Galati Travels: UK

If you end up in South Kensington, particularly the area around the station and Exhibition Road, chances are you will see this beautiful Victorian building with terracotta facade. You will be curious to know what this building is, and it is no other than the Natural History Museum, a world class museum which happens to be free to visit. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The museum has its official name as the British Museum up until 1992, even though it was separate from the other British Museum. If you have any doubts as to how it would look from the inside, then don't be suprised because the inside is as remarkable as the exteriors. As soon as you enter, you are greeted by a ginormous skeleton of a blue whale in a cathedral like interior.

This section of the museum is focused on paleontology, zoology, and entomology. The main atrium has some amazing skeletons on display with that WOW factor, such as this cool mammoth, and from there you can wander of to different areas.

As you can imagine, we found ourselves in the area with the dinosaurs, because who doesn't like dinosaurs? The dinosaurs were great to explore although this section was crowded, and no matter what time of the year it is, this museum seems to always be packed.

I have tried going there on weekdays in the morning and even then, there is usually a school group there, hence crowded again. Still, weekdays and early mornings are much better! Its also not the easiest to explore with a stroller, so I advise parking the stroller somewhere and taking kids in a carrier if possible.

One thing that is so spectacular about this museum is the interior architecture. It is truly something. It felt like I was inside some medieval Church. The museum is also very large and interconnected so you can easily get lost here, remember. We found a cute cafe in one of the floors, and then also stumbled into another section focused on minerology and geology.

This section was in fact a separate museum, the Geological Museum until 1985, when it merged with the Natural History Museum. This section is famous for its earthquake simulation. But what is so iconic about this section is the giant model of the Earth that really draws you up the escalators.

As you can imagine, this is an iconic sight and so we loved going up. However, we didnt stay long in that area because a few school groups were doing their geography studies there! Honestly, one needs about 2-3 days to really go through this museum at leisure and since the first visit, we have already visited a few more times to grasp some of the material! I wish it was less crowded but still, I am grateful that its free and accessible for everyone!

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I can't believe we are now in London! Even I have to admit that we move around a lot. Its already been a month and we are fairly settled and trying to explore the city at a slow pace. With two kids (and no car yet), it is always a bit tricky to take them out anywhere.

Of course we moved just in time for rainy season which means we started most of our sightseeing with museums. And the first one I visited was the British Museum, a public museum which has pretty much everything.

The museum was set up in 1753, and opened 6 years later. It continued to expand its collection following British colonisation so as you can imagine, you will see artifacts from all over the world. Of course, it is no surprise that a lot of countries have started to demand that these artifacts be repatriated back to their home countries.

The main entrance of the museum looks Greek-like, and usually there is a line up to go in. However, the line moves fast and if you have a buggy, usually they let you go through a fast-track lane.

The inside of the museum is large and gorgeous, but some of that splendor is diminished given the high crowds. In fact, it is VERY crowded and if you have a buggy with you, it is a little difficult maneouvering through the people.

Given the scale and size of the museum, I was only able to explore two sections with the kids, that is the Egyption, Greek and part of the Assyrian section. These were all on the first floor. However, these themselves were massive sections. Other departments in the museum looked at British and European history, history of Asia, history of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas as well as a department of coins and medals.

Even though the number of artifacts and the scale were truly impressive, the way the artifacts were presented was not particularly interesting. In fact, I was somewhat dismayed at the amount of information presented for the artifacts. Usually, modern museums present ample writing and narrative to provide a story to the artifact, but in this case, there wasnt much information presentation on the walls or otherwise, nor were the artifacts presented in a manner that they would invoke any story telling. As a result of the lack of information or stories, my daughter found it particularly boring.

Still, I am assuming that the purpose of this museum is to conserve and research artifacts and not necessarily excel in science communication. Given the very little interest expressed by my daughter, I grazed through parts of the exhibits and then ended up at the museum cafe, where the food was well... decent.

I'm planning another visit, but this time without the kids and can probably give another adult review.

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