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Like museums? Like seeing all that’s interesting and
unusual and famous? Been on rounds of all the best- the Louvre and the Smithsonian and the
British Museum and all those `must do’ museums? Well, here’s where we begin to
go off the beaten path. We’ve seen the paintings and we’ve viewed the
sculptures; we’ve gaped at the mummies and admired the half-ruined statuary dug out
of who knows where.
So here’s the gen on the museums with a difference. The places to go to
get an insight into the unusual. Museums which concentrate on bread, on chocolate, on
gold- even on toilets. For the traveller with a yen for the offbeat: Maverick Museums.
- The International Museum Of Toilets, New Delhi, India
- Museo del Oro, Bogota, Colombia
- The Bread Museum, Ulm, Germany
- The Witch Museum,
Salem, USA
- The Chocolate
Museum, Cologne, Germany
- The Fan Museum,
London, UK
- Celebrity
Lingerie Hall of Fame, Los Angeles, USA
- Vodka
Museum, St Petersburg, Russian Federation
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The
International Museum Of Toilets, New Delhi
| Every city has a
museum of local history or an art gallery, but how many cities can actually boast of a
museum dedicated to the humble loo? New Delhi can. And the International Museum of Toilets
does live up to its name- it’s not just one bit of porcelain after another.
Established by a Non-Governmental Organisation which provides sanitation services, the
Museum of Toilets is a thoroughly `professional’ attempt at explaining the history
and the evolution of the toilet. |
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On display are a vast number of chamber pots, commodes, bidets and what-not, from
across the world and from way back in history- as far back as 1,145 BC, to be precise.
Among the treasures included in the exhibits are ancient stoneware chamber pots from
Britain; ornate painted medieval urinals; and even `disguised’ commodes- a French one
which looks like a stack of books, and an English one which resembles a treasure chest!
More practical toilets include a microwave toilet, and an electric toilet (designed in
1929), for use on chilly winter nights. On the whole, a vastly interesting and
educational- if wacky- look at toilets.
The International Museum of Toilets is located at Sulabh Bhawan, Mahavir Enclave,
Palam Dabri Marg (Tel: 5032631 /5032617). It’s open from Monday to Saturday, 10.30 am
to 4.30 pm.
For more information on New Delhi, click here.
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Museo
del Oro, Bogota
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Ever heard of a silver standard? Or of someone with a heart of platinum, who’s worth
his weight in iron? Of course you haven’t- because it’s gold all the way. For a
world obsessed with this shiny yellow element, aurum or gold is really the metal.
And if you want to get your fill of gold, Bogota’s Museo del Oro is the place.
The Museo del Oro is the main highlight of the capital of Colombia, and ranks as one of
South America’s most stunning museums. Located on the premises of Bogota’s Banco
de la Republica, the Museum of Gold has a mind-boggling 10,000 and more exhibits, one of
the world’s largest collections of gold jewellery and artefacts. |
Stuffed chockfull of gold artefacts from all across Colombia, the Museo del
Oro includes pieces of jewellery, idols, coinage, and goods used for barter- all of
it crafted in gold. Among the exhibits are Pre-Columbian items, and stuff which has been
dredged up from Lake Titicaca’s waters too. Some of it is crafted from an alloy of
gold and copper (known as tumbaga), and a major part of the collection consists of items
which were interred with the dead. The entire display sparkles and gleams so brightly that
you can actually take all the photographs you want without having to use a flash for your
camera!
The Museo del Oro is open to visitors from 9 am to 4.30 pm, Tuesday to Saturday,
and from 9 am to 12 noon on Sundays and public holidays. If you want a souvenir to take
back, pay a visit to the Museo del Oro’s shop. You won’t actually get any gold
here, but there are plenty of gold-plated reproductions of the artefacts featured in the
museum.
For more information on Bogota, click
here.
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The
Bread Museum, Ulm
| Man definitely
does not live by bread alone; a hefty dose of travelling to some interesting places goes a
long way towards making life much nicer. So here’s another one for the list: the
Deutsches Brotmuseum, or the Bread Museum, in the town of Ulm, in Germany. Set up way back
in 1955, the Bread Museum sprawls over a vast seven-storeyed building, and gives you the
dope on everything from a very highly detailed history of bread and breadmaking, to some
10,000 objects related to bread and its production. A great museum to loaf around in. |
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This is the place you get to learn all about bread- from the time it was
first made (around 8,000 years ago) to the present. There are exhibitions, in
chronological order, on the cultivation of cereal, milling, techniques of breadmaking,
equipment, the sale of bread, baker’s guilds- and virtually anything else you might
feel like finding out about your daily bread. There are interesting tidbits on the social,
religious and cultural significance of bread, too- such as the use of bread as wages, or
its role in rituals and ceremonies. The objects on display range from bread ovens and
bread carts to silver bread baskets and baking moulds.
