Rijksmuseum van oudheden in Leiden in the Netherlands.
As a kid in the early 80s I used to go there often. It was free then and had and still has a lot of artifacts from Egyptian, Roman and Greek history. Also Leiden is a nice place to visit anyway.
Also Museum Volkenkunde Leiden (now Wereldmuseum Leiden).
The museum island in Berlin. Just so many interesting artifacts from ancient cultures, you could easily spend multiple days there. (Just don’t think too hard about what all those artifacts are doing in Berlin while you’re there…)
I’m still salty that the Pergamum temple exhibit was closed. We went to Turkey and “sorry, that temple is in Germany now.” We went to Berlin a few years later and “sorry, that temple exhibit is being refurbished now.”
All that being said, I enjoyed seeing that very large gold hat.
I just had a look, it’s closed for 14 years! I did go before the closure but I will say, it’s not good enough to wait 14 years for.
I visited Guedelon castle, a site were they are building a medieval castle the medievall way since 1997. It’s about two thirds finished now.
It’s surrounded by people working trades, just like back in the day. There’s a water mill, pottery, blacksmiths, masons, pigment makers and everything.
It’s living history, not in the American way were they pretend to be from the period, but people into crafts you can ask stuff.
It’s one of the more unique muséal expériences I’ve had.
I loved the visit too.
The work they do with historians is really interesting, when they need informations about how people where doing X at this period the historian guide them but sometimes the historian have several contradicting theories so they test the theory on the site and report to the historian which one is actually working.
I’m enjoying this thread, I’ve been to many of the museums already mentioned and they’re all great.
For me I think my current favourite is the Natural History Museum in New York which I went to a couple of months ago. It was enormous and every room had a few really special things. I learnt so much!
My all time favourite is just so difficult. I really enjoyed The House of Terror in Budapest, I really didn’t know anything about the topic at all and I was thoroughly educated.
I’d also give a special mention to a museum in Rhodes that was full of sculptures they’d pulled from shipwrecks. The geography means there’s a lot of shipwrecks nearby and those date from ancient Greece onwards. The oldest sculptures were well rounded by the water and it gave them a very weird ethereal look.
I finally got to see a Saturn V up close last year, as well as the control room for the moon landings. I’ve always wanted to visit, and last year I found myself on a Houston work trip with a day to spare.
KSC museum in Cape Canaveral Florida is similarly awesome. They have tons of rockets and other stuff from the space race and shuttle eras
The main thing I took from KSC is that massive 50+ mile long road from the Orlando area towards Cape Canaveral, just such an American design.
The site and tour was amazing though - particularly the memorial set up like a space mirror, that was particularly poignant.
When I visited Florida a few years ago there weren’t any daytime launches - but I did hoof the youngest out of bed at 2am to watch from Orlando on a livestream and see the orange flame in the distance heading to the sky. The poor kid had a “bro wtf” look on his face but hey, there ain’t many British kids who can say they’ve seen a rocket go up into space.
The DaVinci museum in Venice is pretty really good. It’s not too big but it’s interactive and concise (especially considering the works of DaVinci).
Natural History Museum in London… before you even get to the exhibits it has some of the most breathtaking architecture.
I find that I’m both drawn the the building as well as the exhibits when I’m there, all the pillars are trees with texture and foliage (and monkeys too), the large room with the minerals has sea creatures carved onto the stonework. The carved wood, the floor even the outside with the metal drain pipes and tiled roof…it’s a Temple to Nature, really beautiful place!
There is an amazing art museum in Detroit. The Detroit Institute of Arts doesn’t have the most famous paintings, but I prefer seeing lesser-known works anyway.
I love the DIA!
It’s been a good while since I’ve visited, but I would love to go again.
The Computerspielemuseum or Computer Game Museum in Berlin.
It has 3 rooms setup as timecapsules with a console setup in each.
The highlight was the PainStation where you played Pong against another player, and the loser got whipped, an electric shock or heat applied to their hand through a panel on the game. Excellent.
Special mentions, 1.5hrs in front of Bosch’s, Garden of Earthly Delights tryptich in the Prado.
Momi (The Museum of the Moving Image, London) closed in 2002, but had the full history of all cinema. Live period actors jumping out to explain things. I snuck a touch of the foot of the actual K1 Giant Robot from Tom Baker’s Dr Who.
Also, the Musée d’Orsay. Just a beautiful experience of so many classics.
I liked the People’s History Museum in Manchester, UK. I also liked the Coal Mining Museum as a kid
Georgia Aquarium (Atlanta). Trixie and friends. #IYKYK #notPorn
Second best? Every museum we went to in Sweden was free. “Go on in, see some viking stuff.”
Most disappointing? Phallus.is , pretty much nothing but what you think it is. Good for a lark and a titter but no revelations.
I loved the penis museum! I was worried it would be uncomfortable for a group of friends but actually it was quite educational.
Georgia aquarium though, I could live there.
The Viking and Technical Museums in Stockholm are 100% worth a visit. I don’t remember them being free though.
Also: Skansen.
I haven’t been to many museums, but the Corning museum of glass was interesting.
The Maritime Museum in Aberdeen is brilliant. Not nearly on the same scale as some of the entries in this thread, but it’s awesome.
It’s modern, it’s clean, and it’s free. It’s quite clearly funded by the oil and gas industry (and it doesn’t hide from it where exhibits have been financed) but it’s an absolutely fantastic way to spend an afternoon - from the introduction of maritime and naval operations in Scotland to present day works in the North Sea - and a guest hall where seasonal exhibits are hosted.
Of particular note is the recreation of the Piper Alpha cabins and the recovered life vests from that fateful night - genuinely interesting and a museum that punches well above it’s weight.
Musée Robert Tatin. Robert Tatin created an Univers of art naïf around his tiny house that become later a museum.
It’s a mix of sculpture and painting, outside and inside. People will find it weird and strange. I found it amazing and representative of a society.
Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. It hosts exhibitions about technology and humans and I was completely blown away.
Also they have a large 3D room where you get shown around our galaxy… That put me into an existential crisis for a few days.
