Ripley’s London Inspired Fun

Last month, Ameli and I visited Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! in London, and I wrote a post about our day there. I said:

Ripleys London certainly contains a collection of eclectic things, from the portrait of Brad Pitt made entirely out of cigarette ash, to the somewhat disturbing picture of Kennedy made out of butterfly wings, to the really clever snake effect portrait of Mrs Obama, made out of bottle tops
One of the more ‘or not’ parts of the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! showcases a sheep with two heads, a lamb with five legs and chicken with three drumsticks, all critters apparently born so naturally. There was also a large dinosaur roaring and writhing around, not sure where he fits into the story, but also an original ‘fake’ mermaid, stitched together by a fisherman who managed to con a lot of people into believing it was true, and a fur covered Canadian fish!

Ripley’s has the worlds smallest car and its three-seater version too and currently are host to a Swarovsky covered Mini Cooper too – all rather quirky.

While some parts of the exhibit feel a little like the freak circuses of years gone by, where wealthy people would visit to laugh at and mock the deformed, there is more of it that isn’t like that, and is just really interesting.

Another part of Ripleys London that we really loved were the weird and wonderful interactive parts – the mirror maze, the tunnel and the Laserace. I’d love to recreate the tunnel and the mirror maze at home, but that’s not really been possible.  We have, however, been able to have a go at the making our own Laserace at home, which was great fun!

Ameli loved the mirror maze:

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But here’s our DIY do it at home Laserace:

So, I don’t have lasers or a dark room, but we did use an empty part of the conservatory (empty because we moved everything to the other side!). I threaded bells onto string, and then strung the string up and down the area at different heights and in varying patterns. Ameli had a great time trying to climb up and under and over without ringing the bells.

Thanks Ripleys London for the fun idea!