For the final day of our holiday, we didn’t really know what we wanted to do, so I googled things to do in Coventry and the top result was the Midland Air Museum, based at Coventry Airport. At only £6.50 per adult, it was an absolute bargain!

The main exhibit is all about Sir Frank Whittle, the inventor of the Jet Engine. His story was fascinating, and I’m really glad I got to learn all about him. There was a hangar full of old planes, including a couple with steps up to the cockpit so you could sit inside. Around the edge of the hangar were display cabinets full of information.

Once we stepped outside, I got a big grin on my face to see a Vulcan parked outside! You could even climb up into the cockpit if you wanted (although the ladder looked a bit rickety for me!). There was no charge to do so, although they do say you can leave a donation for the upkeep if you want to. The outside exhibition area contained a lot more planes on display, with a few people hard at work on restorations.

I’d really advise people to go for a quick look around, we stayed there a couple of hours and we learnt a lot. You could also combine it with a trip to the RAF Museum at Cosford which is nearby. I’ve not been there, but I’d love to go!

After we’d left the air museum, it was a bit too early to head back to the hotel, so we decided to visit the nearby National Trust property that my uncle had been telling us about: Baddesley Clinton. It was a beautiful medieval moated house, with fantastic gardens. The interior is Elizabethan, showcasing the priest holes which were necessary to hide the priests from the persecution of Catholics at the time. The house contained some beautiful stained glass, although I wouldn’t call the mounted foxes head above the door particularly beautiful – quite horrifying really!

Outside round the moat were lots of little ducklings, and some ducklings that were obviously not so young and halfway between fluffy down and grown up feathers. They were very tame though and not scared of coming near us! Just like the ducks in the café courtyard, who were not shy about trying to demand some food, pecking at our legs until we shooed them away to bother another poor family!