Yet at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk) there is a very impressive display of five cetacean skeletons (Minke whale, Orca, Northern Bottlenose dolphin, Beluga whale, Bottlenose dolphin) hung from equally impressive the neo-gothic roof.
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These were restored in 2013 and more details of the restoration of the skeletons can in this fascinating blog https://onceinawhale.com/
The roof is not only the place to experience these animals, at the entrance to the museum are the jaws of the sperm and humpback whales and illustrate how large and diverse these animals can are.
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Oxford is not the only museum to hang a whale skeleton from the ceiling. The Natural History Museum in London (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/) has taken the art of hanging articulated cetacean skeletons to another level by replacing the famous Dippy the Diplodocus with the skeleton of a Blue Whale:
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Given the name Hope, the poor animal was stranded on a beach in Ireland in 1891 and when it died its skeleton was sold to the Museum and was hung at the back of the mammal hall.
It has now been restored and moved to make it a breathtaking display as it appears to dive through the Hintze Hall.
As impressive as these museum displays are, there are few things that compare to seeing animals in the wild and a visit to Iceland in May 2017 gave the opportunity for some whale spotting with Elding adventures (https://www.elding.is).
Outside of Reykjavik harbour, there was a pod of White-Beaked dolphins.
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And further out to sea was an even more impressive sight - a young male humpback whale, which was fin slapping, tail slapping an even breaching.
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Even if 2018 doesn't provide similar experiences, our local and national museums will always provide fascinating and thought-provoking days out.
