Magical Museum Experience
September 16th, 2007 by Zofia
I have now been gainfully employed in London for two weeks but I am not willing to hang up my tourist title just yet, I feel like there is still so much in and around London to explore that I shall continue doing so and be proud to as well!
Two weeks ago I met up with my friend Josie and after some lunch we headed to the Natural History Museum. This is the first time that I have ever been into a Natural History Museum and I am not sure what I expected but I loved it from the moment I walked in the front gates of the building! From the outside you would be forgiven for thinking that this building was actually some sort of grand church, it certainly looks like many of them, but as you get closer to the entrance you notice the fine detailing on the facade, the saber-tooth tigers and pterodactyls instead of gargoyles and the lizards intertwined in a frieze detail below. Then upon stepping inside you a greeted with an impressive set of dinosaur bones. Even on the inside the purpose-built nature of the building continues to catch your eye. There are monkeys and birds and dinosaurs carved in relief scaling the walls, there are floral paintings in ceiling panels and so on. Before even getting to the exhibits the museum has made a great impression!
Josie and I took a look at the map and our decision was quickly made – we were off to see the Dinosaurs! It was a fantastic space, really well set up and very interactive and informative – I even learned a few new things about Dinosaurs, very cool! I loved the Stegosaurus bones (my all-time favourite dinosaur) and the mechanical dinosaurs (a T. Rex and some sort of baby dinosaur as well) which were moving as though they were real. It was clear that the dinosaurs are the most popular museum attraction as this is where all the money has been spent. Next up was the Mammals – animals which had undergone taxidermy were behind glass cases – this was interesting, especially the notice saying that many of these animal skins were deteriorating rapidly (fading) and that the museum would not be replacing them! I wonder if this is due to the endangered status of many of them, thus collecting skins would not be looked on favourably!
Next up was the crazy Human Biology section. We had fun with mirrors here 
The last room we tackled was the Mammals and Blue Whale section. The large scale models of different whales and dolphins were amazing – very hard to capture in one photo! All in all the Natural History Museum is well worth a look, I only saw one small section and can’t wait to go back and explore the rest of it!
