Discover Quirky Museums & Attractions with Discovery Map International

QUIRKY MUSEUMS AND ATTRACTIONS INSPIRE WONDER

AND WANDERLUST IN DISCOVERY MAP DESTINATIONS

A 1922 Mortier Dance Organ from Belgium at the

Music House Museum Outside of Traverse City, MI.

For travelers seeking the curious and unusual, Discovery Map International (DMI) leads the way with fun and quirky finds on its colorful and functional hand-drawn maps in more than 130 destinations. The American Computer & Robotics Museum in Bozeman, MT and the Albu-Quirky Downtown Weird Walk in Albuquerque, NM are among the not-to-be-missed eccentric museums and attractions in Discovery Map destinations.

“Discovery Maps are an engaging way to uncover hidden gems that speak to the true character of the community,” said Peter Hans, CEO of Discovery Map International. “It’s often the most quirky and unusual sites that provide deeper insight into the history, culture and personality of a locale.”

From Arizona to North Carolina, quirky museums and attractions found in Discovery Map destinations include:

·         Albu-Quirky Downtown Weird Walk – Albuquerque, NM: Voted the fifth quirkiest city in the country by Travel + Leisure, Albuquerque has a long and storied history of its citizens marching to their own beat. The Albu-Quirky Downtown Weird Walk, a product of the Albuquerque Tourism & Sightseeing Factory, celebrates the city’s kookiness by highlighting outlandish personalities, bizarre crimes and odd events. Guests will discover historic buildings, public art, a giant Adirondack chair and filming sites from features such as The Avengers and Breaking Bad, among other things. www.albu-quirky.com

·         American Computer & Robotics Museum – Bozeman, MT: From early number systems to modern technology, the American Computer & Robotics Museum is a collection of all things related to computing. Rated one of the 10 best free museums in the country by USA Today, guests will be wowed by an Apple 1 donated by Steve Wozniak, an original Apollo Lunar Mission computer, a watch worn on the moon, telegraphs from President Lincoln and more.www.compustory.com

·         Beaufort Maritime Museum – Crystal Coast, NC: With 3,000 miles of coastline, North Carolina is awash with maritime history. The Beaufort Maritime Museum goes beyond traditional boatbuilding to highlight some unusual gems from the past, including a nearly 300-year-old toilet used by the infamous pirate Blackbeard on his ship Queen Anne’s Revenge  before it grounded in Beaufort in June 1718. www.ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com  

·         Music House Museum – Traverse City, MI: Located just outside of Traverse City in Acme, the Music House Museum features a rare collection of musical organs, player pianos, phonographs and more – most, if not all, in working order. The jewel of the museum’s mechanical instruments is an 18-foot high Theofiel Mortier dance organ called “Amaryllis” that was originally hand-carved in Belgium in 1922 and sounds like a full, festive band. www.musichouse.org

·         Pioneer Museum – Flagstaff, AZ: Located in the former Coconino County Hospital for the Indigent, the Pioneer Museum has a fun and quirky mishmash of Flagstaff history. Guests will discover historic hospital equipment used prior to the 1930s, Route 66 memorabilia, a 1929 Baldwin locomotive used in logging operations and information on astronaut training at nearby fields. The museum also hosts monthly “Night at the Museum” events covering topics as odd as “100 Ways to Die in Flagstaff” and an annual Flag Wool and Fiber Festival. http://www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org/museums/welcome-to-pioneer-museum-flagstaff/

·         The Woodlands Waterway Art Bench Project – Spring-Woodlands Area, TX: Born out of The Woodland’s tradition of public art, The Woodlands Arts Council sponsors a collection of funky and functional benches along the popular Waterway. Designed by artists from around the world, the benches vary greatly in design, material and theme, from colorful, lit-up balls to a piano with music notes. Vacationers can search for all 14 benches.www.thewoodlandsartscouncil.org

For more fun news from DMI, visit the Map Geek Blog: www.discoverymap.com/blog.

Instagram Sweepstakes

When visiting these quirky museums and attractions, vacationers are invited to take advantage of Discovery Map’s Instagram Sweepstakes, running through December 31, 2017. Travelers can enter the sweepstakes by posting an image on Instagram from a Discovery Map location using the designated hashtag #discoverymap.  One winner is randomly drawn each month to win a $100 gift card.  For rules and regulations, visit www.discoverymap.com/instagram. 

Coming in 2017

DMI is rolling out first-time maps throughout the year to destinations that include Waco, TX, Lower Manhattan, NY, Old Orchard Beach, ME, Niagara, Canada and Niagara Falls, NY, Las Vegas, NV, Huntington Beach, CA, and Beaufort Lowcountry and Mount Pleasant, SC. These new maps will receive the same hand-drawn treatment and feature local dining, lodging, and of course, quirky museums and attractions. 

