London’s Natural History Museum

The girls and I went to London last week during the two-week Sportferien (school holidays). We had an absolutely fantastic time walking down memory lane in our old neighborhood and staying with our friends. The visit made me pine for our life in London. Now that we are back in Zürich, I see the quiet beauty that we indulge in every day. But part of me aches for the hustle and bustle of London, with everything happening at any given moment. The grass is always greener I guess. I wonder if once you move from a place you loved, if you can’t quite get it out of your head. Also, I’m sure if we moved back to London today, I would miss so many wonderful things about our life in Zürich. These are wonderful problems to have. And visiting our friends was so much fun. My girls agree that the highlight of the week was visiting the Natural History Museum. We can’t wait to go back!

The Natural History Museum is free! This enormous, gorgeous building is absolutely stunning without taking in any of the exhibition or artifacts. I used to spend hours upstairs in the museum, near the Redwood tree, looking out over the entrance and taking in all the fabulous light through the gorgeous windows. We took a red double-decker bus from my girlfriend’s house to the museum in South Kensington. There was a historically long line in the windy and cold winter weather, but we played “Eye Spy” and practiced bumping into the unsuspecting young couple in front of us which made the time pass quite quickly. We went in the side door on Exhibition Road instead of the main entrance in front of the museum. We think this saved us some time. The side entrance (right next to the Science Museum entrance) put us right at the stegosaurus and the escalator through the solar system. From there we walked to the dinosaur exhibit. There was no line for the dinosaurs at all! There is a lot of construction going on now as they prepare to move the giant blue whale skeleton inside the front entrance and move the current centerpiece dinosaur outside. After the museum we went for lunch at Carluccio’s. There are so many great food options in the South Kensington museum area. We like Muriel’s Kitchen, Le Pain Quotidien and Carluccio’s. We always stop at the South Kensington Books to get new books and sticker books.

There are two bucket list Natural History Museum events I would love to do. The After Hours Dino Snores and the After Hours Lates. It would be incredible to have my girls’ birthday parties in the museum overnight! (the website says it is ideally for children age 7-11) How cool is that? What a great birthday party idea! 

There is so much free fun in South Kensington. Next to the Natural History Museum is the Science Museum and across the street is the gorgeous Victoria and Albert Museum. If you keep walking down the street you will see Royal Albert Hall and of course the amazing Hyde Park which has the incredible Princess of Wales Playground, other playgrounds, Boating on the Serpentine and many other amazing kid friendly things to see and do. Here are some of our pictures from this last Saturday at the museum.

Here is my earlier post of our favorite places in London.