Childhood Disappointment

This weekend I had a rather delightful visitor to my home and together we made the decision that while in the area we should go and visit the Science Museum and the neighbouring Natural History Museum.

We had both been to the Museums as children and found them brilliant in every possible way and were both excited to find out what they were like now. Having set a whole day aside we were more than sure we’d get around enough of both of them.

The Science Museum
This place started off strong with the Secret Life of the Home; an exhibition in which you were able to watch how faeces are flushed through toilets, and the development of every day technology. I was enjoying myself at this point, and I think this was the most fun I had in the whole museum. Apart from the fact that there were too many people in the way of everything to properly enjoy any of it; all of these people had obnoxious and inconsiderate children in tow.
This made me wish everyone’s parents had as much control over their children as mine once did, especially at the points when I was trying to read something and some child came and stuck their greasy, unhygienic hands all over the glass of the article.
Beyond the children problem was the problem that science just isn’t as cool as it used to be. I know how most of the things in the place worked and I found myself failing to be fascinated.

The Science Museum scored an almighty 1/5. It would have been 0 but the humour that comes with watching a lump of faeces hit the lid of the toilet before actually making it into the bowl managed to scrape a point.

The Natural History Museum
In the past when I have visited this museum I had only been interested in the dinosaurs, which was a shock when we found we had to queue for about half an hour to enter the exhibition. Beyond the dinosaurs a second interest fell into the more modern animal life and the Blue Whale model that hung from the ceiling. However, on this visit I was far more interested in the geography and geology sections, spending a good two hours reading about precious stones and the discovery of a material with the same structure as the Kryptonite mentioned in Superman Returns.
I also found myself enjoying the Earth section, reading all the things I already knew about the planet and just generally chatting about geography with my acquaintance. Perhaps this is a sign of maturity developing as I’m no longer begging to see the dinosaurs, but happy to walk along at any pace admiring things of natural beauty and informing myself of the various ways that crystals form and the shapes that are produced through the processes.

The Natural History Museum scored an acceptable 3/5. A fourth point would have been achieved if there was no queue for the Dinosaurs, and a fifth would have come if I’d actually not been disapointed at the amount of rocks and stones that were missing for research.

I would suggest to anyone thinking about visiting the Museums to instead consider the London Aquarium. I imagine that would be far more entertaining, unless you’re into the Industrial Revolution or are truly British and love a good queue.

Pyrhus

~ by pyrhus on April 20, 2008.