Museum Reviews (from my trip to Germany, Tromso, Norway and London, England in January 2008)

Roman Museum
The museum was very interesting; I thought the most interesting parts were the grave stones, which there were quite a lot of. I could understand a fair amount of the Latin, although it was a bit rusty. It was nice that they had transcriptions and translations into German. Some of the information was also translated into English and French, but only some. I understand to an extent why they only translated some of it, but it would have been nice if everything was reliably translated – I heard a lot of English-speaking tourists there. The museum was set up about exactly between that of an art museum and that of a history museum. Although there was almost no Roman art on display, everything was artifacts, there wasn’t anything interactive or chronological. It was organized mostly, by type of artifact. This was, in a way, nice, however, I would have preferred it to be chronologically organized, if it would have been possible, because then I probably wouldn’t have gotten a headache so fast from reading tombstone after tombstone. Another thing that disappointed me, was the lack of text. There were captions for most artifacts, however, there were almost no signs that explained the Roman history. I couldn’t find one sign that said the date of when Rome conquered Colognia, much less how. Near the end of our visit, Micot asked a docent about pictures (I was farther away, so I didn’t completely hear his question). Anyway, she pointed him to a room, where there were pictures of the excavation. That was less interesting to me, but it was a nice, information-filled room. However, it was totally hidden! There was a sign on the door, saying what was inside, but if one wasn’t looking for it, they would completely pass it by! When we left, we had to squeeze through the entrance way. They had all but about 3’ roped off from the entrance hall to the museum. There was a guy standing there checking tickets. OK, I understand why they did that; but really, how many people are going to try and walk in without a ticket? How hard would it be to control 8’ instead of 3’? The gift shop, also, was puny, and practically non-existent.

Lindt Chocolate Museum
This was a much bigger museum, and also much more crowded. It was very crowded. True, the factory/museum was on a tiny island in the Rhine, but I believe they could have improved their crowd management techniques. The direction of flow was very clear. The exhibits started out with a history of the cocoa bean, how it is harvested, how it came to Europe, etc. After this initial background on what chocolate is, we came into a huge room with chocolate machines. I’m pretty sure that only about half of the machines there were functional (the actual factory must have been on the other side of the building somewhere), but there was somebody handing out free samples of melted chocolate on a stick, and there were also people actually making and packaging chocolate behind Plexiglas walls, which had all the explanation needed about what was happening. There was a stand where they were selling truffles for 0.5€ each, and Hannah thought that was insanely expensive. After we lagged in this room for forever, we continued up to more exhibits. These exhibits explained the history of chocolate in Europe. Did you know that before chocolate bars, people drank hot chocolate as a luxury drink? Then hot chocolate would be a normal drink, and THEN chocolate bars came. There were lots of interesting artifacts; old candy wrappers, old advertisements, etc…up through interesting collections of new artifacts, including 500 Kinder Egg surprises, and a Kit-Kat bench. This chain of exhibits plopped us back in the factory room, and we were forced to go back through the first exhibit hall, to come back out into the lobby. This is what museums should always avoid! Backwards traffic flow! I really don’t think it would have been hard to built a bridge going directly to the exit (bridges connected all the exhibits with the factory room). From the lobby, there was a café (I would have LOVED to try the hot chocolate, but the Trippes, I’m positive, would have found that a complete waste of money, so I didn’t even ask). The gift shop was huge; it had every sort of fancy Lindt, Hussel, and Mozart chocolate. The Christmas candy was 50% off, so I got a cinnamon chocolate bar, and Christmas truffles for 3.5€. However, as I was about to grab the cinnamon bar, a store clerk steps in front of me, and organizes the display for a good minute, as I give up trying to reach around her for the chocolate. We’re specifically told not to step in front of people to fix the displays! For good reason! I also found it strange, that they had a collection of totally random metal sign things, that had nothing to do with chocolate (the Trippes bought 3 of them), yet had no books or educational things about chocolate.

