Berlin Day 3: Museum für Naturkunde

4th October 2009

Me being a self-professed geek absolutely ♥ museums. And this is one of them that really got me oh-so-excited. It being next to the hotel I'm staying in was even more of a bonus. I walk by it everyday and went inside at least three times.

The Museum of Natural History belongs to Humboldt University and as a matter of fact, their Biology Institute is just in the block behind the museum. I would love to switch my field of study to naturalist and apply there :)

When we were there, the museum was having a special exhibition to commemorate Darwin Year 2009. They had sections on the evolution of species and also a whole room to honour Charles Darwin's findings. Carl Linnaeus was also in there for his contribution to taxonomy.

I love museums like these: old beautiful buildings but with nice interiors and doesn't give off the vibes of dusty haunted rooms. Prehistoric fossils were displayed, stuffed animals (haha you know what I mean), skulls showing the evolution of homo sapiens, space rocks, the solar system...


And then they had another special exhibition on deep sea creatures. I so so so ♥ this place! A diorama of the deep sea vents, preserved samples of the monsters of the deep, including a pin-up alien-creature-thingie (the descriptions were all in German, so I had a bit of a problem there). They even have a (replica?) of the Nat Geo bathysphere!

Freaky-deaky...

There was a room showcasing how all the stuffed animals are made which is rather grostesque but interesting at the same time. But my best shot in here was of this giant spider, and so happen, the amazed kids on the other side.


I know there are people out there who disses the theory of evolution, but honestly, seeing all these, how can one not believe it? But then again, I was never a skeptic of Darwin's theory, and seeing this book in the glass case was like seeing a piece of history. Although I bet it's just one of the many copies you can find in libraries :)

Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species

And last but not least, in the grand hall itself, dinosaur skeletons!!! Maybe I've seen it before a long time ago, but this particular display gave me the complete feel of it. You know, huge hall with tall ceilings, in a classic structure. It's just like how it is in movies and documentaries.

Stegosaurus and the butt of a brontosaurus

Since I ♥ this place so much, I just had to get a souvenir from the Museum Shop..so I did! A dinosaurs in Berlin shirt! How cute is that? Silhouttes of Berlin's symbolic structures: the Brandenburg Gate, TV Tower and the Reichstag.

In actual fact I spent, like, an hour and a half in this place which is a really sad thing for me as there were a lot more to see. However, on this day, we were to move over to Estrel for the first day of SIFE World Cup. Goes to show how much I love this place that I dedicated a whole entry to it: Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.



Wissenschaft rocks!