Ethnographic Museum, Etnografiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden What is interesting about going to Ethnographic Museums in different countries is that they all have a slightly different emphasis: some, like the Museum of Culture in Basel, have a lot of objects from Papua New Guinea; the Ethnographic Museum in Zurich has an extraordinary Chinese collection. Each reflects the interests of the people…
Ethnographic Museum, Musée d’ethnographie de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland You never quite know what you’re going to get with museums in Switzerland. Sometimes they are surprisingly fascinating. Sometimes they’re pretty good. Very rarely are they without any redeeming features, especially if they’re about ethnology. I think it’s probably a bit mean to say that there were no redeeming features in Neuchatel’s…
Yokainoshima, Spirits of Japan Exhibition, Confluence Museum, Lyon, France If there is an exhibition on about Japan – I want to see it. I have an old, old fascination with the country, and its wonderful culture, and this exhibition at the Confluence Museum promised to be fun. After all, it was advertised with this lovely photograph: Gee, ain’t they cute?…
Confluence Museum, Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France When planning a trip to Lyon, you will be struck by the hype for the Museum of the Confluence. It’s a striking new glass building, opened in 2014, perched on an island on the Rhone, and it has a glossy modernity that promises an attractive museum-going experience. In France, where so many museums…
Museum of the Orient, Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, Portugal When creating a list of museums to visit in Lisbon, I wasn’t that bothered about getting to the Museum of the Orient. There were other priorities. On our last day in the city, I decided to go here first, spend a few hours, and hop on to another place nearby. We stayed…
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal While America is littered with museums built around the varied collections of their millionaire founders, this sort of thing is much rarer in Europe. The Armenian Calouste Gulbenkian, who made his fortune from oil, put his money to good use and amassed an amazing little collection of objects from across the ages which…
The Maritime Museum, Museu de Marinha, Lisbon, Portugal Portugal has such an awesome maritime history that I was really looking forward to visiting the museum dedicated to it. Situated in the western wing of the Jerónimos Monastery down at Belém, the setting also seemed pretty perfect for learning more about the amazing Portuguese explorers of the past. In fact, the history of…