Visit to the Natural History Museum before leaving London

21 December 2012

This was our last day in London and we would be leaving London for Oxford. We planned a visit to the Natural History Museum before we checked out from the Premier Inn Kensington hotel.

Entry is free and the museum opens at 10 AM so we had about 1 and an half hour. Upon entry, we saw a large skeleton fossil of a long neck dinosaur.

Large long neck dinosaur (Diplodocus) fossil welcomed us into the museum. Longest land mammal on earth at 26m length.

The museum galleries are divided into zones. We headed for the Blue Zone  -  showing dinosaurs fossils, blue whale and other mammals. 

Skull of T-rex and Triceratops.

This guy gave visitors some goose-bumps.

Dinosaur eggs are hatching.

Are they alive?  Looked so realistic.

There was an animatronic T-Rex that moves and roars. Quite real-like.

After seeing the fossils, the next exhibits nearby were the mammals on land and in the ocean. Particularly impressive were the giant blue whale and skeletons of various whales. Amazing how these large beasts fed on the tiniest creatures in the sea, filtering out krill, small fishes and even planktons through the baleen.

Stuffed lion in a realistic position, eyeing a visitor’s handbag.

Blue Whale – largest mammal on earth. This gallery is impressive with many skeletons of whales.

Skeleton of a Blue Whale showing the baleen in its mouth.

Orcas, porpoises and dolphins – other sea mammals related to the whales.

An exhibit of a narwhal skull with twin tusks was interesting. This is rare as most narwhal has one tusk.

We barely had time to view the Fish, Amphibians and Reptiles section. The fishes of the deep ocean are not to be missed. This are some photos of a fascinating exhibit.

Anglerfish.

The Anglerfish lived so deep down in the ocean where there is no light. This is a fish that produces its own light in the tube between its eyes. A piece of dorsal spine that protrudes above their mouths like a fishing pole(hence their name) has a luminous tip.

Anglerfish with a prey peeking out inside its mouth.

Their mouths are so big and their bodies so pliable, they can actually swallow prey up to twice their own size. Prey seems to be smiling.

Beautiful building of the Natural History Museum, London.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to London’s Natural History Museum. Given more time, I could have easily spend more time at this fantastic museum.

We took a taxi from outside the museum to the Premier Inn Kensington a short distance away. It cost about 5 sterling pounds. We realised that for short distances, it would be cheaper and faster to take a taxi than to take the Underground for a party of 4.  

We were in time for our hotel checkout and a pre-booked taxi to Heathrow Airport where we picked up our rental car for the second part of the England 2012 vacation.

Part 2 will be a driving holiday that would take us to Oxford, Stratford Upon Avon, Liverpool, Lake District, Bath and then back to Heathrow.