As we moved to London in March of last year, the days were warm, mostly sunny, and only getting longer. We vowed to stay away from the countless, world-famous indoor activities London has to offer and take full advantage of the outdoor adventures to be discovered first. Museums and galleries would have to wait until it got cold and dreary.
Fall came. Then winter. Days got shorter and shorter though, surprisingly enough, not that much colder. Nine months passed, and we still had not found that perfect museum day that we’d secretly been looking forward to.
Then January 1st hit.
It was a rather dark, rainy day, and we had plans to spend time with our wonderful friends Kinga, Marcel and their daughter, a BFF and partner-in-crime of E’s for sure, O. They suggested an excursion to the Natural History Museum, and we jumped for joy. Finally, the day had come!
The Natural History Museum, or the Dinosaur Museum as we Becker kids lovingly called it growing up, is magnificent. It was our go-to activity throughout the year that my family lived in London so many years ago and a place my brother and I still reminisce about today. The museum features everything from insects to marine life fossils to science stuff my husband could talk to you about for days. The architecture is GORGEOUS. (These pictures certainly don’t do it justice, unfortunately.)
And the most famous gallery of all, if you haven’t guessed already, is the hall featuring all things Dinosaur. A kids’ paradise with everything from fossils to interactive learning stations to a life size robotic T-rex that looks like it came straight out of Jurassic Park.
E and O were so exhausted from their exciting day at the museum that they fell sound asleep within seconds (literally.) of being put back in their prams that afternoon.
We strolled, we queued, we laughed, we learned. Like, did you know…if I were a dinosaur, I’d be a Plateosaurus! How so, you might ask? Well, because it’s medium sized, social, and uh…slow moving! My head must have still been a bit clouded from New Year’s Eve when I was answering those questions :) More seriously, though – southern Germany had alligators long ago! I never would have guessed.
It was a fun filled day for the whole family! We quickly made up for the long ride and gloomy weather with hot coffee and delicious walnut brownies from Muriel’s Kitchen in Kensington, rode the super speedy Merry-Go-Round just outside the museum, saw fascinating critters of all sizes (the no-longer-living kind, thankfully!) and enjoyed a leisurely start to our new year with a stroll past Harrods and through Hyde Park before heading back to our cozy nests up north.
It was the perfect way to ring in the new year and set the tone for 2015 – thanks for the day of adventure, friends!