Travelling in Germany – Natural History Museum at Berlin ( Museum für Naturkunde )

Read earlier entries on our road trip in Europe HERE.

On our second day in Germany (25 May 2013),  Miki woke up at 4am in the morning ( approx. 10am Malaysian time) and started talking potpetpotpet waking up everybody. It was 7ºC outside. Cold but oh so refreshing!

In my sister’s apartment, I learned a couple of new things that I longed to have in Malaysia. First, their humidity makes my skin nice and not oily (but it did make Rafa and Miki’s skin very dry though). Secondly, I don’t know if it is the humidity or the temperature or what ever that keeps food fresh for much longer time than in Malaysia. Here we can leave a bowl of chips or biscuits or crackers on the table all day long and they remain crunchy and fresh just like they just come out from the bag! Impressive! Tak lemau tak masuk angin langsung! Kan best kalau Malaysia macam ni?! Sayur pun doesn’t need to be kept in the fridge. They remain green and fresh right on the counter top for days… So nice…

At noon, we jumped into my b.i.l’s Volkwagen Tiguan and off we went to Berlin. Travelling from their place in Wolfsburg to Berlin took us one and a half hours of driving in drizzling rain. Berlin’s traffic was quite busy. Besides there was a lot of construction works going on.

The first place we visited in the city was the Natural History Museum or Museum für Naturkunde.  To get to the museum, we parked our car at a nearby hotel and walk for about 5 minutes. It was raining and very-very cold for my Klang Valley standard. I remember, throughout the entire two weeks trip to Europe, that day we spent in Berlin was the coldest. It was 9ºC  at midday when it was supposed to be warmest plus it was rain lightly and the wind was blowing too. Memang sejuk!

I was wearing ankle high boots, corduroy skinnies, long sleeves t-shirt and a comfy long coat that belonged to Shanaz. Azman and the kids was also wearing  t-shirts with light jacket and sneakers. Walaupun 7-9ºC tapi takdelah sampai nak berbalut macam winter time pulak…

 

 

Almost all of the buildings in Berlin berkonsep bangunan lama macam ni. Susah nak nampak bangunan penuh bercermin tingkap macam kat KL.  Di Berlin ni ada sangat banyak muzium, kebanyakkannya sangat menarik. Tapi kenapa kami nak sangat pergi Natural History Museum ni?

Sebab ada fossil dinosour!! Yay!!

 

Our visit to this museum just strengthened Miki’s love to dinosaurs. Hehe!  Since it was also my first time seeing these exhibits, I was also like wooooowwww…. amazing!! or like Miki said, “Mummy, Miki rasa museum is awesome sangat lah!” hehe!

There were many different exhibitions like THE WORLD OF DINOSAURS, THE COSMOS AND SOLAR SYSTEM, HOOFED ANIMALS and DOMESTIC ANIMALS. Dinosaurs, solar system and animals memang Miki’s favorite subjects so je enjoyed himself very much! Other exhibitions include The Wet Collection (animals preserved in jars of ethanol), Preparation Techniques (of making preserved creatures), Minerals etc…

Below is our picture with Brachiosaurus Brancai dinosaur from Tanzania. Masya Allah! Memang sangat hebat ciptaanNya… Imagine we were standing there at its feet while it is alive…  The entire me is just the size of its feet bone!

 

 

 

Above is Shanaz watching Miki waiting for his turn to experiment the Juroskop that was installed to let visitors bring back the dinosaurs to life. Miki siap speaking-speaking dengan budak-budak mat salleh situ. Dia ingat orang putih je semua cakap English. Padahal tu orang German ke French ke mana tah, dia tak tahu. eehehe… kids, they get along very well…

 

Fossils bertingket-tingket!

 

 

 

 

 

This dinosaur bertanduk-tanduk ko! takut aku..

 

Above, abaikan muka I yg sememeh. Adalah sangat sejuk dan takde mood nak bermakeup bergaya bagai. hehe At least in the  museum it was warmer and I can took off my coat.

Below are all of us in front of some of the exhibits in The Wet Collection Exhibition at the museum. First time I am seeing this much of specimens in my life it was breathtaking.. All sorts of creatures are in individual jars of ethanol, mammals, fish, amphibians etc…

 

If I am not mistaken, below pic of Rafa and Abi is taken at the Keller’s Models’ exhibition.  This exhibition features models of insects up to 100 times magnified. They look so perfect and absolutely real. What makes them more fascinating is the fact that they were built in the Museum für Naturkunde itself between 1930 and 1955. Kat Malaysia tahun 2013 sebijik pun takleh buat kot… haishhhh

 

 

 

That’s me buat-buat takut kat spider gergasi. Sebenarnya I tak takut spider mahupun spiderweb.. I cuma takut bila wallet I kosong yang tinggal hanya spider web..  :p

Below is Miki at the The Humboldt Exploratorium. This part of the museum encourage exploring and discovering nature among children and teenagers in order for them gain an understanding of natural history, ecology and the environment through hands-on experience. Over here, there are practical workshops where children and young adults can discover their inner scientist and learn about excavation and microscopy techniques. Miki spent a lot of time here as well, building dinosaur puzzles dengan anak mat salleh.

 

 

In this museum there are also exhibitions on domestic and hoofed animals. Mula-mula I ingatkan patung tapi rupa-rupanya real animals!!! It was really amazing! They preserved whole hyppopotamus sebesar-besar tu dengan perfect sekali. Nantilah kemudian I add the pictures here.

Bawah ni pulak bukan acara terbongkang beramai-ramai ye… Tapi this is a part of The Cosmos and Solar System Exhibitions. They placed this huge sofa for visitors to lie down and look at the “artificial digital sky” on the ceiling. Giler gempak… I forgot to take a picture but we also saw a few meteorites from the moon! Awesome!

 

 

Orang tua-tua kata, jauh perjalanan luas permandangan… It is so very true. A couple of hours we spent in this museum alone taught us so much and made us realized how small we are in this world that God created. Rafa is too small to understand anything but Miki learned a great deal of new stuff and met with great deal of new people, I really hope it would broaden his horizons. That is why, despite being very busy I am determined to jot down our travelling stories here… Alhamdulillah, for the experiences that we have gotten.

Cheers!

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