Piranhas, Picasso and plants

I spent Sunday visiting a bunch of museums around Gothenburg.

First up was the Universeum, a giant indoor rainforest science centre replete with small monkeys, poison arrowfrogs, parrots and a pool teeming with red bellied piranhas (hmmm...I wonder if monkeys or small children ever accidentally fall in?). More amusing was the anaconda display, separated by a pane of glass from the kids indoor play area....I reckon it must be torture for the snake.

After my Amazonian encounter, I decided to head over to the art museum for a bit of culture (they had some very nice paintings by Picasso) followed by a visit to the natural history museum to check out the infamous giant stuffed whale. Visitors used to be able to go inside the whale – apparently it was a popular rendezvous point for amorous young couples. I'm not sure why because it smells kinda bad (in a nasty, chemically, carcinogenic kinda way).

After an hour looking at stuffed animals, I decided I needed to go to the botanical gardens to look at plants (yes, I am such a science geek). The Gothenburg botanic gardens has quite an impressive collection, including a glasshouse planted with native Australian plants, and another full of tropical orchids and insect-eating plants.

Fish, art and exotic plants...a near perfect day for me.