I first went to the Eden Project with my family when it was reasonably newly opened and it hadn't grown quite as much as it has now. My husband and I both bought season tickets to Eden several years ago and so spent many days exploring and seeing what was new. The last time we went was for the anniversary of our first date - we weren't married at this point - which was before we moved to Leeds.
Every time I've gone to the Eden Project, something is new and everything is always interesting, so I really wanted to go back when we were in Cornwall last week. The fact that it is just down the road from my mother-in-law's house made it even better as we didn't need to rely on two trains and a bus to get there.
We headed straight to the dinosaur exhibit, which was housed in the building that is often home to a stage or ice skating rink. It had been set up so you travelled from land to see through different eras of the dinosaurs, giving you information on different species and how the world changed over millions of years. As well as the educational aspect, there were also a number of anatomical moving dinosaur models, which were amazing!
The dinosaur theme continued throughout the park, with an almost-life-size moving triceratops being located in a pen - it was a person in a big model but it was a lot of fun - and people carrying puppet baby dinosaurs around, which got all the kids really excited.
The rainforest biome is really amazing as it truly makes you feel like you've just stepped into a tropical forest. The temperature rises, the atmosphere is quite humid, there is running water and waterfalls, a huge range of tropical plants and indigenous structures scattered around. You'll find a lot of educational material throughout, so you can really learn a lot as you follow the path.
This time around, I was determined to make it to the top of the platform mounted to the roof of the biome, as my weight loss means I find going up lots of stairs - there are 62 of them - a lot easier. Unfortunately, the queue to get to the top was huge so we gave it a skip. Next time, I'll definitely head to the top, queue be damned!
We decided to eat lunch here as I absolutely love food from the Med and the biome made it feel like we were eating outside in Greece. As I can't eat a lot since my latest gastric band inflation - read about it here - we shared a vegetarian antipasti platter, which was absolutely gorgeous. It featured a lot of my favourite food - olives, focaccia, cheese-stuffed peppers, Cornish Yarg cheese etc - as well as some things I'd wanted to try for a while like artichoke hearts and stuffed vine leaves. In fact, it was so good that I wished I could eat more food that was on the menu.
The dinosaur exhibit had also been continued into the Mediterranean biome, with some model dinos hanging from the ceiling and regular children's puppet shows. I thought this was a great way to get kids excited about quite an adult experience.
There's also the Hedgehog building, which houses some great recycled exhibits, technology teaching you about nature and a huge sculpture of a seed, which is a photographer's dream. You'll find another cafe here as well as lots of fun interactive things, including a wall of old fridge doors and letter magnets for creating messages - some letters are hard to find!