Tuesday 7 February 2012

Family Days Out - Eden Project

Morning! Hope you're all well and surviving in this snow.  I have to admit I am a little bored with it now and would like to leave the house without wearing wellies!  Today I am thrilled to welcome Fiona of Coombe Mill as our guest blogger, sharing her family day out at Eden Project.  Every week Fiona has a 'Country Kids' linky she hosts on her blog, for others to share their family fun outside from the past week.  So if you have been having some fun outside and have blogged about it, be sure to pop over and add your link to Fiona's post.  I will pass youover to Fiona to share her families afternoon out at the Eden Project in Cornwall.


We left it till the afternoon to visit with the main intention being to go ice skating, but it is very easy to use the whole day up. Facilities for children are excellent with a great educational building now open. It is interactive and really captures the imagination of children. Throughout the year they also have special activities indoors and outside for the children to get involved with, so well worth checking out on our free wi fi if you are staying with us.  Also if you visit Eden Project once you get free entry for the rest of the year!





Fun for our children began as soon as they left the car. Who could miss out on running up and down the grassy slopes on the way in, or playing around the huge driftwood horse! We sorted the tickets whilst the children watched the automated eco theatre production and then it was off to explore. There are plenty of natural wood built play stations and my children could have been happy with just this for the day!

This is one of my favourite sculptures, he is a recycled alien called "Wee Man" made out of all the domestic waste from a typical household in a year. It does make you question where it all goes and what we are doing to our planet!


We finally made it inside to the education and science building to discover more treats instore. There are plenty of models and displays to see, a trumpet to blow and a huge mechanical nut cracker to operate.

We were keen to find the St Breward 'seed' sculpture. Mined from our village and carved from a massive 160 tonne granite block over 4 years, it is the centre piece with a whole room dedicated to it and a great write up!  Alistair took the photo and missed the top off! It does make an impressive cone shape (trust me).



 With only minutes to spare we had a quick venture into the tropical biome. The colourful array of plants, waterfall and tropical shelters will be fun for a return visit, just a few snaps and our time was up for skating in the big outdoor tent.

It was dusk as we made our way to the tent and the children were full of excitement. We were the last skate of the day and it was surprisingly quiet on the ice, perfect for us. I left Nick with the camera, since he was convinced he would break a leg attempting to skate, and joined the children on the ice. It certainly didn't disappoint, a fabulous 40 minutes, well worth the £5 per person! If you are staying with us at Coombe Mill for February half term or before, I can thoroughly recommend a skating trip to Eden before the big tent is dismantled ready for the summer months.
Thank you Fiona, it looks like you all had a fantastic day out.  My own chidlren are yet to try ice skating as there isn't a rink nearby, but they are all desperate to try!
Join us for more great guest posts with ideas for family days out and I will be adding my own ideas too.
Stay warm
Zoe
x

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