While in London Erik had read about taking a tour of the Royal Mint. He was trying to decided between a visit to the Bank of England or the mint when we discovered the Royal Mint was not longer in London but was housed in Wales. Great! Now he could do both! As you already know we had a great visit to the Bank of England so of course now that we are in Wales he wanted to see the Royal Mint. I, along with the children, thought other activities sounded more interesting. So together the 5 of us decided to visit Techniquest, a science museum for kids while Erik did his money thing.
We found the Techniquest was quite “close” to our house – just a few miles but 20 minutes ride time!
Erik dropped us off by the entrance which was great because it was starting to rain! We hurried inside just in front of a large group of schoolchildren. We bought our daily pass and headed to the exhibits. Unfortunately the schoolchildren were right on our heels and seemed to know the best exhibits! The kids were a little dismayed for not for long because there were 2 floors of fun! So we headed to the lower floor where there were less kids! The kids had a blast going from station to station learning all sorts of scientific things. We learned about the human body by doing a large puzzle, pumping lungs comparing healthy/smoker, how to design windmills, creating shadows on a green screen, and solving mind puzzles. Katie loved building with special blocks to create a ship, Samantha had fun making stop motion movies, and Juliette enjoyed playing the Harry Potter theme song on a giant piano.
Charlie’s favorite seemed to be the sound dish where you would each stand in front of a large concave dish across the room from one another. You could whisper into the dish and it would travel to the other side of the large room for the other person to hear. My favorite moment was when he whispered “I love you so much mom!” (heart melted).
The schoolchildren were still quite active and some of us were getting hungry so we decided to break for lunch hoping the field trip would be finished when we came back!
We found a delicious café called “Crepe Escape” for lunch and enjoyed both savory and dessert crepes! Sammie and Charlie found they LOVE “pizza crepes” (hurray!). I particularly loved the berry crepe we had for dessert. We also found a Welsh cake shop next door and had to get some of those too! Not all of us were excited about the crepes so we made a quick stop at Subway for Katie 😊
We walked back to the museum and much to the kids delight the field trip was packing up to leave. Although the museum was still busy it seemed to calm down and the kids could return to their favorites for a while. We enjoyed another hour or so while Erik finished up his own field trip.
Meanwhile…..
After dropping everyone off at Techniquest, I made the 20 minute drive to the Royal Mint, all by myself because no one wanted to go with me. I arrived around 11 am, but the first available tour wasn’t until 12, so I spent a lot of time in the gift shop, and what a wonderful gift shop it is. In the UK, they will put anything on a coin, as long as the front has a picture of the queen. I saw Marvel coins, Beatrix Potter coins, Sherlock Holmes coins, and my favorite, the Great British Coin Hunt! This is a series of 10p coins that go from A to Z with things that make Britain great. Examples include B for James Bond, Q for Queuing, and Z for Zebra Crossing, which makes these coins really fun. And lucky me, on this particular day you could straight up trade a 50p for 5 different 10p coins, so I got a letter for each kid (except Katie because they were out of K’s and I wasn’t willing to spend £4 on a 10p coin). After lunch in the Café, it was time for my tour.
After heading through security we watched a short video about the Royal Mint, where we learned that they produce over 5 billion coins per year. We walked over to the actual mint and were walked through the whole process of making a coin – from making the specific alloys for coinage to the final quality control measures. There is a ceremony, dating back to the 13th century, called the Trial of the Pyx, where they verify the composition of the coins. Get it wrong, and maybe you lose a finger…
The most interesting thing I learned on the tour is that the Royal Mint actually mints coins for over 100 countries and territories. When I was there they were making coins for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UK. After we walked through the factory floor (behind a thick layer of plate glass) I had the opportunity to mint my own coin, which I gladly did. I selected a blank for a £2 coin, which was placed in the press, and then I got to hit the button. The machine went into action and struck blank 3 times to create a lovely brilliant uncirculated souvenir.
After the guided tour finished, I was able to explore the museum where I found the Olympic medals from the 2012 London games. I shot a short Facebook video for our Metro Stars followers, and then headed back to pick up the rest of the family from Techniquest.
So he arrived to pick us up and we headed home to prepare for the kids highlight of any trip – SWIMMING! Seriously what is with kids and swimming? We go to DisneyWorld and they want to swim, we go to Germany they want to swim, and this place was no different. When we had arrived in Wales Robert (owner of the coach house) recommended an indoor pool complete with waterslides! Of course the kids did not listen to other things Robert said but instantly heard the word “pool.” So we did some research and found there was an “International pool” nearby. This place was HUGE! And it lived up to every expectation of the kids. A giant pool, 4 waterslides, and even a lazy river. The kids were in heaven!
Our plan was to swim a bit, eat in the café, and finish up the night in the pool. But alas, the café did not really have good dinner options so we swam a little longer and then headed “home.” Although some kids wanted to swim others were happy to head home as they could.not.wait. to play with their new friends Josh, Sophia, and Oscar! So we ordered some Dominos pizza and 3 out of 4 kids (Juliette, Sammie, and Charlie) bolted out the door with pizza in their hands! Josh and Juliette played a rousing game of football, Sammie and Sophia made buttons together, and Charlie played with Oscar for a bit. I felt so blessed to meet this wonderful family!
The kids did NOT want to say goodnight but Sophia and Josh had school the next day and we needed to prepare for our next part of the trip – Scotland!
The next morning Erik saw 2 little faces outside our coach house eagerly looking to say good-bye. He quickly woke the kids so they could say good-bye to their new friends. Sophie and Sammie exchanged addresses and promises to write! There were no tears but I know that my kids were close to it!
We packed up all our belongings, tidied up the house, and said farewell to the Coach House. Today was a travel day to a new country. While eating some breakfast at our favorite- Costa Erik spied some football players from New Zealand. Juliette went over to a couple of them and asked if they were on their way to the Women’s World Cup – they were! They were so sweet to answer some questions and take photos. We wish them luck and then boarded our plane to head north!
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