Polaria (Tromso)
The museum was really quite good, despite being quite small. The main exhibit area had nicely made displayed about polar exploration and global warming. There were also a handful of interactive exhibits, including a quiz of museum content (I got 60% before going through). Everything was in Norwegian and English, and about 90% also had German. The main part of the museum seemed to be the panoramic video. Every half hour, they showed 18-minute videos of arctic scenery and animals, and played music to go along with it. It was really nicely done. The theater leads you into another exhibit about arctic animals. This exhibit reminded me of the Titanic at PSC, because it had fake icebergs all over, and also had appropriate lighting and floors. From here, you came to a small aquarium. There was a seal, and also about 5 medium-sized tanks with various other kinds of animals.

Since the museum was so small, $13 seemed quite steep to me, but the museum was very well done. It had plenty of interactive displays and activities for kids, and the diagrams were all very well presented. This was also the first completely bi/trilingual (other than in Luxemburg, where there are 3 official languages) museum I’ve seen. Most museums only translate some things into English, and often will shorten captions as well.

The gift shop was very cute, and had a very nice selection of kid and adult gifts, as well as some Tromso things. The only bad thing was that it seemed very squished, when the exhibits were quite open. I didn’t look at the café upstairs.

Polar Museum
The museum apparently was known to be a destination where tourists “shouldn’t go,” because some Americans got freaked out, and reported some exceptionally gory parts of the museum. I was ready for anything, but I never saw anything exceptionally bad.

The first room I went into (which actually was supposed to be the last room) was completely in English, about the explorer who found the Northwest Passage. There was a TV playing the PBS documentary on it. It was interesting, although small. To get to the min section of the museum, you had to go through the gift shop. There were a series of different rooms about polar exploration and hunting. There were lots of mannequins, which were a bit freaky at times, and some of them were stabbing animals or whatever, but nothing was particularly gory. What I found weird though, was that the entirety of the main exhibits was in Norwegian, except for the tags on artifacts, which were mostly translated into English and German. These are the things that are usually left un-translated. I didn’t read that much of the information; I got there at 2:15, and the museum closed at 3:00, so I didn’t want to be too slow. The detail of the models and scenes was so awesome, that it seriously distracted (me, at least) from the massive amounts of information on the walls. It’s really nice to have spectacular visuals, but somehow it seemed too much.

British Library
It was remarkable! There was a courtyard with a café, and then inside, they quickly looked through bags. I’m not exactly sure what they were looking for though. The galleries were cool. There was an exhibit on Avant Garde, which talked about how it was represented in different cities in the era preceding WWI. There was also a very impressive collection of stamps on display. However, I DEFINITELY agree with Rick Steves about the best part of the library. The collection of original documents is simply remarkable! There were plenty of texts I didn’t care about, but there was an awesome collection of amazing artifacts: the original copy of Beowulf in Old English, the original manuscripts of Beethoven’s 9th, Edgar’s Enigma Variations, a Mahler Symphony, and many others. They also had Beethoven’s tuning fork, which had been passed down through generations of musicians, including Holst, and eventually (actually, relatively recently), it landed in the museum. There were also numerous significant copies of the Magna Carta, including one that was so old, it was almost completely illegible. It’s paper from 1215!

British Museum
The British Museum is huge! It is the largest museum in London, housing LOTS of artifacts, which I swear, are mostly out of stone. The map cost ₤2, and once I had studied it, I could generally figure out where things were. However, it was insanely crowded. February isn’t even tourist season! I looked mostly at the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian things, seeing of special note, lots of carvings from the Parthenon, and the Rosetta Stone. However, I was left unsatisfied. There was simply too much on display. I can appreciate massive museums for their educational value, especially to art historians, anthropologists, etc, but for the general public, they are simply boring. They seem to reduce the value of everything, simply by having so many things. The library gallery was impressive, because it was reasonably small, and only had certain things on display. For example, if I went to a museum with most or all of Beethoven’s original manuscripts, the novelty would quickly wear off. However, when there are only a few significant and well captioned artifacts, it is much more impressive. The British Museum, like the Louvre, is simply a must-see because it has one or two top-level, world-famous artifacts, and because it is simply so big. However, I doubt that the majority of the visitors actually care about the majority of the things that they see. They just take up space, won’t budge when you want to pass, and hurt the artifacts by exposing them to insane amounts of flash photography. Another thing is, that although I respect their idea of regular museum rotation, two Roman exhibits were closed for rotation or whatever. Not pleased.

