Tulips and Trilobites

We took a walk in Stadsträdgården (a city park) this morning to see the tulips which are just hitting their prime here, over a month later than we see at home. This is not too surprising, since Uppsala is at approximately the same latitude as the Yukon/British Columbia border! Here are a few pretty pictures:

Boats on the Fyris River

Rhododendrons

I wish I knew what this is. Some kind of lily?

In the afternoon I visited the Museum of Evolution at the University. The zoology section had a huge number of animals on display from all over the world. Taxidermists have been busy here in Uppsala since the 18th century and several of the animals on display were collected and stuffed as early as the 1750s.  The paleontology section had many interesting specimens and the experience was only slightly marred by the fact that most of the explanatory material was written only in Swedish (the nerve!). There was a great exhibit on the evolution of humans which benefited, as far as I am concerned, by displaying both Swedish and English explanatory text. Here are a few examples of some of the non-human specimens I saw:

I admit it. I had a few problems with this.

Anna, this trilobite is for you! It must be about 2 feet long.

T-Rex's toothy grin

Marine reptiles who lived in the age of dinosaurs

This museum reminded me somewhat of the Harvard Museum of Natural History which I once visited when I took Anna to Boston University to start her freshman year and she banished me for a few hours so she could play with her new friends. They have the same quiet atmosphere (hardly anyone was there when I visited both museums), both have large collections of stuffed mammals, and both have specimens of large marine reptiles. However, in terms of labels in English: advantage Harvard.