Hope

After watching the BBC Horizon programme a couple of years ago about the installation of the new blue whale exhibit at the Natural History Museum I really wanted to pay a second visit to see it. The last time I went (mum you will have to remind me) it was a bit smaller!!

Well we finally got round to sorting it out and went down to London last weekend. Getting into London is pretty straightforward for us and within 2hrs we were at Kings Cross. After dropping our bags at the hotel we headed back to the museum.

Thankfully the weather was good for queuing outside and it wasn't long before we were inside to the main hall. I only vaguely remember seeing 'Dippy' but the new whale Hope really did have a WOW factor. The way the skeleton has been suspended to look at though it is diving towards you was very impressive. The only downside was that it is so big it is very hard to photograph the whole thing!! It wasn't until you were right underneath that you got a sense of the size of the head.

Having taken lots of pictures and marveled at the whale from all angles we headed off round the rest of the museum.
Now I am sure I will get into trouble with my views but I have to say I wasn't overly impressed. Many of the interpretation is now very dated and probably the same as when I last went. I know that you can't go out into the environment and collect new specimens for a museum but many of the mammals especially were looking very old, faded and tired. They did at least give us a good laugh as we walked around.

The marine dinosaurs display was excellent but the main dinosaur exhibition was too dark. I know that it was meant to be like that to create an atmosphere but for me, it didn't really work.

By the time we had got back to the whale, it had clouded over outside to the main  hall was much darker. This meant that subtle blue lighting used on the whale showed up even better creating a fantastic effect. Although the museum didn't really impress me too much, if was definitely worth going to see the whale along.

 We decided to walk back to King's Cross, rather than taking the tube, which turned out to be a good idea. We walked past the Lords cricket ground, managing a glimpse of the hallowed turf through a fire escape stairs and then a walk through part of Regents Park. A real oasis of green within all the madness of the city with countless amateur football matches going on and even nesting grey herons!!

It was definitely worth going but the noise, traffic and pollution are not for me!