As much as I love playing with the kids there, Alisa and I also wanted them to experience some of the many museums here.
Fortunately, being about 10 minutes from the British Museum has been great. We go for a half hour or so to look at Greek architecture, mummies, or the Rosetta Stone and then come home. Having experienced this museum a few times, we were looking to explore some new ones.
With Alisa working at Imperial College, this worked out great. Imperial is right next to three phenomenal museums: The Victoria and Albert, the Natural History, and the Science Museum.
We decided to focus on the Natural History and the Science museum since they were more kid friendly. On consecutive days we took the bus down and that gave us one day for each museum.
The Natural History Museum dates back to 1753 when a famed collector died and allowed England to buy his 71,000 piece collection for a pittance. Then the architect who designed the Royal Albert Hall and the Victoria and Albert Museum won the right to design the Natural History Museum in the 1850's only he died unexpectedly and an obscure architect took over.
He did pretty well. For the complete story and phenomenal pictures (far better than mine), check this link out:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/history-and-architecture.html
This place has expanded significantly since the 1850's and the collection has only become more impressive.
When we walked in, we came right up to a complete stegosaurus skeleton (her name is Sophie).
Sammy and Lanna were fortunately more intrigued than intimidated, so we decided to make our way to the dinosaur section. As we walked through this massive place, we encountered impressive collections of complete ichthyosaurus fossils, birds of all feathers (including a Dodo subspecies), and Hintze Hall.
A gorgeous room housing a complete apatosaurus skeleton among other fantastic displays. Lanna loved it! She ambled enthusiastically throughout the giant space weaving through the crowd. She navigated well and would stop from time to time to say hello. As much as she has charmed most of Europe, not everyone falls victim to her 4 toothed smile.
From there we went to the extensive and awe-inspiring dinosaur exhibit. Not only were complete skeletons awaiting us at the entrance, there were several others hanging along the elevated walkway through the exhibit.
Our dino-greeter was my personal favorite, the triceratops.
Joey and Sammy were so thrilled!
The walkthrough ended with a double decker sized animatronic T-Rex. Sammy was less than thrilled and did not stay long. Joey remained thrilled and stayed for a picture.
After the dinosaurs we looked for the fabled 25 foot giant squid named Archie. Archie was given to the museum and is intact, stored in a giant glass container.
In their new Darwin Center they had more glass jars and containers than I could count filled with specimens of snakes, turtles, birds, sharks, and parasites among many other creatures.
Sadly, no Archie was to be found. They are keeping her in a special place where only 8 year olds and higher can go. You can see Archie here:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/giant-squid.html
Joey took that bad news in good stride.
Before leaving the Natural History Museum, we went to see the Blue Whale display but that was closed for some minor changes. We instead saw this saber tooth tiger.
We left the Natural History Museum and found a laid back pub for dinner.
The next day was devoted to Science!
Right next door to the Natural History Museum is the Science Museum. We followed the same routine from the day before: Bus 14 and look for "fancy cars" on bus ride (the boys have several Bentleys and Rolls Royces with a handful of Ferraris and Lamborghinis, they still get excited about Porsche's but Jaguars don't count).
The Science Museum remains very kid friendly with excellent displays.
Here's their site: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
It may have been too old for them, but when we walked in and saw the giant model of a lunar landing with a giant scout rocket looming over their heads, the boys did think this museum was super cool.
Beyond the space exhibit was an enormous room filled with trains, cars (including a stack of 5 cars on top of each other), and an airplane!
They went and found the oldest train called the Rocket (although Joey reports that the Rocket was no faster than us running at full speed).
And a Model T.
We enjoyed that room for a while until lunch. Alisa came to join us which we all loved.
After lunch Alisa had to return to Imperial but we went to the basement and found a dynamic kids area!
There were giant building blocks, inspiring Joey to build the Leaning Tower and Sammy, somewhat sullenly, to build the Eiffel Tower.
They had a water area that Lanna found particularly enjoyable.
All the kids had a great time there actually.
In between playing with water or blocks, there was an area focused on sound and music with buttons that light up! If there's anything Lanna loves more than water are buttons that light up when you push them!
We went to a demonstration about rockets after frolicking in the water. It was sparsely attended but what it lacked in attendance it made up for in explosions of helium balloons and gas filled pringles cans!
Joey and Sammy volunteered to show how Newton's Third Law worked. Joey is the rocket, hence the amazing hat.
They thoughtfully gave me earphones for Lanna given the intense detonations of the balloons. It was loud!
Lanna, Sammy and I left after the demonstration and before the bonus helium balloon was exploded.
Joey was pretty excited about rockets after that.
We enjoyed a gingerbread cookie and some hot chocolate before going back to the water display before meeting Alisa.
Beyond these major museums, we decided to visit the small museum dedicated to Thomas Coram and his "foundlings" that he took care of in the 1700's.
The museum can be found here:
http://foundlingmuseum.org.uk
The museum is small but intimate. The best and most enjoyable thing for the boys was coloring in pictures of the tokens left for the children by their parents which could be used to identify the parent if they achieved the means to resume care for their kids (not all of the kids there were orphans).
Lanna's favorite part was the music! George Frideric Handel was a major patron for Coram and even wrote The Foundling Hospital Anthem which you could listen to. Lanna would NOT put the headphones down.
Since the museum closed about a half hour after we got there, she had to put the headphones away.
Among the many things to do in London, there are museums everywhere! We've had a chance to enjoy several of them and look forward to seeing more soon, especially the Royal Air Force Museum with over 100 planes!
No comments:
Post a Comment