Dinosaurs, insects and the lot

While the sun was shining brightly, I went to the National History Museum. It's in the most beautiful, huge building you can imagine, built in 1880 in Romanesque style. The walls are decorated with lots of terracotta animals and plants.

Kids-magnets are a great dinosaurs exhibition (and shop) as well as Creepy Crawlies, an exhibition about insects and arthropods. They even have a colony of leaf-cutter ants from Trinidad which feed on an fungus that they grow on the leaves they gather before the eyes of the visitors.

I went onto a tour through the museum's large collection of animals preserved in spirit. Some weren't very nice to look at. Just imagine a fox, a sheep or a giant squid in alcohol.

At the end of the tour I asked my guide if they display "a partially digested human head from a perm whale's stomach", as my guide book says. She just shook her head and led me to a jar with a poor squid that lost its life after having been swallowed by a whale. So don't believe every word your guide book says!

In the evening I, again, went to the theatre. This time I saw Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris at the Royal Court Theatre. Seven great actors and actresses, among them Martin Freeman (The Office) and Sophie Thompson (younger sister of Emma Thompson), made this excellent satirical play on race and hidden racism a unique experience.