Dinosaurs in Berlin!

On a much lighter note than my last post, while in Berlin, I got to visit the Natural History Museum and let my inner child run free!  I'll admit, I really only went to the museum because I discovered that the world's largest mounted dinosaur skeleton is housed there.  Not only that, one of the best preserved and most complete t-rex skeletons is on display there!  But, there was a lot more to the museum than just the dinosaurs.

Growing up, I was always obsessed with dinosaurs.  I wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up and could spell the word, "paleontologist" too.  I memorized dinosaur names and what periods they lived in.  I thought they were great.  While, my focus has switched to other things as I've gotten older, dinosaurs will never stop being cool.

I won't lie to y'all, my heart was jumping for joy when I walked into the dinosaur hall in the museum.  I got to see raptor skeletons, a stegosaurus, a diplodocus, and more!  Those skeletons were huge, but nothing compared to the brachiosaurus skeleton in the middle of the room.  It's over 40 feet tall and 73 feet long!  The head was so high in the air that the museum had put another replica of the skull down at eye level so that you could take a closer look.  It was incredible.  Another specimen that they museum is famous for is the "Mona Lisa" of dinosaurs.  It's the most complete archaeopteryx skeleton in the world, and it provided the link between dinosaurs and birds.  It's smaller than a chicken and honestly pretty cute.  The t-rex, Tristan, had a room all to himself, and it was incredible standing so close to this massive creature.  To think that these animals actually walked the earth at some point is incredible to me.

Besides the dinosaurs, the museum also houses an amazing collection of minerals and crystals as well as a huge collection of wet specimens.  Wet specimens are specimens in jars of alcohol.  The room full of wet specimens was honestly a little creepy but also really impressive.

I had a great time at the museum and even bought a hoodie with a glow-in-the-dark t-rex skeleton on it.  Thanks for listening to my boring dinosaur facts!