Natural History Museum
It was amazingly castle-esque from the outside, and on the inside, it seemed like a dinosaur castle, because the entryway was stone with stained glass windows, and a dinosaur skeleton right in the middle.
I started out by going through the human biology exhibit, which turned out to mostly be focused on development. It always amuses me how European museums don’t shy away from sex. Almost all of the diograms/etc were naked, and some were amusingly graphic. To my enjoyment, the exhibit continued from pregnancy, birth, growing, adolescence, hormones, etc, to neurology and even some psycholinguistics! The exhibit was very visually stimulating, interactive and educational. My only complaint is that it did not follow a sequencial path, so I could not be sure if I’d seen everything.
I went for a quick tour around the animal exhibits. They had a ton of skeletons and stuffed animals, and they even had a caption that said that whales’ penises are 3m long. European liberalism again.
My favorite exhibit was the ecology one. It followed a path, and set the mood. It was dark, and really conveyed the message that ecology depends on humans to stay alive. After that, I went into the geology exhibits. They had a very impressive display of rocks and minerals. The exhibit on volcanoes and earthquakes was good, but personally, I am sick of going to earthquake exhibits for people who have no idea what an earthquake is (examples: Minneapolis SC, Luxemburg SC, Tromso Museum). There was a corner where they had a set-up where you could “experience” an earthquake, and it was so crowded, that I couldn’t pass through, so I just walked out backwards through the exhibit.
Although this museum too was very crowded, it was big, but also manageable, and very nicely interactive. They had one or two exhibits that cost extra, including one on arctic exploration, which was advertised everywhere. However, after being in Tromso, I believe that their facts were a bit off. “Can you surive temperatures of -20?” Welcome to Minnesota. -20C~-3F. “Can you survive 6 months of complete darkness?” MAYBE you’d get that at the pole. But seriously, how many people go THAT far. Also, in the winter, I would bet it’s much colder than -20C!
The dinosaur rooms were free, like the majority of the museum, but apparently were so popular that they needed to have a line, which looked 30-60 minutes long. So I didn’t see the dinos. Big deal.

Science Museum
That wins my vote for best museum…ever. I started with the gift shop, and even from there, they had me. They had two gift shops, across the hall from each other – one with books, the other with toys, gifts, etc. There was a fair amount of overlap with us on the space toys, but this store was more awesome than our store and the PSC store combined. It was comparable to Top 10 Toys in both size and variety, but they also had things for adults, including these “dryer balls” which should be used instead of dryer sheets, and apparently reduce drying time by 25%.
Finally, I dragged myself into the exhibits. The opening gallery was about space exploration. There was no track to follow, but it was an open gallery, so you could see well where you had been. It was set up very well, but again, I find it amusing when I country who has designed one rocket ever, has an exhibit on space exploration. From what I could tell, they had 2 real artifacts: the Apollo 10 capsule, and a payload that had been on the shuttle.
The next room though, was utterly stunning. Two airplanes hang suspended in the air, the room is filled with boats, cars, engines, and other artifacts. The general theme is the evolution of “technology,” but the inspiring spread-out display style actually enhanced the cohesion of the artifacts.
Upstairs was another gallery with airplanes. This exhibit was similar to what it would be like if TMOF opened out the entire Red Barn, and summarized the entire history of flight there. It was a combination of the gallery and exhibit style of layout.
I decided to go on a simulator. The museum has a 3-D IMAX, 3 simulators, and a set of more arcade-style simpulators. For students, it was only ₤1.5. It was a “roller coaster ride through space,” which turned out to be a bit pathetic, but I guess it was decent for what it was.
Like the dino exhibit at the NHM, the interactive exhibit here had a line to get in. This probably was for the better, but for me, who just wanted to look, it was a bit inconvenient, so I didn’t go in. Instead, I went upstairs to the medical exhibits. This section was much bigger than I had anticipated. They had an impressive collection of ancient and modern medical instruments. They also had excellent explanations for everything. In the second room, there were life-size displays of doctors offices from ancient times up to now. It was all extremely interesting. I had to force myself to leave around 5, so I could check out Harrods before it closed at 6.

