15 February 2012

Believe it...


You might wonder what a knitted Ferari has in common with 


a portrait of a South American tribal chief painted on a tortilla (I was going to show Jimi Hendrix painted on dried dung, but couldn't get a good photo of that),


a large collection of belt buckles, 


some sushi made from drier lint,


a segment of the Berlin Wall, 


the Flute of Shame (hung around the neck of bad musicians),


a wedding dress made from toilet paper


and the Last Supper painted on a dragonfly's wings....

The answer is, these items can all be found in the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum in London (other locales no doubt have similar treats in store, though I'm sure they vary from place to place).  Yes, there were also two-headed calves and replicas of extremely fat, extremely tall and/or extremely tattooed people, but I'm more of a fan of the quirky than the outright grotestque, so my photos concentrate on a different segment of the displays.

I have to admit, the museum was more interesting (to me) than I thought it would be. The kids and I spotted it when we were up in Picadilly Circus to see Les Miserables back in January and we thought it would make a nice half-term outing, something which would appeal to all the kids (not always easy with our age and gender distributions), so after searching out some vouches, off we went. And it was a nice few hours - quite a lot of interest in there for pretty much anyone, even those who might be a bit squeamish could find plenty to look at. I thought there was a good mix of types of display, both in terms of content and in terms of media - some photos, some original cartoons (or posters thereof), some video, some actual objects, a handful of interactive things. Not a cheap treat, but definitely worth considering if you need something to do which will interest both a 9YO boy and a 14YO girl, or a similar spread... (the 12YO girl was interested, too). Plus, I reckon dads in particular would enjoy it!

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