The Deutsches Brotmuseum is situated at Salzstadelgasse 10, Ulm (Tel: 731-69955).
It’s open daily from 10 am to 5 pm, except on Wednesdays, when it remains open till
8.30 pm. One note of caution: don’t imagine you’ll be able to get a meal at the
museum. The Brotmuseum doesn’t stock bread; you’ll have to step outside to a
local shop if you want to buy a loaf.
For more information on Germany, click here.
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The
Witch Museum, Salem
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More than three
hundred years ago, in 1692, the town of Salem in Massachusetts, became the scene of one of
the most horrific examples of mass hysteria in US history: the infamous Salem Witch
Trials. Over a period of about six months, nineteen people, most of them girls, were
accused of having consorted with the devil- in other words, of being witches- and were
hanged in a gross miscarriage of what passed for justice.
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The Witch Museum in Salem is a haunting and painful reminder of those days in
1692, and brings back, in gory detail, the society of 17th century New England.
Depicted through a series of life-size images, stage sets, sound and light effects and
narration, the re-enactment of the accusations, the trials and the hangings is not
something for the faint-hearted. The audio-visual presentation is staged every
half-an-hour and is very accurate, although it may be a tad too dramatic for some. Besides
that, there’s a smaller display on the history of witchcraft, witches and witch
hunts.
The Witch Museum is located at Washington Square, Salem (978-744 1692), and is
open everyday from 10 am to 5 pm, stretching till 7 pm in July and August. It’s
closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. About three weeks prior to
Halloween, a special `Haunted Happenings’ festival is held at the museum- a big draw
and extremely popular with visitors.
For more information on USA, click here.
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The
Chocolate Museum, Cologne
| Guess what `Theobroma
Cacao’ (the botanical name of the cocoa bean) means. The `food of the gods’-
so apparently whoever thought that one up had the right idea all along. And if you want an
at- close-quarters encounter with chocolate, head for Cologne’s Chocolate Museum. Cologne, in Germany, has its attractions, and way
up there on the list of the most popular sights is the Imhoff-Stollwerck Museum, better
known as the Chocolate Museum. This museum has everything you’ve always
wanted to know about chocolate (and you can bet your last bonbon, there’s plenty here
you wouldn’t have known before!). |
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Starting from a walk-through arboretum, where you can actually stroll among live
cocoa trees, the museum’s display goes on to a vast section on the production of
chocolate. The exhibition traces the 3,000-year history of cocoa and chocolate, right from
when it was used in South America as a means of payment, to its emergence as a luxury
drink in 19th century Europe. A miniature chocolate factory allows visitors a
peek into how the stuff is made, and a separate section deals with chocolate packaging,
advertising, and vending machines. When you’ve finished your meander through the
museum, get yourself a refreshing drink- of pure, gooey chocolate- at the chocolate
fountain which is the highlight of the museum. Drinks are on the house!
The Chocolate Museum is situated at Rheinauhafen 1a, Cologne (Tel: 931 8880);
it’s open daily from 10 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday and from 11 am to 7 pm on
weekends and public holidays. Guided tours through the museum are offered in half a dozen
languages, and are a great way to see the museum.
For more information on Germany, click here.
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The
Fan Museum, London
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The British Museum
and the Victoria & Albert may be London’s best known museums, but if you’re
the type with a yen for the different, try the Fan Museum at Greenwich. Displayed in two
lovely Georgian buildings, the Fan Museum is one of only two such collections anywhere in
the world. It’s dedicated to the hand-held fan, no longer in vogue (at least in the
West), but once an important social and cultural symbol. |
Beginning from
around the 11th century, the fan gradually acquired a great deal of
significance as a status symbol and even a means of communication in the highly restricted
social circles of the period.
