TOP 10 Weird museums
From a treasury of toilets to a parasite party, the eccentric exhibits that prove it’s a wacky world
1 SPAM MUSEUM Minnesota, USA The much-lampooned ‘precooked meat product in a can’ has its place in history, if just because it was the staple diet of US forces in World War II, and so played its part in saving the free world. But did you know that there are 15 varieties, including jalapeño, chorizo and teriyaki? The museum has samples, games, interactive videos, etc – plus the Monty Python sketch, of course. Entry is free. spam.com/museum WHAT ELSE Hormel, makers of Spam and creators of the museum are located in Austin, Minnesota (not to be confused with Austin, Texas). A town also known for extra large doughnuts.
2 MUSEUM OF FAILURE Los Angeles, USA Partly inspired by the Broken Relationships museum, the City of Dreams has now reinvented itself as the City of Broken Dreams – at least it has within this pop-up museum. The idea is to celebrate some of the largest flops in history by some of the world’s best-known companies. Think Colgate’s frozen lasagna, Heinz’s purple or green ketchup and Harley-davidson perfume. Visitors can divulge their own failures in the confession booth. The message is optimistic, though: success comes to those who learn from their mistakes. Entry €16. The original museum reopens in Helsingborg, Sweden, on
June 1. failuremuseum.com WHAT ELSE It’s in Hollywood, with all of the hedonism and materialism of the City of Angels – from Muscle Beach to Beverly Hills – just outside the door. SEX
3 MACHINES Prague, Czech Republic Did you know chastity belts were often worn by women to protect themselves from sexual assault whilst travelling? Or that the French made anti-masturbation suits? This is a museum for the unshockable (or for those who like to be shocked) with all kinds of ‘equipment’ from over the years, including a 130-year-old ‘siege d’amour’ (love seat) created to aid various sex positions, and all manner of enlargers and embellishments. Entry €10. sexmachinesmuseum.com WHAT ELSE Prague is a brilliant weekend destination, and the museum
is in a prime position just south of Old Town Square, a focal point for restaurants, buskers and living statues. TOILETS New Delhi, India
4 The motto of the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets is ‘sanitation is more important than independence’. And there’s no denying the significance of a good loo in anyone’s quality of life, especially in a nation where the majority still use the great outdoors. There’s history in this collection, plus philosophy, sociology, and porta-potty. The most prized exhibit is the chamber pot of Louis XIV of France, but there are various thrones from over the ages. Free entry sulabhtoiletmuseum.org
WHAT ELSE: Sulabh is a sanitation NGO, and its offices and museum are in the Delhi suburbs near the airport, so it’s an adventure getting there. Go to the loo first.
5 LAWNMOWERS Southport There’s nothing quite as British as those striped summer lawns, but what about the machines that groom them? They are celebrated in this veteran of esoteric museums. Here you’ll find Princess Diana’s lawnmower (although it is hard to picture her trimming her tennis courts) and a Qualcast Panther that belonged to Coronation Street icon Hilda Ogden (aka actress Jean Alexander) Entry €4. lawnmowerworld.co.uk WHAT ELSE: Southport, between Liverpool and Blackpool, is a classic Victorian seaside town with a pier, lovely beaches and a nature trail.
6 CURRYWURST Berlin, Germany Berlin’s fave fast food is sausage topped with ketchup and curry powder. The museum is pretty simple: it has history (currywurst was the invention of a street vendor in 1949) a spices section and a café where you can sample three types included in €10 entry price. currywurstmuseum.com WHAT ELSE: It’s near Checkpoint Charlie, main gateway in the Berlin Wall, and near the Topography of Terror, about Nazi Germany’s secret police. 7 PARASITES Tokyo, Japan The Meguro Parasitological Museum is part of a private research facility with 60,000 specimens.be warned: exhibits such as the world’s longest tapeworm are not for the squeamish. Entry free. kiseichu.org WHAT ELSE: Meguro is on the Yamanote loop line and Shinjuku, Tokyo’s bright lights area, is just six stations to the north.
8 THIMBLES Bavaria, Germany If a thimble ( fingerhut in German, literally ‘finger hat’) museum sounds as if it belongs in fairytales, you won’t be surprised to hear it feels like that too. Creglingen is on the Romantic Road, a Bavarian route linking cobbled villages of halftimbered houses. There are over 4,000 thimbles, many of historic interest. The Greif family that runs
it are also thimble-makers. Entry €2. finger hut museum.
de WHAT ELSE: Many a film scene – eg Harry Potter – was filmed in nearby Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
9 SALT AND PEPPER SHAKERS Gatlinburg, Tennessee
This collection of 20,000 has quite a range, from kitsch to classic, and is divided into categories: fancy, foreign, silly, veg-shaped, etc. Entry $3. the salt and pepper shakermuseum.com
WHAT ELSE: Gatlinburg is a lively, cheerful resort town in the Smoky Mountains, with forested wilderness all around.
10 BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS Zagreb, Croatia
This museum is about heartbreak and all its exhibits are tokens of lost love, from a prosthetic leg to an axe used to chop up a love cheat’s furniture. Entry
€5 brokenships.com WHAT ELSE: The Museum is in the cobbled, villagey, Upper Town of the Croatian capital, its parliamentary district. An ideal place to contemplate the injustices of love.