In Belfast, one of the museums, Ulster museum, had an exhibit featuring Leonardo da Vinci’s original sketches. Leonardo was a great artist, and his sketches are amazing, so I decided to go see.
To get to the museum, you need to go through the botanic gardens. I left the flat and walked to the gardens, it was the perfect size for a walk too. Once I arrived, I examined the signs and chose the right path, I walked to the museum. There a few weird displays made from recycled materials, which is nice and all, but the displays were just sad. Finally, I arrived at the museum, there was a metal sculpture in front, after snapping a few pictures, I went inside.
It was lunch time by the time I got to the museum. I was already hungry from walking, so I felt like there was a hole in my stomach. The museum has a café in it, lucky me! I ordered cheese pizza, fries and ketchup, and a citrus cupcake with cream cheese frosting and strawberry flavoring. It was all good. Once I finished, I went to the bathroom and walked through the entrance.
After I went through, my ears rang an alarm. A bunch of schoolkids had come on a field trip, and it was loud. I went quickly into the elevator to go up to the natural history floor, one of my favorite floors to explore in museums. When I got in the elevator, it was blissfully quiet, then I got out again. The first section had a large copy of a Triceratops skeleton, the beak looked like it could break steel. There was also a giant vulture, and a polar bear.
The next section was about elements. There was a model of the periodic table of elements, along with samples of each element inside. A few elements like Plutonium, weren’t included, but that makes sense. There were three radioactive elements in the case, which made me nervous. The rest of that section showed where elements are found in daily life, a puzzle to construct compounds, and a board that showed you where some of the elements are found. One object in the case showed an old kit so that kids could be molecular physicists. The kit included dangerous elements, and an order form so that when your supply of toxic atoms went dry you could get more. Not-so-fun fact: 1kg of Plutonium could poison every human on earth.
There was an exit that led you to a section about rocks, it included some great specimens. One dark section showed how some rocks glow under ultraviolet light. Next to the rocks, there were some displays about animals, but by that point I needed to leave soon, so I headed to my last stop.
Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches were close, I just had to climb a few stairs and I was there. The room with the sketches was dim, so that bright light wouldn’t fade the ink, (although some people were using flash anyway, damaging precious and priceless works of art). The sketches were so perfect, the lines so thin, the handwriting so small, it seemed impossible to be done by a human. I saw a few sketches from a book about Leonardo that I have. It was really cool.
The museum was fun, if you want to go, the sketches won’t be there. But there are lots of interesting exhibits that you can still see. I recommend going if you are ever in Belfast. Until the next post!
The Beary Good Adventures 
I really liked this entry. I can’t imagine that they are displaying items that have a high reading of radioactivity. Yet, I should not be so certain that everyone is following rules of safety since they have just announced that visitors for years have been exposed to radiation in one of the buildings at the Grand Canyon. On the positive side there are a lot of well-educated people in Northern Ireland and I feel confident that rules of safety are being followed.
The dish of fresh fruit looked delicious. The pizza plate looked pretty good too but I had visions of a crowd of calories overwhelming me. Keep up the good work.
Aunt Kathleen
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It was weird to be exposed to radioactive substances. It sounds like the Grand Canyon has an excellent combination of danger and beauty.
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