Dino Adventure Expo

Only a few days remaining, and this exposition in the Antwerp Central Station closes it`s door after a 3/4ths of a year run.  Featuring about 50 dinosaur statues, me, my dad and the nephews Humpty and Dumpty went on a trip to have a look.

And because dad had tickets at reduced price, as it isn`t cheap at all, knocking you back 15 euros for an adult and 13 euros for a child normally... we had a family ticket with extra reduction from a promotion costing us 35 euros + a free consumption each + a souvenir booklet.  That made it more or less payable in my book (the booklet being worth 5 euros and the drink coupons another 10, so it would come to 20 euros for the whole pack).

Now, the first thing I need to say is that both nephews scored high on the `Kluppelmeter`.  I bought the pack a Quick (like McDonalds), and Dumpty only wanted a small coke and 2 burgers.  Then he went to fill the cups as I looked for a table, and he had `accidently` filled my large cup with his Coke Zero stuff, and then went on to happily munch my fries ;-).

His big brother Humpty didn`t fare much beter.  You received audio guide devices at the expo, which tells you all sorts of things off the dinosaurs.  Of course, he didn`t use the test case at the entrance, so at the first animal, it turned out he didn`t have any sound... very handy with an audio guide.  I gave him mine (I know a few things still of the beasts, mostly due to a childhood fascination, and the Dinoriders cartoon) and off we went inside.

Now, the statues are well done, and I was amazed they where also so well preserved.  Even with 9 months of schools and such, and you are allowed to touch them and go stand next to them to pose, they didn`t show any weardown or paint chipping. 

The expedition in itself isn`t actually that big, there are about 50 beasts on display (and I caught about all of them on my cell phone), and all together would fill about a sporting hall.  They are well displayed though, with enough space to walk in between and not to much `bottlenecks` happening, though it wasn`t that crowded as I can imagine it must have been at times during the schoolmonths.

There was also a short (about 7 minutes) movie looping telling about the three era`s the dinosaurs lived, as well as a few fossils and a skeleton on display.

At the entrance, the first statue was a T-rex young, and I was like `he, they don`t look half as big as Jurrassic Park wanted us to believe`.  Then we ran into this guy...

Of course, eating poor park visitors causes you to go and poop big time... and that all has to come from somewhere...

The Iguanodon is perhaps the best known `Belgian` dinosaur, so there was a whole display of them including young.

Perhaps the most well hidden display was the T-rex nest, as it was laid down under the metal stairs to the Beach bar part for the young children.

This was quite a fascinating little beastie, so next time you see a pidgeon...

The central hall is occupied by a big herbivore... I came about the height of it`s legs actually...

And here are some more pictures of all around the exposition:

If only he would swallow now...