Have just had a fab day out with Callum going to London's O2. We decided to try the High Speed link instead of going the normal London Bridge/Jubilee line to North Greenwich. It was a little more expensive, but it was sooooooo worth it!
Callum loved the train and it was nice to have some different scenery to look at. The train was almost empty and got to Stratford Int in less than 1/2hr. In fact, we caught the train at 10.50am and arrived at the O2 at 12.15pm! 1hr and 20mins for train, bus replacement and tube! Not bad going! The station was empty, staff and builders were very helpful with directions and we got the rail replacement bus through the building site that will be the Olympic Village easily. The tube was almost empty too and, of course, once out of North Greenwich you are on top of the O2itself. The only downside was the huge, open air escalator at Stratford Int. Callum really doesn't like long escalators or heights, so this combination was his worst nightmare. He did fantastic though. Closed his eyes and listened for my instructions. Typically, we found a lift on the way home!!!
Even the O2 was pretty empty! Was expecting it to be heaving due to school hols, but obviously not.
Callum really enjoyed the exhibition as did I. It was very well presented and didn't glamorise anything or dramatise either. It was well laid out and presented and had lots of human stories. The date, which I had completely unrealised, was a poignant one as it was 99years yesterday that it happened. A lot of things brought tears to my eyes and even Callum was affected on occasion.
A particular exhibit was the 'iceberg'. They had an iceberg that you could touch and feel how cold it would have been to land in the waters with a notice saying that most died of hypothermia rather than drowning. Callum was quite taken by this one and I think feeling the cold made it 'real'. He was very solemn afterwards.
Another thing that some may find offensive, but I found very interesting and seemed to make people think was the boarding pass that you were given at the beginning. Each is a real member of the crew/passenger and it gives the class they were travelling in a little background story. At the end of the exhibit is a list of all those that survived and those that were lost and it was interesting to see how many teens and children were interested to see whether 'they' had survived or died. Some of their reactions were quite emotional. They had got a connection with their delegated person and were overjoyed to discover a survival and very sad to discover a death. Some may feel that this lessens the meaning by making it dramatic, but I liked the fact that they had felt something for their person, however small.
The gift shop, however, was awful. There was so much tat in there it was rather offensive. Who wants a snow globe with a Titanic in it for God's sake or a recipe book of the food that would have been served. Then there were throws and T-shirts. It all seemed a bit disrespectful to me! We did buy the guide book (see above) and a fridge magnet (Callum collects one from every place we go) and we bought a poster of the deck layout for educational reasons. Prices were extortionate and I'm glad that I'd taken my debit card.
Afterwards we had a cocoa cappuccino (very yummy) in Starbucks and Callum managed to spill about half of his all over his hand, the table, the chair and the floor. I was more worried about his hand, he was more worried about the chair. None of the staff were worried at all and quickly came to the rescue, even taking Callum off to run his hand under cold water. Needless to say I ended up given him the rest of my drink as it still had lots of froth (which is basically all Callum wants it for - haha).
Journey back was just as good as journey there. Train was fuller, but there were still seats and no-one standing. Caught the 3.25pm train at Stratford and arrived home by 4.20pm. Less than an hour. It will definitely be an option we will take in the future.
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