During a four day break in Cornwall with my husband, son, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, we decided that a visit to the Eden Project was a must. We looked at the weather forecast and the day that was scheduled for rain, was the day we booked to go.
Prices:
The tickets are priced seasonally, so the prices range:
Adults: Standard – £32.50 Peak – £37.50
Child (aged 5-16): Standard – £11 Peak – £12
Child (aged 0-4): Free all year round.
Parking was included in the admission price.
Length of time spent here:
We arrived at 10:30 AM and left at about 2:30 PM.
My Review
We have been here before but that was approximately 15 years ago, so a lot has changed since then!
The Eden Project was originally a china clay pit and was used by the BBC as the planet surface of Magrathea in the TV series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
This lovely driftwood sculpture of a horse was at the entrance – stunning!
It was drizzling with rain when we arrived, so we headed straight for the biomes, entering the Rainforest Biome first.
The Rainforest biome was amazing, it was like stepping into a different world. The amount of different flowers, plants and trees was mind boggling, from wild bananas to oil palm to all kinds of spices.
It didn’t feel as hot as I thought it was going to be, but this was in April, I suspect that in August it is a different story!
There was a treetop walk which included a rope wobbly bridge, where at the top, there was commanding views of the whole biome from the viewing platform.
After spending a couple of hours in this biome, it was time for lunch. We ate in the main dining area between the Rainforest and Mediterranean biomes, it was a little pricey so maybe bring your own packed lunch is the way to go, but we all had a snack and a drink….
…then it was onto the Mediterranean biome.
Stepping into the Mediterranean biome, I was struck by how much lighter and more colourful it was than the Rainforest biome. In here we found grape vines, olive trees, cotton and citrus fruit. The array of flowers was spectacular:
There were some intriguing statues in this biome which were called The Rites of Dionysus. These depict Dionysus, Greek god of the vines and his followers who dance and writhe through the vines beating drums and sounding trumpets.
After thoroughly exploring this biome, we made our way back out into the gardens, where it was raining pretty steadily now and headed towards the Invisible Worlds exhibition.
This was an exhibition which explored our sense and how life is shaped by and also shapes, invisible systems.
One sculpture which immediately drew our attention was the Blue (Infinity Blue) ceramic sculpture which weighs in at 20 tonnes and is almost nine metres high. It pays homage to one of the worlds smallest but most important organisms: cyanobacteria. No, I didn’t know what that was either, it says on their website:
The sculpture is a monument to these vital microscopic beings, who, along with the descendants found in the photosynthesising cells of all green plants, continue to provide the oxygen in every break we take.
The Eden Project
It was time to head back to the caravan and even though the rain hadn’t let up all day it didn’t matter to us, we were in the biomes most of the time. We all had a great time, the grandkids enjoyed walking around and exploring the different areas, in fact, I think we all learned something today!
After the guided tour was the much anticipated cream tea. You do need to pre-book this, it was fully booked on our day. The cost is £18 on top of the entry fee and for an extra £6.00 you can have a glass of Prosecco. The menu was:
My prize for the most unusual exhibit goes to the pigeon carrier, which would parachute the pigeons to soldiers, for the pigeons to forward on messages to the troops.
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