The Importance of Doofy Dinos

It was cold today, and I almost didn't venture out! Our class meetings are over, and we have a long break starting today. My friend and I leave for Scotland tomorrow, but I wanted to make the most of another day in London. I ventured out to Crystal Palace Park, which sounds so kitschy just by the name.

Crystal Palace houses the first life-size models of what scientists thought dinosaurs might have looked like, based on the fossils they'd found and identified so far. They were created and displayed in this park in the Victorian Period, and even though I got a damned good laugh out of these bozos, they really are impressive. Imagine being the first people to try to re-shape extinct creatures using just the crumbly bones and clay imprints they'd left millions of years ago. It's tough!

It was a cold but perfectly sunny day. That's some dino's head you can sit on:

Dinos hiding in the bushes.

Megalosaurus sighting:

DUCKS! AND DUCKLINGS! I was just as excited by them as the dinos.

I just love the font on these signs. What is it?

Made a friend!

Possibly my favorite:

It's such a nice park.

Beyond the dinos, the park has a few other oddities. It had a maze, and I wondered through it. There are also sphinx statues, but I couldn't find them!

Creepy headless statue:

There's also a tiny zoo in the park. It's mostly there for students to learn how to work with farm animals, but I wanted to see some animals, so I waited in the cold until it opened around noon.

Huh.

The meerkats were a strange choice.

I wandered home on the train (I hadn't paid the right fare - good thing London train workers are forgiving!), and got ready for the early trip tomorrow.