National Railway Museum

What a hectic day! We all woke about 7.20 and after some discussions about the plan for the day we got ready to attack it! We were at The Punch Bowl up the road for breakfast by 9 and Ben demolished a full English and large glass of orange juice. As we were a bit early for the opening of the NRM we had a walk over the city walls. Ben thought it was hilarious to give Nana a little push at the bit with no railings ..... We were at the door of the museum by 9.55. And already a small queue was started.

Ben was so excited by this time and when we got in and walked to the first hall he was bursting with excitement. There was an announcement of a demo in the Great Hall so we went over there to watch. This is where the magnificent steam specimens are, all polished and gleaming in their magnificence .... We went in the cockpit of the Mallard, Ben say in the drivers chair. We got a talk by one of the experts about the Bullet Train, which was Ben's favourite. We could sit inside it and watch a video of it hurtling through the Japanese countryside, the speed of an aeroplane. And that was in 1964! It's the only one outside of Japan. We saw Stephen, well a replica, and walked underneath a real train. We saw The Flying Scotsman getting her final paint job before being on the rails again next week , their was the Duchess of Hamilton all beautiful and the smell was intoxicating. We met a older man with his grandson from Thirsk and had a long discussion about Scotland which he said his grandfather came from.

All that train spotting was making us hungry so we stopped of in the Cafe for lunch, which was good. Ben played in one of the trains for around 45 mins, he was in his element. He really didn't want to leave the place. I think we were around 4 hours there ...

Next visit was back to The Shambles to pick up some of the delicious fudge for presents then a coffee stop off and a walk down the outdoor Viking stuff due to the Jorvik centre being shut they were on the street.

Back to the hotel for a freshen up before out for food and we chose a Rock bar called Gibsons who were really nice to Ben bringing him sweets and a cheeseburger which wasn't on the menu. We went back to the hotel for some ice cream and some lift surfing for Ben and his Papa :)

I was bushed after the busy day and I think we were all sleeping pretty quickly once again.

A really great day with the boy, lovely memories :)