natural history

The Natural History Museum in New York was one of my favorite places. I'd been to the one in London, but it was so long ago that I don't actually remember it. So I decided it would be fun to visit again. The building itself is a stunning feat of architecture, but that's no surprise to me. The outside facade of the building is incredible, and rather fitting, considering the grandeur of the rest of the building and all of the learning that takes place in it. All of the carvings and craftwork were all nature related. Lions as gargoyles, carvings of fish and snakes beneath the windows. Pillars with leaves and birds cut into it. The sort of magnificence you wouldn't notice unless someone pointed it out to you. 
The first stop was the Butterfly Exhibit, which was a lovely little oasis to wander around and admire all the different types of butterflies. It was a small exhibit, but there were easily hundreds of butterflies, many of which I'd never seen before. There were some massive ones that at first I took for leaves (my glasses fogged up the second we walked in, so I didn't have them on...) and some large blue ones that fluttered around in constant motion. There is something rather peaceful about butterflies, I think. It didn't take more than 20 minutes to walk through the whole exhibit, but considering how warm it was in the room and how many people there were, more time would have been a bit overwhelming. 
From there, the main museum was an easy to reach treat. It is split into four main areas: the red zone (earth sciences, etc), the blue zone (dinosaurs and mammals), the green zone (ecology, birds, etc) and the orange zone (home to the Darwin Centre). I made my way through the blue zone first, stoping to see the dinosaurs, and check out the very cool and slightly terrifying animatronic T. Rex! I took a little video of it, which you can see on my Instagram. How very Jurassic Park! 
I did wander through parts of the blue and green zones, but I found the red zone especially interesting. From the earth hall, where you essentially ascend into the center of the earth and come out at the start of a display about volcanoes, to the in depth look at the minerals and gems we get from the earth, it's a really fascinating area of the museum.  
The thing I love about the museum is just how it put into perspective the amount of time that has passed since dinosaurs walked the earth, and since humans first arrived. The size of the building alone, tells you just how much history you're going to get when you walk in the doors. It was certainly an informative way to spend a few hours.

The Natural History Museum is located at Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD. More information here

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