The Natural History Museum

Have you ever been to the Natural History Museum in London? Stupid question! It was one of my very favourite places growing up. Not to say that we went there frequently, living in West Wales made that tricky! But on each visit to London, as rare as they were, this was the only place I wanted to go. Even now, there is nothing quite like walking into the huge central hall, filled with the smell of history, and see Dippy keeping a watchful eye over the thousands of people coming and going each day. I'm sure most of us have ond memories of family trips to museum-land. I would bring a tiny little notebook and pen and insist on spending the entire day in the mineral and gemstone wing. I'd spend hours in there on my own, trawling around the cabinets looking at each of the sparkly, colourful gems and stones, furiously scribbling notes and day dreaming of my future collection!

Not long ago, with a day to ourselves we decided to take a little trip across the river to South Ken and visit the museum again. In winter the whole area comes alive with an outdoor ice rink, carousel and lights, which lends a certain festive atmosphere and gives the wonderful facade of the building an even more beautiful glow. So it seems that a gentle afternoon at a museum is now my idea of a happening day out these days!! We had such a fun day exploring the museum, the Earth section and the dinosaurs, of course!

Going up the escalators through the Earth is still exciting! "Don't stop when you get to the basement, give my regards to the Earth's core!"

The only real problem is that you need at least three days to get around the whole place!! With only a few hours it really was a whistle-stop tour. Luckily, given our proximity to South Ken, I hope we can keep popping back until we've nailed the lot!

The epic T-rex robot!

The magical winter wonderland outside the museum. 

Bleary eyed at the end of the day, on the bus back home! :)