Chilly Countryside Walk

It was pretty chilly out today in the UK. We took a walk around Frensham Pond and soon warmed up.

Weald and Downland

It was another day of history at the Weald and Downland Living Museum. The children found out about life in Medieval times, tasted bread cooked over the log fire, and explored the various buildings. The adults got to try beer made to a traditional Tudor recipe.

Toll House

Tudor Toilet

Slag from blacksmith's furnace

In the watermill the children had a go at grinding wheat into flour using traditional grindstones.

Science and Industry

This weekend we were busy in Birmingham. First up was the excellent and free Big Bang Science Festival at the NEC.

We also visited the Thinktank science museum where the science playground was very popular with the children.

Lastly we went to Cadbury World where we hoped to find out about chocolate making. We were disappointed to find a dumbed down, packed, expensive, theme park. The chocolate was good though!

Cadbury dentists chest - looks like they ate too many chocolates!

Aztec chief guards the chocolate beans

Black Country Living Museum

Today we're near Birmingham at the Black Country Living Museum. The children got to experience life in a coal mining village at the time of the industrial revolution and beyond. We went down a coal mine to see how the coal was mined by hand and we took a canal boat into the tunnels that lead to the underground quarries. We learnt how coal was formed and saw some of the many fossils to be found in the area.

We saw many old vehicles and took a ride on the trolley bus.

There were many wonderfully rusted objects including 2 cottages constructed entirely from cast Iron -  no bricks.