This will forever be known as the place where I discovered that the T-rex originally was a giant, monstrous chicken!
The institute is the place to be for Ross Gellers: what started out as a modest little cabinet in 1814, grew out to become one of the biggest and most important natural science musea in the world, housed in an enormous palace. Spread out over many kilometers, you can gaze at more than 36 million pieces of natural history. It’s filled with real dinosaur skeletons and life-sized specimen modelled by ambitious scientists back in the 19th century. The whale room for instance, showcases fossilized whale species, uncovered during excavation works in the Antwerp harbor in the 1860s. There’s also the Goyet dog skull, belonging to the oldest domesticated animal in the world, just to name one of the cool, unique finds this place showcases. My advice: organize a giant hunt in here with the kids, it will fill any rainy afternoon with some much-needed distraction and thrill.
