Hey Steve! Is this place as cool as it looks?
http://www.edenproject.com/about/index.html
It really is amazing!
I’m from Cornwall originally, but west of Steve in Bude. When I’m in the UK I go down to visit family there.
The Eden project is definitely worth a day if you are in the region. In addition to the domes they run workshops and last time I went there was one on making musical instruments from wood and recycled products which was great fun and very informative.
When I was with my wife in a jungle in Indonesia she commented, “Wow, it’s just like the Eden Project.” I laughed of course.
Edited for usual spelling corrections.
My mother-in-law lives 5 minutes from the Eden Project. It’s definitely worth a visit. As tourist attractions go it is pretty substantial - not just a facade hiding crappy ways of parting you from your hard-earned. 
I paid a visit last August and I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s geared to push a mass of people through like a load of cattle. The enviromental-conservation side of things just didn’t convince me at all and I was left with the impression that it’s a money-making tourist scheme.
The scale is quite impressive but I have got more out of visits to more modest conservatories in local parks.
The Eden Project is an hour’s drive away from me. I’ve actually played two gigs there. 
If you really can’t avoid going in August, try going in the afternoon when the crowds are smaller. Springtime is a good time to go as they have thousands of bulbs in bloom. Until Feb 8 they hold their winter festival “A Time of Gifts,” when you can go ice-skating for an extra four quid, and if you go at the weekend they stay open late and you can go round the biomes in the dark - magic. There are lots of fairy lights on the trees outside too. The fact that I find myself there five or six times a year betrays that I am an aficionado. And we Cornish residents get cheap entry too!
Here it is at night in winter:
To give an idea of the scale of the place, the big three-domed biome in the middle (the Humid Tropical Biome) is the world’s biggest greenhouse and is big enough to contain the whole of the Tower of London.
Here’s a view inside the Warm Temperate Biome:
There’s an education centre and a huge visitor centre complete with stunning if somewhat expensive shop. They are constantly adding to the place - I believe that work is to start soon on a desert biome. There’s plenty of food and drink available and it ain’t bad at all.
Sure, the place has its detractors, but I don’t know too many of them. Whatever you think of it, there’s no denying that its founder, Tim Smit, was a man of vision.
Nice pasties there as well!
I also recommend the jacket potatoes with a choice of toppings. I usually go for the savoury mince one. That and a pot of tea is just what’s needed on a winter’s day to keep body and soul together. In summer the Callestick Farm real ice cream is very nice. Don’t go into the Humid Tropics biome over-dressed! Keep your camera very snug for at least 20 minutes before you go in, otherwise you’ll be plagued by condensation once you get inside. I don’t much like the idea of moisture forming spontaneously inside my camera!
As an infrequent visitor to the whistle forum I’m at a bit of a loss as to why this thread’s over here and not in t’pub. I’m just following the crowd! 
You know that the term “pasties” has a … er … different meaning entirely in American usage?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasties
The exclamation “Nice pasties there as well!” is probably not something one would hear about an American version of the Eden Project. Unless it were truly Eden-like (prelapsarian) and the employees in the nude! 
Fairy lights? Wow! You can count me in! 
djm
Clearly you are not from or have family from or ever visited the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan), eh?
A large group of the earliest White settlers there came from Cornwall to work the iron mines.
Pasties are a pretty common food to find there and everybody calls them pasties. I recall them being offered with ketchup or gravy at even the fast food restaurants.
A good pasty is a thing of beauty, but I fear that there are too many charlatans on the bandwagon these days. If you visit Cornwall I recommend you try Barnecutt’s pasties if you’re in or around Wadebridge (e.g. for the folk festival there in August), or alternatively the Crantock Bakery pasties. I can’t speak for any variety other than the straight steak pasties (buy the biggest size they do), as I regard pasties with weird ingredients as abominations beyond salvation. As a northerner by birth I must put in a parenthetical word for the glorious meat and potato pies made by Greenhalgh’s bakery in Lancashire. And I still don’t know why we’re in the whistle forum! 
Edited to add that I just realised we’re not!
Again with the pasties!!! I was waiting to hear about New Agey stuff!! I browsed the store. No HEMP clothing, man!
Heya, whatever happened to the Findhorn Garden? A blast from the past…guess I’ll websearch it…
I’ll swear I read the obituary of someone last week who was involved with Findhorn but I can’t recall who it was or where I saw it for the life of me.
That may have been Eileen Caddy. More here: http://www.findhorn.org/home_new.php
djm
Aye, that’s the one. Thanks for that, djm.
bio-dome</a](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115683/>bio-dome</a)>?
I hope the place wasn’t infested with Pauly Shores.
Well, I’m all for these expo places that show other ways to live. We have a place up in Hopland, [Real Goods], that has a lot of demo aquaculture, solar, wind, etc…
People laugh at some of it as well as suspect its a supply store for pot growers but I think its cool.
Point the way, I say.