Yay! We finally made it to the museum. It was worth the wait.

28/11/12

I made an 8 am start on the renovation today. I fired up the steamer and stripped the walls of all the wallpaper. I finished that little chore at about 1.30. The walls now need filling and sanding to be ready for paint. I might get stuck into that tonight.

Nina arrived at about two and we made another attempt at going to the museum. Yes, believe it or not, we finally made it to the Tring Natural History Museum. "The museum started in 1889 as two small cottages built on land which the first Baron Rothschild gave to his son, Lionel Walter. The larger cottage was to house Lionel's insect collection and books, and the smaller one was for a caretaker. The first caretaker at Tring was Albert Minall, Lionel Walter's taxidermist".  This quote was from a plaque in the museum. (Does this mean that Walter stuffed Lionel? If so where is Lionel now?)

This is a great museum and contains a huge collection of animals and insects. it's well worth a visit if you are ever anywhere near here. Here are a couple of photos out of the bundle that I took while we were there. I forgot my camera so I borrowed Nina's while we were there. It took me a while to get used to it so some of the photos are a bit "different":

 The bird collection was enormous, and included some enormous birds. The penguin on the left was nearly as tall as Nina.

 Interesting comparison.

 More birds...

 ...and more.

 I've just washed my feathers,

and I can't do a thing with them.

and more birds. 

 Hello!

 Do you like my feathers?

 A tiny part of the huge collection.

There were lots of Spideys there.

 Flutterbuys.

 That's not a centipede. This is a centipede!

BADGER!

At last I finally got to see a badger. 

One interesting display we watched was a video on how animals are prepared for viewing. The taxidermist used an Edible Mole Rat and showed step by step how the little guy was prepared. It was a little sad, but also very interesting.

 Lovely old Elizabethan style house outside the museum.

Peak hour in Tring.
I still can't get used to the daylight here.
This photo was taken just before 5pm.

Really cool Royal Enfield cafe racer. The factory will build something like this next year. In Perth call JCS Motorcycles for details.

The Anchor, right across the road from the bike shop.

We had to stop in for a drink.

The local drop. It wasn't bad at all. 

Next stop, The Marchmont Arms. Very nice.

The Marchmont Arms is a very nice pub / restaurant.  We'd driven past it quite a few times so tonight we thought we'd better drop in and have a quick one on the way home. Like I said, it's very nice, but it's a little bit quiet. Just as we were leaving we bumped into our friend Bart who has just started work there. I think Bart might liven the place up a little bit.

Then it was home for a beautiful roast dinner prepared by Juliet. The perfect way to finish a great day.

There is so much happening and so much to do we could easily spend another month here, but it's time to move on. We have decided that we are firing up the BM on Friday morning and heading across to Amsterdam.

Anyone in Holland want to catch up for a "coffee and a shmoke?"