The Fan Museum has a collection of some 3,000 fans- from across the world and from
different periods- which are displayed in special exhibitions which change every four
months, to help conserve the fans. Although American and Oriental fans- especially from
China and Japan- are also on display, the bulk of the museum’s collection consists of
European fans from the 18th and 19th centuries: beautifully
bejewelled fans, lace fans, commemorative fans, and more.
The Fan Museum
is situated at 12 Crooms Hill, Greenwich (Tel: 0208-305 1441).
It’s open from 11 am to 5 pm, Tuesday to Saturday, and from 12 noon to 5 pm on
Sunday. Also a part of the Fan Museum is a shop where souvenirs, all of them centred
around the theme of the fan, are available for sale.
For
more information on London, click here.
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Celebrity Lingerie
Hall of Fame, Los Angeles
Frederick of Hollywood, creator of
such indispensables as push-up bras and thong panties, is a genius. How else do you
qualify a man who was just another innerwear catalogue company in New York till he saw
that the inherent potential of the stuff that he dabbled in everyday? He packed up his
bags and his itty bitty packages, headed due west came to a town called Hollywood and got
into the business of ensuring that whenever a star is caught with her pants down, the
world has something pretty to look at.
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Frederick Mellinger's store on
Hollywood Blvd has been around since the mid 80s, and it's still sporting the art deco
tastes from those days that privileged neon pink above all else. Check it out. The
downstairs section is still devoted to retail but the upstairs is a veritable who's who of
famous undies. Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump boxers occupy pride of place as does Madonna's
black and gold bustier from the Who's That Girl tour. While we're on the point it's worth
mentioning that when Frederick's was looted in the '92 LA riots he lost, among others,
Madonna's original purple and gold contribution. This was replaced by her, eventually,
with a neat quid pro quo whereby Frederick made a donation to a charity that funds
mammograms for poor women. The black petticoat that kept Garbo's skirt just so in Anna
Karenina is here. So are the underthings of every cast member from Beverly Hills 90210.
Liz Taylor, Mae West, Cher and Tony Curtis (his Some Like it Hot bra) have all shared
their innerwear with the Frederick's exhibition. There's Ava Gardner and Robert Redford
too.
The address where all this is at is 6608 Hollywood Boulevard. The museum keeps the same
hours as the shop. This "tribute to the stars who glamorised lingerie" is yours
to see for free. And what's more, you're allowed to take pictures in the museum as long as
you keep the shutter closed on the shop floor.
For more information on Los
Angeles, click here.
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Vodka Museum, St Petersburg
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Way back in the 1980s, USSR President
Mikhail Gorbachov launched a highly unpopular anti-vodka campaign. A popular joke that did
the rounds those days was: a man, tired of standing in line for vodka, swears he's going
off to kill Gorbachov- only to find a longer line there. If you didn't think there was anything funny about wanting
to kill someone who tried to outlaw vodka, this one's for you. The Vodka Museum in St
Petersburg, Russia.
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For all the fans of `little
water'-which is what vodka really means, this is one `must-do' pilgrimage. It's dedicated
to Russia's favourite drink, and though it's fairly small- only about two rooms- it's a
fabulous tribute to what makes a Bloody Mary bloody good and gives a Screwdriver plenty of
drive. Spread out across the rooms is a vast display of stuff connected to vodka- bottles
and shot glasses, posters encouraging (and, in some cases, discouraging) the consumption
of vodka, advertisements, and more. Some of the earliest moonshine distillation devices- a
few centuries old- used in Russia are also on display, as are hand-written recipes, jokes,
comics and a detailed history of vodka, beginning with its distillation in a Russian
monastery in the mid-1400s.
But the pièce de resistance of the Vodka Museum is the 19th century tavern adjacent to
the exhibition halls- a neat little place where visitors can sample up to seven types of
premium vodka. Na Zdorovye ("Here's to your health", for those not in the know)
is the name of the game here, and caviar, marinated mushrooms, pickled cucumbers and
salmon are among the snacks provided to make sure you don't pass out after bingeing.
The Vodka Museum is located at 5, Konnogvardeisky Bulvar, St Petersburg (Tel: 118-4591).
It's open daily from 11 am to 10 pm, and prior bookings need to be made if you want to
swig some vodka at the end of your tour. Children aren't allowed in, but adults are, and
pay about RUB25 for a `dry' tour and between RUB375 to RUB435 for a tipsy one.
For more information on St Petersburg, click
here.
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