Lashings of Ginger Beer!

This, I think, was the highlight of the holiday. On New Year's Day we drove, quite a long way, to Poole. We had bought the kids an in-car DVD player for the long drive so this came in very useful again. Honestly, you'd hardly know they were there, in the back of the car, eyes glued to Muppet Treasure Island or Merry Madagascar! Now. When I was a child I was a massive Enid Blyton fan (who cares if she ain't politically correct?) and, I suppose, still am. The first book I ever read of hers was The Castle of Adventure which I found, one day, looking very unremarkable in a plain, red cover, sitting in Mum's bookcase. Of course in those days, (the good 'ol seventies!) there was no all-day sky tv, x boxes or whatever or wii's to distract children from reading. So there was not much else to do but get stuck into this book (which is why I don't let the kids have a tv in their bedrooms... all they have is books and is probably why they are such good readers!). Anyway, I couldn't put it down... secret passages, a mystery to solve and, of course, these kids were allowed to go off by themselves on adventures! Blimey! A few years back I introduced Honor-May to the wonderful world of EB. She bought her first one (Five goes to Smugglers Top) at an antique book fair and now has quite a few. So she was as keen as me to visit this museum.

At the entrance we were introduced to these 'baddies' illustrated on the wall by Eileen Soper - actually, the exhibition is really about her! One of these guys has stolen a painting from Professor Kirrin's study and we have to work out who from the clues.....

Here, we had to find the secret passage in the study. How cool is that?!

These pics are a bit dark but we were in the secret passage looking for clues with a special pen torch!

The mystery has been solved now after exploring feely boxes, listening to sounds etc. The rest of the exhibition is an hommage to 1940's childhood and Eileen Soper's life. She was a keen on nature so here, Honor-May is studying her nature table.

Henry in Noddy's car.... another famous EB creation.

Gypsies crop up quite a bit in some of EB's stories. Here was a beautiful Romany caravan with dressing up clothes insidea and a pretend campfire beside it. The kids loved playing in this.

Well. We all really enjoyed this visit and only left in the end because the baby was crying. Every other place we've been to (including Weymouth Sealife Centre) the kids couldn't wait to get to the gift shop or cafe... but here they didn't want to leave, even when I said "it's time to go to the gift shop!" Hubby and I decided that in the shop they could have a book (max cost £5) and a drink because they were keen to try ginger beer!.. Of course, they didn't really like it!