About Discovery Map

Discovery Map International is the country’s leading provider of curated guides to top tourist destinations, cities and towns throughout North America.  The distinctively colorful, hand-drawn maps are a favorite of travelers for navigating local dining, attractions, businesses, cultural experiences, ski destinations – and even the best locations to take selfies. Discovery Maps can be found in local hotels, restaurants, shops and other participating venues, and also at discoverymap.com.  Named by Forbes as “one of the best franchises to buy” in 2015, Discovery Maps International is headquartered in Waitsfield, VT, in the heart of the Green Mountains. 

Top 10 Quirky Museums In The World

Contributed by Emily Fisher

Hear the word museum and, odds are, you conjure up an image of portrait halls and sculpture gardens – the traditional home of traditional art. However, the world is a huge, creative and even quirky place, and there are museums around the globe that reflect this diversity of passions. With International Museum Day coming up, we went in search of collections that celebrate and enshrine some of the most curious slices of heritage and culture. Our top 10 quirky museums is a testament to the belief there is something for everyone.

Leeds Castle Dog Collar Museum, Kent, England

A medieval manor must have dogs. And so, fittingly, Leeds Castle, the former property of six medieval queens, has an outstanding homage to the many hunting and gun dogs, guard mastiffs and house pets that have been part of the storied history of this home. The castle’s collection of dog collars, the largest of its kind, covers 500 years of canine neckwear from spiked iron collars that protected dogs from the wilds of the forest to highly decorated engraved silver and baroque leatherwork pieces to the padlocked brass rings worn by service dogs during World War II. This display began as a gift to the dog-loving final mistress of the house, Lady Baillie, and continues to grow through the efforts of the Leeds Castle Foundation.

Hours: Castle hours are 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. daily from April to September and 10:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. daily from October through March. The Castle is closed July 13, November 9 -10 and Christmas Day. Price: £21 ($33) for adults and £13.50 ($21) for kids 4-15 years old. Each ticket is good for admission for a full year.

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Collars on display at the Leeds Castle Dog Collar Museum (Image: Leeds Castle Dog Collar Museum)

Collars on display at the Leeds Castle Dog Collar Museum (Image: Leeds Castle Dog Collar Museum)

International Spy Museum, Washington, D.C., United States

How do you know what happens in the most secretive profession in the world? Visit the International Spy Museum in downtown Washington, D.C., for a lesson in espionage and intrigue. With a Spy School featuring interactive exhibits on such spycraft activities as disguise and surveillance and an extensive display of gadgets and weapons from the field, this collection makes the seaming unreal life of secret agents suddenly very real. Add in history lessons on the covert role of espionage from the Civil War through the Atomic Bomb to the full story behind the movie “Argo,” and this museum brings the shadowy world (and impact) of professional spies into the limelight. While there are more than enough real-life spy stories to fill the museum, the escapades of James Bond are so central to the realm of intrigue that a new exhibit, “Exquisitely Evil: 50 Years Of Bond Villains,” connects the dots between fiction and fact.

Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily, except holidays. Price: General admission is $19.95 for 12 and older, $14.95 for 7 – 11 year olds and free for kids younger than 7.

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The International Spy Museum in Washington, DC (Image: International Spy Museum)

Venustempel Sexmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

A short walk from Central Station in Amsterdam brings you to Venustempel (Venus Temple), the world’s original sex museum. Founded in 1985, this tour through the sensual offers more education than titillation with rooms named for Mata Hari, the Marquis de Sade and Oscar Wilde that offer a glimpse into sex practices and attitudes across decades and around the world. Of course there is no shortage of erotic displays and so, with no restrictions on photos, the museum also offers endless opportunities for amusing (or embarrassing) souvenir snapshots. Just remember you must be 16 or older to enter.

Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Price: €4 ($5.25).

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The Venustempel Sexmuseum (Image: bestbib&tucker)

Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

A once-secret bunker built to house leaders of the Canadian government in the event of a nuclear war, the Diefenbunker is a vast underground history lesson about the cold war era. The four-story, 100,000-square-foot complex, buried under a hillside in the village of Carp, just west of Canada’s capital, was ready to be the operational center for government. Equipped with an “Emergency Government Situation Center,” a Cabinet War Room, and a CBC radio station as well as living quarters, a medical room and a mess hall, this bunker brings home just how close leaders felt we were to a nuclear catastrophe. Visitors can walk down the long blast tunnel, see the offices and sit in the seats of power that were all ready and waiting in the event the cold war went hot.

Hours: 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily, Price: C$14 ($14) + HST for adults, C$10 ($10) + HST for 6 -18 year olds and free for kids 5 and younger.

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Part of an exhibit at the Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum (Image: ctoverdrive)

Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, New Delhi, India

A museum of toilets and toilet history has its lighthearted moments. After all, potty humor isn’t just for five year olds. Still, there are important and interesting lessons to be learned with the study of toilets, and the Sulabh Museum is the place to learn them. The museum recounts more than 4,000 years of history and displays artifacts dating back to 1145 AD. From the simple and practical to the ornate and innovative, the range of toilets, bidets, chamber pots and more tells a story of evolution. In addition to entertaining and educating visitors, this museum, which is an offshoot of the non-profit organization Sulabh International, puts the focus on the real challenges of sanitation management that have plagued the world and continue to challenge India and the Indian culture.

Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Price: Free, though donations accepted.

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A Sulabh public toilet (Image: Ajay Tallam)

Museum of Apiculture, Radovljica, Slovenia

Beekeeping! That’s the story the Museum of Apiculture tells and in a very charming way. The long-standing practice is a cornerstone of Slovenian culture and the history is captured here. Since opening in 1959 in a 14th century manor house in the old part of town, the museum has been collecting and keeping records for the region and proudly displays the contributions of local beekeeping legends Anton Janša and Peter Pavel Glavar as well as the introduction of Slovenian bred bee species. While hundreds of years of innovation are on display, the most eye-catching collection is the array of painted frontal boards of bee hives. This folk art custom, which is unique to Slovenia, was most popular in the early 1800s and the scenes range from religious to political to historical to everyday living.

Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday from May to October. Price: €2.10 ($2.75) for adults, € 1.70 ($2.25) for kids, €5 ($6.60) for families.

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(Image: julicmacnam)

International UFO Museum and Research Center, Roswell, New Mexico, United States

Roswell, New Mexico, was a sleepy corner of the country until a rancher came upon a crash site just outside of town in July 1947 and the questions began. The search for UFOs (unidentified flying objects) is a passion point for many, and this museum, which opened in 1992 and has outgrown its first two locations, is the central point for that passion. In addition to exhibits on the incident in 1947, visitors and researchers have ready access to information on abductions, sightings, crop circles and Area 51. The museum also helps host an annual Roswell UFO Festival each year in the first week of July.

Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. Price: $5 for adults, $2 for 5 – 15 year olds and free for kids younger than 5.

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Inside the International UFO Museum and Research Center (Image: kbcool)

Museum of Human Disease, Sydney, Australia

Care to look death in the face? The Museum of Human Disease is your chance! This collection of more than 3,000 specimens, taken from diseased or dead patients, shows what the leading causes of death in Australia really look like. The extensive pathology exhibit (think rows of jars with organs altered by illness, defects and tumors of every kind), housed in the University of New South Wales School of Medical Sciences in Sydney, is carefully catalogued and paired, when possible, with a clinical history that tells the patient’s story. With specimens dating back more than 100 years, some diseases on display are no longer real health threats. However, the tobacco wall of shame is just one of the ways the museum underscores the control we have over our bodies and our health.

Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekdays. Price: $10 for adults, $5 for kids.

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An inside look at the Museum of Human Disease. (Image: Museum of Human Disease)

The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka, Japan

The annual worldwide consumption of instant noodles hovers around 1 billion servings. Not bad for a product only invented in 1958. The story of the creation and global takeover of instant noodles is told here at the Instant Ramen Museum, which is centered around a replica of a research shack where Momofuku Ando first created the “Chicken Ramen” that started it all. Other highlights include a CUPNOODLES theater, shaped like the just-add-water product Momofuku Ando brought to market in 1971, a display of the “Space Ram” noodles developed for Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi to bring on the Space Shuttle Discovery and an exhibit of instant noodles products from around the world. However, for the complete ramen experience, make sure to leave time (and make a reservation) for the hands-on workshop where visitors stretch, steam and then “flash fry” dry their own noodles. Want to just create your own flavor concoction? Then step into the My Cup Noodle Factory to pick your own soup recipe and bring home a personalized cup of noodles.

Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday through Monday; closed from December 24 through January 4 and for National Holidays. Price: Admission is free but noodle making workshops are JPY300 ($3) for primary school students and JPY500 ($5) for junior high school students and above. The My Cup Noodle Factory is JPY300 ($3).

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The Instant Ramen Tunnel at the Instant Ramen Museum (Image: tjsander)

Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station, Vulcan, Alberta, Canada

Perhaps it’s not a surprise to see a spaceship looming on the horizon of a town named Vulcan. It is certainly a brilliant move on the part of the town’s tourism board. A tribute to the fictional Vulcan, the home of “Star Trek’s” Mr. Spock, the out-of-this-world-shaped Vulcan Tourism and Trek Station is chock full of memorabilia (including a set of ears donated by Leonard Nimoy himself) from the many characters, movies and TV shows from this legendary sci-fi franchise. With greetings written in English, Vulcan and Klingon, a large-scale replica of the Starship Enterprise, floor-to-ceiling space murals and costumes and cut-outs for photo ops, there is plenty for any Trekkie to love. Add in a chance to sit in Kirk’s chair or go through a Vulcan space adventure mission, and it’s no wonder this museum has succeeded in putting Vulcan on the map.

Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily during the summer, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily in the fall and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10:00 a.m.to 5:00 p.m. Saturdays during the winter. Price: Free.

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A photo opp at the Vulcan Tourism and Trek Station (Image: jeffreypriebe)

(Main image: tjsander)