A Trip to the Natural Science Museum in Brussels, Belgium

With temperatures unseasonably warm in February, we ventured out to quench our restless hearts with some animal-themed fun. These kids wanted to see some wildlife! The girls have been obsessed with wolves lately, and ever since he saw the “screaming marmot” parody video, little man was determined to find marmots. We had a running bet to see who could spot their favorite animals first…

We were able to score scheduled time slots and tickets to visit two popular sites nearby – the Natural Sciences Museum in Brussels for W’s birthday, and the “best zoo in Europe,” Pairi Daiza, just 20 minutes from our home. We had great masked family fun touring through the museum laden with taxidermy from all over the world (and dinosaurs!). The next weekend we perused about 40% of the zoo (it’s huge!) and enjoyed the great variety of land, air and sea animals inhabiting the themed regions at Pairi Daiza. Within a week, we had visited the zoo three times and managed to see most of what it has to offer. Right now there are several exhibits closed due to Covid 19 measures, and they’re also working on renovations throughout. I suspect there will be many changes to the zoo in 2021!

MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES, BRUSSELS

The kids LOVE a good museum – history, science, children’s, you name it – and this one in Brussels did not disappoint! The museum is organized into sections based on the natural sciences of Entomology, Biology (Invertebrates, Vertebrates), Anthropology and Prehistory, Paleontology, and Geology. We wandered through the museum (woefully unprepared without snacks, as the food options were closed due to the pandemic – plan ahead!) and enjoyed learning about the planet, outer space, countless animals (some with questionable taxidermy), human and history displays, and of course, dinosaurs! We went as a late birthday event for little sis because we couldn’t get tickets for her actual birthday, so plan ahead and buy tickets in advance as space is limited during the Covid restrictions.

We first entered the museum at our scheduled time and grabbed a free locker and used the very nice facilities. We took note of the gift shop and noticed there were well organized paths on the map to keep people moving in one direction and socially distanced as much as possible. Right near the rest rooms was the massive Mineral Hall, among the first and founding exhibits to the museum. From there, we went up several flights of stairs to our next exhibit, the massive Gallery of Evolution at the tip the top of the museum. There were beautiful views out the gallery windows!

Next we moved into the Living Planet Exhibition, beautifully designed to teach visitors how animals interact, work together, and coexist. There were tons of animals and plenty of interactive exhibits inside this section of the museum.

This was probably our favorite section of the museum as we spent the most time here. This is also where B spotted his marmot – but not before the girls found their wolves! I was surprised by the whale bones; their sheer size is humbling!

The next exhibits, BiodiverCITY and 250 Years of Science gave us a glimpse into what microorganisms exist all around us and what will happen with different levels of human intrusion, as well as experiments and discoveries made by science over the last 250 years.

We didn’t have time to see the rare Mosasaur Dinosaur Hall, the Shell Hall or the Insect Hall because of our grumbling tummies, but we did move onto the Gallery of Humankind before our last stop at the Dino Gallery! The Gallery of Humankind was actually rather graphic. We could’ve spent a lot longer in there and made an entire World Schooling lesson out of it, but we knew we were losing steam without snacks.

So instead, we peeked at the real fetuses of various sizes in glass jars (which peaked more questions than we have time for), compared our grip strength to our ape ancestors, and took quick glances as the evolutionary bodies of history. The kids were intrigued by the skeletons (almost more than the well preserved mummies we have seen!) and asked great questions. It was fun to compare the human skeletons to what we saw next – dinosaurs!

When we reached the Dino Hall, it was beginning to get busy. It was after 13:00, and the hall is so large, it is an easy place for people to gather. Right away the kids noticed large bones the size of a big building and we identified them as brontosaurus leg bones. What a humbling sight! There was also a massive hall of iguanodons and plenty of our favorites like the TRex and triceratops. W has always loved dinosaurs so she was wide eyed and excited the entire time. I’d say it was a pretty successful birthday outing, pandemic and all!