Three Museums in Two Days…you must be crazy!

January 22, 23, 2011

Sorry this is so late, it has been busy over here but I am finally getting around to it. In January Rachel and I ventured into London to meet up with Liz (who I worked with at Michaels) and her roommates, they are studying abroad over here for the semester, in London. We had originally planned on seeing two museums in the two days but realized that three museums were right next to each other and decided to do those and possibly one more. Therefore, our adventure began at the Science Museum. There are lots of floors to explore. We looked all the different plastics, then clocks, and boats, and cars. Each floor has something interesting to look at. We also looked at the history of the earth floor and I got to hold the world in the palm of my hand J. Then we found the best and most crowded floor of all…..the kids floor! It had tons of stuff for the kids to play with involving science. Rachel and I tried doing as much as possible, but it was hard with it being so packed. We took pictures of ourselves in heat sensitive light, took shadow pictures, saw a bubble wall, and even looked at each other through a wall!! However, the best part of the floor was the beginning where there was a huge metal pole with a sign saying DO NOT TOUCH. It explained that an electrical current ran through the pole and if you touched it you would be shocked. However, it did say if you wanted to touch it you could but you were warned. I decided I wanted to touch it, however I was also very scared of getting shocked. I cautiously approached the pole and tentatively held out my finger, putting it slowly through the bars and resting it on the pole and……….Nothing happened. So I quickly pulled my finger away and repeated the process. Each time I still didn’t get shocked. I called over Liz and her roommates and they all touched it quickly and nothing happened either. Now Rachel on the other hand would have nothing to do with it. But since all 4 of us had touched it without any shock I told Rachel she should just touch it. I started to believe the sign was only there to scare you. So Rachel stepped up and as I went to get a picture of her this loud noise rang out and she jumped and we all screamed. It shocked her! Apparently, we were not holding the pole long enough for the shock to charge up and since she kept her finger on it, it shocked her. It was absolutely hilarious, although she was a little mad at us haha. The next best part was this mat you could stand on while following the directions on the screen. At one point you had to swing your arms and I was taking picture of Rachel doing this the whole time. It was not so funny to watch her do it, but it was really funny to look back at the pictures where her arms are blurred so much it looks like she doesn’t have any!

After the Science Museum we ventured over to the National History Museum. This museum had lots of skeletons and fossils and rocks. There were some really pretty ones and the coolest one was the dinosaur skeleton at the end in the lobby (kind of like in Night at the Museum but not as cool). There was also a huge chandelier looking piece in the lobby all made of glass which was really cool. However, my favorite part of the museum was the earthquake simulator. It was a moving floor that looked like a grocery store and it simulated an earthquake that happened in Japan. Not only did the floor move but they had a tv showing the video camera footage of this earthquake in the store when it happened. This was my favorite part and I think I rode on it for about 3 times!

After the museums we went back to Liz’s flat, ate McDonalds and just relaxed and chatted for a while. At around 8 o’clock we decided to go to Covent Garden and Piccadilly Circus to look around and shop at little bit. We found a really cool store with everything having to do with London and a London Beatle there. We also walked across a scary bridge, but I did stop to get my picture taken. Then we went back to Liz’s flat for the night.

Museums- Take Two

Or take 3 since this was our third for the weekend. The next day we went to the V & A Museum (the Victoria and Albert museum). I would have to say this one was my favorite (even though the kids floor in the Science museum was pretty cool). This museum not only had lots of really cool things to look at, but also hands on sections. There were really cool statues and a new time period for each room (The rooms never ended either). They had some really cool stuff like a carpet that was completely closed in glass that had to be lit only part of the day to preserve it. They also had costumes from many productions and even a place to try some costumes on. They had a wall that looked like you were standing outside but really it was enclosed. They had a massive bible and religious statues. They had crowns and jewels. It was really cool and they had lots of beautiful things to look at. And the best part was you could take pictures…so be sure to look for those!

After the museum Liz went home and Rachel and I tried finding someplace to eat. Right outside the museum on a telephone booth was a note saying You Should Call Your Mother, so I decided it was best to follow that advice and I called home while we looked around for someplace to eat. We decided to splurge and went to the Spaghetti House, which was perfect since I was craving spaghetti and meatballs and that is what I got. Then we headed home and were going to have a night in but got invited to go watch a movie at a friend’s house. So we watched She’s All That….such a good movie haha.

Until Next time,

~D~