely inept in our holiday planning this summer and consequently the appointed time arrived and we had a) not had Emma’s passport back four weeks after sending it off for renewal (how much trouble can a five year old have got in to?!) and b) not booked anything in this country either. So our staycation started with a trip on the train to the new(ish) SeaCity Museum in Southampton.
It costs an arm and a leg to get in (if your not a Southampton resident) and we were grateful that the girl at the desk ignored Emma’s last birthday. Emma was primed with the obligatory museum trail which, combined with an assortment of flaps to open and close, kept her and Duncan amused in the Titanic gallery whilst the adults actually tried to read a paragraph or too. There were a few hi-tech hands-on exhibits which were well done although they tended not to support many hands so there was some queuing involved. It must be chaos if they have a school party in!
We then moved on to the “Gateway to the World” exhibition which was also well done. I certainly learnt a few things about the area even if the children didn’t (e.g. that there was a motorway spur road planned that would have obliterated much of the Portswood Road area). The last exhibition was “Titanic the legend” which wasn’t much to write home about but did give Emma a chance to do some colouring and make a paper hat (having given up on the trail).
By now it was lunchtime so we thought we’d sample the café rather than trek in to town. This proved to be a bit of a mistake. The food was reasonable but the service was pretty dire. The staff were well meaning but they seemed generally incompetent. After about 20 minutes of waiting for my quiche I went to enquire about it at which point it became clear that my order hadn’t made it from the till to the kitchen! During the intervening time we saw food go back uncooked, cutlery not provided and order numbers reused (or perhaps they were table numbers but we were given ours before we’d selected a table)…
We ended our trip out with a quick look around the adjoining art gallery (free) but Duncan was getting tired by now having been made to walk everywhere so it wasn’t long before we were on the train back home. All-in-all, a reasonable day out but not one we’ll be looking to repeat in a hurry. I’d have included more photos but for some reason photography wasn’t permitted in most parts of the museum (another black mark).