Madamluxe*: Photos Of The New Museum

I LOVE our National Museum of Scotland!

Anyone that's thinking of visiting Edinburgh, with or without kids, must visit.

Here are a few pics of the opening ceremony.

Here's what the Grand Hall looked like in the Victorian Age.

Then

In the 1980's as a kid I was there most days. Like most Edinburgh people of my generation the lasting memory was of the 2 large pools of water they had installed in the huge hall, containing terrified goldfish and catfish. Everyone touched them, threw in coins and sometimes paddled.

You'd never get away with that nowadays would you - a health and safety nightmare!

Now

OK, the place is heaving with people but you can see that there aren't rows and rows of stuff crammed into the main hall. Even in the 80's and 90's it was mainly just the fish ponds with the sides of the main hall sometimes filled with objects and exhibition.

Now the idea is that the main hall is an open and bright meeting place. The galleries that lead off the sides are there the action is at, aside from a lovely cafe placed on the main balcony of the grand hall.

Large flat wall installations reaching 4 floors have replaced cluttered victorian display cases.

The grand hall is a great place to stop for a snack.

Moooo!

The wonderful Millenium Clock drew huge crowds on the first day

Shooting off from the Grand Hall there are several smaller galleries in the same balcony format.

The most impressive is the animal kingdom section. Sea mammals, birds and fish are suspended in the air, tiered so that they can be enjoyed at every level. Projection screens are suspended along with them at angles and informative projections are streamed as watery backgrounds, really adding to the atmosphere.

Other galleries show costumes, relics, guest exhibitions, technology and more.

We really struggled to get in past the crowds so spent most of our time in the wonderful multi-sensory kids section, just off the learning centre.