STARDUST & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (DAYS 31, 32)

Thursday and Friday were both quiet days as the kids and I spent most of both mornings getting back to work. I had some serious blogging to do to get caught up on our time in London and the youngsters were all eager to dive back into their arithmetic and reading. Well, they may not have been given much of a choice but they were rewarded with a trip to Stardust, Brussels' largest indoor play park on Thursday afternoon.

Since Belgian schoolchildren are still on summer holiday, we found the place wide open like many local attractions we've visited. We arrived just after four p.m. and shared the facility with maybe fifteen other kids for the two hours we were there. X, V and Q rode bumper cars, race cars and motorcycles, enjoyed climbing, sliding and bouncing on all kinds of activity areas and became expert bumper boaters with all the time they spent bouncing into each other on the water.

Friday afternoon's reward was a trip to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences a half hour's walk from the flat. On our way we stopped by a beer shop that boasted 400 different varieties. I swear a place like this would make a killing in America. If anyone wants to go in on a business with me, I promise to personally sample every one of our products to best advise our potential customers.

We weren't sure what to expect at the museum, but its collection of specimens of virtually every animal species on land, sea and air was vast and the dinosaur hall is the largest in the world completely devoted to dinosaurs. The museum, founded in 1846, gained international attention when it became home to thirty fossilized Iguanodon skeletons, which were discovered in 1878 in a coal mine in Bernissart, Belgium.

Another highlight for us was the ensemble of stuffed and mounted animals both living and extinct that filled hall after non-air-conditioned hall. The boys can't get enough of the big cats and Vaughn in particular loves the spotted ones.

The fish exhibits reinforced the kids' growing demand for an aquarium upon our return home; they want a clown fish named Nemo and a goldfish named Goldie. Pretty creative. There was a North and South Pole room with great examples of the different animals found at both, including a narwhal, and a whale room that included an enormous skeleton of a young blue whale.

The insect gallery was stunning in its abundance with fifteen million (!) individual specimens of insects, spiders, crustaceans and other arthropods. That wing of the museum culminated in a vivarium with several tanks of live creepy crawlies. 

On the way home we were quite hungry but decided to hold off until we found something a little more familiar than the options offered by one African eatery just off the main strip.

That evening, after catching up with Granny and Grandpa Hughes on Skype, we celebrated the beginning of Betsy's longest vacation in five years with a walk to Grand Place for another look at the Flower Carpet. We were glad we saw it in its full glory on Tuesday as it had lost much of its freshness and fragrance but it was still exciting to take in the scene. We also made sure to hit a waffle spot for a snack as we lingered at the beautiful landmark for probably the last time.