ss Great Britain

sadly, when you have children and are visiting great works of significant historical importance, you miss alot of details. alot. ALOT.

so was the case with Brunel's ss Great Britain. a passenger liner on par with the Titanic that we visited on tuesday.

we met up with the bredow girls - mama krista, melissa & baby brooke, who by the way, really isn't a baby anymore but my kids STILL refer to her as "baby brooke". some things just stick. our friends back home, the goldware-brownriggs have a son who my kids will probably call "baby nick" until he's about to retire. and he's like 2 1/2. the bredows are prepping for baby #3, so not sure how we're going to handle that baby business. perhaps baby bredow mach II?

apparently, the ss Great Britain has won all sorts of travel awards. it is really interactive and you can touch/play with just about anything on this restored ship. you can climb all over everything, ring the bell to your heart's content, go up & down the ladder, turn stuff, push things, open/close doors, whatever. none of it is off limit to kids. or adults.

there is not a single person in sight to wag a finger & tell you "don't touch that". which when you're a kid & go anywhere with your 'rents, that is pretty much the MO at most places.

not the ss Great Britain. you can do anything on that ship. except probably start a fire on deck. they probably wouldn't go for that. or tagging. also probably verboten.

besides being an amazing homage to sea worthy engineering, it's current docking situation includes an underwater feature: the ship itself is parked in thick plate glass or plexiglass surrounding the entirety of it's hull. perhaps an inch or so of actual water sits atop this glass or plexiglass to give the impression & movement of water. BUT you can go below deck & out of the boat & see what it would be like underwater. only you're not really underwater.

there are gears, pulleys & artifacts from the ship to touch, feel, manipulate or in my kid's minds to move to some other part of the ship. there are vignettes with wax people dressed in period clothing. there is also an audio tour available on a little device that looks like a cell phone & i believe the use of one is included with the price of admission.

plus your admission is good for ONE YEAR. yes, pay ONCE, come back with your "passenger ticket" & visit as much as you want over the course of the following 12 months. damn, another E ticket attraction right in our own backyard.

no wonder this thing has won awards.

as i mentioned, all historical information is lost when one is intent on not having one or both children fall overboard & end up in the harbour. all i can tell you is that is was built by some guy Brunel. he probably has a first name but i couldn't even guess what it might be. the ss Great Britain was a passenger ship that traveled from the UK to New York. when you ask? a long time ago for the looks of the pictures posted. there was an accident somewhere in there then the ship only went to Australia after that. it was then (perhaps) purchased by the Dutch who used it for who knows what purpose & then the ss Great Britain was abandoned. it languished for years and finally, the ss Great Britain was discovered then hauled back to Bristol with great fanfare for revamping & here stands today, welcoming visitors from around the globe.

or in our case, across the harbour.