Imperial War Museum
The store was just a bit smaller than that at TMOF, but had a very similar selection. It was less visually and thematically organized, but practically organized, which I preferred. There was a lot of overlap with what we carry, but with an addition of all things camouflage.

This is my kind of museum! In the front, there was a temporary exhibit on Dan Radcliffe’s new movie about WWI. I touched Dan’s chair! :-p From there, you came into the gallery. This is my kind of museum! Airplanes and tanks everywhere. Airplanes hanging from the ceiling make you feel relaxed and free…or maybe that’s just me. The gallery was not made of glass, and was less than ½ as big as the Great Gallery, but it had the exact same effect.

From the gallery, there was access to all the other exhibits. The museum was not packed, but it was filled with school children in uniform. I’m used to that environment at TMOF, and I love it. There was a little submarine exhibit, which was cute and interactive, but that was pretty much the only interactive exhibit in the whole place…but boy, did they pull it off! The first exhibit I went through was called the “Children’s’ War,” which was about how children experienced WWII. Very informative, with interesting artifacts, and awesome mock-up displays.

Next, I went through the WWI&II exhibits. These had a well-marked-out path (like everything except the gallery). However, it was a bit of a maze, and I couldn’t help but wonder how long it took employees and volunteers to learn their way around. This exhibit was also excellently done – my favorite were the massive amounts of mannequins in uniforms in cases. In the WWI section, there was a “trench experience.” I went in, but practically ran through. That thing is freaky!!! Ours is for complete whimps in comparison! Since it seemed likely that they would have a live theater program, I was just waiting for one of the mannequins to pop out at me – that’s what they do at TMOF! In the WWII section, they had a blitz simulation. Here, they warned “No unaccompanied minors, people with anxiety disorders, etc.” But although this was cool, I didn’t find it very scary at all.

By this point, I had been through about half of the exhibitions, and I was just waiting for the exceptional exhibits to end, and the rest to be just normal quality. No. Everything here is absolutely perfectly done.

The holocaust exhibit was very well done. Comparable to the one in DC…just minus the bridge part. Before going in, they specifically said no photography, and no cell phones. I found it odd that they were strict about this, but not in a security sense. However, I’m really glad they did this. Although I would have liked to get some pictures, the atmosphere of people talking on phones and taking pictures would have really lessened the effect of the exhibit.

That I can remember, (other than actually going to the camp) this is the first holocaust exhibit I’ve been to since being in Germany. Being able to read and understand everything, and knowing the geography, made it hit home for me much more than before. Germany today has its own culture, and although there are remnants of West/East animosity, the holocaust has been completely “forgotten.” This was a shocking reminder of the fact that my friends in Germany’s parents and grandparents experienced the holocaust. They just don’t talk about it. Oma only talks about the inflation, not the war or Nazis or anything.

Museum of London
I expected this to be similar to the British Museum, so I was prepared to find the Roman exhibit, and then be on my way. I walked up to the desk, and a woman greeted me nicely. She said that only a section of the museum was open – the older stuff. It was set up in the style of a standard natural history museum. It started with an exhibit on prehistoric London, which mostly documented the animals and homosapiens. This was nice, but the bird chirping sound effects were annoyingly loud. The exhibit on the Romans was only on Roman London, but it was still cool. They also had exhibits on the fire and the plague. The store contained more touristy London stuff than topic-specific gifts.

Transport Museum
The Transport Museum was $10 for student admission, but was well worth it. They had it set up in a nice sequential order, with stamps for your map to keep track of if you’d seen everything. After about 30 minutes, I sat down and just died. My feet hurt, my whole body was tired, and I just wanted to sleep, so I sat down for a good while and just wrote and stared into space. The museum continued to be very good, but had a very strong focus on subways – they’re about 150 years old! There was nothing on airplanes though :( but the transport division doesn’t deal with flight. However, the last part was awesome – it was all about how London already is “the world’s greenest capital,” and how they’re becoming even greener. London is awesome. Germany and Norway are both pretty green, but it seems to be at an inconvenient level. London has so many systems in place, that it is often more convenient to be green.