Days Like These

Yesterday was a good day.

My diary is pretty much penciled in with things to do on each day of each weekend between now and Christmas, so this weekend we really wanted to make use of our free family ticket to the City's new Sea City museum.

It was just after 10.55 by the time we were all ready to go and so we waited until 11am and then stood for one minute's silence, because we explained that important no matter what we are doing or where we are we do what we can to show our respect to those who have lost their lives.

The museum is housed in the old police station and court rooms in part of the Civic Centre

Once inside we handed over our free voucher and in exchange we were given our entry ticket, which in keeping with the maritime theme is named 'boarding pass.'
On offer for the children were free museum trails. We took one and although initially S did make a start on it she was so busy looking at the exhibits and playing with all the interactive stuff it didn't get completed. 

Currently in the Special Exhibition hall is Titanic the Legend. Among other things it deals with the glamour and myths that have grown up around the Titanic and continuously playing are clips from various film adaptations made in Italy, Germany and the USA. 

Upstairs there are two further exhibits. One is Southampton's Titanic story which was really, really interesting. Here you can try steering the ship out of the Docks, have a go at stoking the boiler and read about all the food they took on board. There is much, much more and there are some pretty special artifacts too like a pocket watch recovered from the body of one of the stewards.
As I mentioned above the building used to house the courts and audio information   about the inquiry into the disaster is, very fittingly,  played in one of the court rooms. If you fancy it you can stand in the dock and there is even access to the stairs they would have ascended from the cells.

There is no photography allowed inside the museum so I can't show you any of the exhibits, but what I would say is if you have a couple of hours to spare in Southampton it's well worth a trip.
We asked the children about the museum and S said it was great and liked the Titanic part and T said he enjoyed it because it was all so interactive.

I know this looks like a bit of a random photo, but that window used to be where G's desk was situated when he worked in the station, it's now part of the kitchen in the Galley cafe. We didn't try the cafe on this occasion as we were all ready for something a bit more substantial than hot drink and cake.

The owl is above the old staff entrance to the building.

To the left of the museum is a small garden which has been dedicated to Millvina Dean, the youngest and final Titanic survivor.

It was a fab family day out which came to the perfect end with me and G going out for the evening to see the most wonderful and totally amazing Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. We were stood up dancing and clapping and singing and left the theatre on a real high.