I had originally planned on making the journey from Edinburgh to London by train, taking in the beautiful British countryside. When I arrived in Edinburgh, I learned that a major storm had disrupted service on the tracks going to London and there was no ETA on when they would be fixed. I waited a day or two, and with the trains only being restored to limited service, I decided to book a plane flight out instead.
When I arrived in Heathrow, I topped up my Oyster Card with $20 GBP and bought a ticket on the Heathrow Express Train to Paddington Station. I had planned on taking the tube straight from the airport to my hotel in Kensington, but there was a strike on the tube line. Instead I needed to take the express train and then backtrack on different tube line to get to my hotel. It was a little inconvenient, but not an issue.
I only had a couple of days in London before my flight to Hong Kong. I had hit most of the big sights during my last trip a year and a half ago, so I needed to find some new things to do.
Fortunately there is no shortage of things to do in London. The National History Museum was somewhere I wanted to visit on my last trip, but I didn’t have the time. This time it was the first stop on my visit. I made the short walk from my hotel to the museum in about 15 minutes.
Walking through the doors, I’m greeted by the giant whale skeleton hanging from the roof and the grand entrance staircase. There are hallways leading off the main hall in either direction to the displays.
I decided to head toward the dinosaur exhibit, popular with kids of all ages. It’s educational and entertaining, and while I’d like to impress you with all the cool stuff I learned about dinosaurs, the truth is I already forgot.
Like most natural history museums, it is has a large collection of animals on display. Most of those I saw were quite faded and worn out. A sign said they no longer use real animals captured and killed to be put on display, so some of those currently on display are showing their age.
There is one large room filled with nature’s big animals. Everything from elephants to whales.
There is a lot to see in the museum. There are several rooms designed mainly for kids, but the adults seemed just as interested. Especially the insect room.
There were exhibits on everything from human evolution to super volcanoes. I’m sure I spent a few hours getting lost in science. A trip to science museums should be obligatory for adults every few years. A refresher of what they once learned, and a reminder that it is still true, and maybe it would help counteract the nonsense people “learn” from Facebook and websites these days.
The museum has one of the coolest escalators I’ve seen.
After a couple of hours walking around I was ready to go home, confident I’d seen every corner of the Natural History Museum in London.
