The weekend before last, we went to the Science Gallery but couldn’t face the queues. As I had never seen the Book of Kells, we trotted off to have a look. On the way in Michael looked around and said, “I’m going to be really bored, amn’t I?” He was correct. I did see the Book of Kells but only for a moment. I thought that the Long Room was absolutely beautiful but, the children were underwhelmed. Even when I pointed out that it was the model for the Jedi archives.
We took ourselves to the college bar and the children had the most fun of the day playing on a sculpture which I trust, given that it is adjacent to the bar, is robust.
We also had ice cream. Note how the toasty children frolic in the warm May sunshine.
I work in Trinity and I’m a medievalist, so I like the Book of Kells exhibition very much (and it was very cunning of them to start charging for it – it helps fill in all sorts of budget gaps) but I would recommend that anyone who actually wants to see the Book should go on a weekday in January. The queues are ridiculous.
The current Science Gallery exhibition is mostly participatory experiments, I think (I haven’t been in yet), so also possibly not that child-friendly. But I love the Science Gallery too. I might go at lunchtime and report back.
I can report that I’ve been to the current Science Gallery exhibition. It is just the downstairs area and it consists of a group of experiments you can participate in. I did one that involved writing down words played to me through a headset while holding a coffee stirrer between my teeth. It was quite fun but I’m not sure what a child would make of it. Apparently the next exhibition is going to be much more large-scale – it is being advertised as the ‘flagship exhibition’ for the year – it will be called Hack the City and will open on 22nd June and run until 7th September.
Dot, that is a lot of hard work in the interest of science – sorry couldn’t help it, the weak pun always calls to me. Thanks for the review, might hold out for the “flagship exhibition” for my next trip.