Dinosaur!

[ailbhe]

Today I packed a lunch, we hopped on a train, and the girls and I went to Oxford's Natural History Museum. I loved it. The building itself is bite-sized, there's loads of stuff there, they were lovely about letting me leave the buggy, there was a chest of drawers full of things to guess at (in alpha order - d for dung beetle, p for pyrite, z for zebra butterfly) and there were dinosaurs.

The model T-Rex head and the real triceratops head were actually too scary to stand close to, but the full T-Rex skeleton was ok. I chickened out of explaining the difference between "model" animals and "stuffed" animals to Linnea; she knows about skeletons but the stuffed Shetland pony would have been a bit much.

Linnea said a lot of things; Emer said a few things a lot of times. "No more skeletons," and "That no bite me! No bite me!" were the main ones.

Linnea loved drawing on the paper provided by the museum using the pencils provided by the museum. How thoughtful was that? Also, they would have allowed photographs but I didn't realise it until we were leaving.

Total cost: Less than a tenner, since we'd have eaten lunch anyway.

Hardest part: walking to and from the museum. It's a longish way, the roads haven't as many convenient lights as Linnea and I are used to, and it's a long, long way.

Best bit: arriving, eating lunch, and discovering DINOSAUR FOOTPRINTS in the lawn. "There are a hundred of- lots of them!"

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Buttercup was just about Linnea's age last time I went to the University Museum, and I remember blogging that I'd forgotten quite how far it would be if you're little :) I know Ernest was counting his steps ... oh, I just looked it up - he counted to 1000 and then gave up and that was less than halfway! There must be a useful bus, I guess, but I didn't find out.

[nicolap.livejournal.com]

I love that museum. The Pitt Rivers, at the back is wonderful too- shrunken heads and a witch-in-a-bottle.

[ailbhe]

Perhaps not when they are four and two. Emer found the skeletons distressing, and Linnea absolutely denied that the animals could be real.

[trizia.livejournal.com]

Not even in my mid-thirties. sushidog and catspur both raved about the shrunken heads for ages, but when catspur took me to see them I screamed, burst into tears, and ran away. They are horrible :-(

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Aw! I'm glad you had such a great day.

[cassandre.livejournal.com]

It's a wonderful museum. I love the fact that there are all sorts of things children are actually allowed to touch.

You can get a number 5 (Blackbird Leys) bus from the railway station and get off at the Queen's Lane stop and that gets you a bit closer, but it's still a walk.

[shimgray.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I was just wondering about buses - the 5 at least means you have a nice quiet walk, up Queen's Lane rather than through George Street. 13 does the same run.

There doesn't seem to be any from the station up St Giles, unfortunately - if there were you could get off at the split and walk across. Not the best designed bus network for travel inside the city centre, really.

[trizia.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Oxford NHM is amazing! Both the exhibits and the building.

But, yes, it is hard to find and get to.