Brooklands Museum

Hello jetlag!  I slept until 10:00 this morning, and the girls slept until noon!  Due to the late start we had a super lazy morning.  It was nice settling in and just relaxing.  But this afternoon we were ready for a small adventure.  Only a short drive from Bruce and Leesa's house is the Brooklands Museum.  I just knew that they had London buses there that I knew the kids would be interested in.  I had no idea the history of this place as the first sight for the British Grand Prix!  It has an awesome racing history up until the 30's and so much memorabilia from that era is on site.   

We walked into the first building and it was full of classic race cars.  Almost all of them still function.  The owners simply store them at the museum, but periodically come work on them or take them for a drive.  

The kids could sit in a formula one racing car, which they thought was awesome.  Leesa and I were taller so we could drive the simulator.  Even though I was just moving on the computer screen, it was still a rush going 200 mph.  The steering wheel would react to bumps on the course, and the strain from going so fast.  It was just cool!  

The next building held a collection of old bicycles.  Cambrie informed me that the lopsided bike tire bikes were called penny farthings referencing the size of old coins. 

 Some of these were really creative.  

This bike can go 200 mph!  The record was set on a pair of rollers, but still!  There's no way I'd want to go 200 mph in aero position!  

Outside we found a bunch of classic airplanes.  I was surprised the kids willing went back into them seeing as how much time they spent on them yesterday.  The coolest plane, in my opinion, was the Concord!  With a flight time from New York to London of just 3.5 hours...how wonderful would that be?  

We wandered around the grounds for a bit and saw part of the old race track.  One of the volunteers told us it was a horrible surface with all of the cement seams.  I've ridden my bike on roads like that and it's just plain annoying.  

We found the London Bus Museum near the back of the property.  They had bus examples dating back to the horse drawn carriages, which were also double decker!  

During WWI the bus fleet was used to transport soldiers and was badly in need of repair after the war.  There was a huge boom in suppliers and the bus system was rather a mess.  Finally they decided to standardize the flee to simplify costs, repairs, etc.  Personally, I really love the look of the red double-decker buses.  

A lot of the buses were closed for exploration, but we found some at the end that the kids could climb in and drive.  The boys were so little driving those great big wheels!  It looked so funny trying to watch them push the buttons too.  

Can you see all four of them up there?

The kids were starting to wear out so we headed back to the car, when we learned about one of the displays where the kids could practice building airplanes.  They learned about the fabric, wood, tensions, tin smithing, and more.  Unfortunately the museum was closing so we had to run through that super fun interactive part of the museum.  Who know something so cool was basically in Bruce and Leesa's backyard?