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The Hermitage Amsterdam Looks Pretty But Needs a Better Opening Exhibit

You know how when someone tells you they’re going to Amsterdam you give them a knowing look and think “I know what you’ll be up to, you dissolute human being”? Well you’d better stop doing that because this summer the 'Dam is all about the culture.

The Stedelijk Museum is running a mobile exhibition round town while it’s under refurbishment, the Royal Palace in Dam Square has just reopened, and on June 20, the Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg, no less, opened up a branch in a 17th-century building that used to be an old folks’ home.

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Tags: Gross On Toast / Musuems / Food Travel / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Australia's National Breakfast Spread Gets Its Own Museum

Anyone with half an inkling of Aussie culture will know that Vegemite, the thick black salty stuff they like to spread on their toast, has cult status Down Under. It's practically a national symbol.

Which might explain why this breakfast spread is important enough to have its own museum. The Vegemite Museum is rumored to be going into the Docklands area of Melbourne, which should put it somewhere near the new Ferris wheel if it ever starts spinning.

The gossip says that the museum will have a big V-for-Vegemite-shaped entrance in the trademark red and yellow colors and there'll be old jars, advertising relics and recipes. If Australia's getting a Vegemite museum then it can't be long until the US opens a peanut-butter-and-jelly museum too, right?

One word of warning for non-Australians who venture to the Vegemite Museum in the future: It's a kind of taste you really have to grow up on. Don't spoil your day by eating it in their café.

Related Stories:
· Vegemite [Official Site]
· Harbour Vegemite Museum to Open [Herald Sun]
· Will Someone Please Hit the Switch on Melbourne's New Ferris Wheel? [Jaunted]

[Photo: thenoodleator]

Tags: Los Angeles / Musuems / Tourist Attractions / Stargazing / Stargazing-Map / → All Tags

Griffith Observatory Now Wide Open but You May Have to Walk

We were all excited back in the fall of 2006 when the Griffith Observatory reopened after a four-year renovation. But the Visitor Access Program was a bit of a buzzkill since you had to book a timed-entry reservation on the website.

Well, some good news. Today there's no need for a reservation. The Observatory is wide open. However, as with most things in LA, the early bird gets the parking spot.

We showed up around noon and parking spots closest to the entrance were all filled up so we had to drive about a half-mile down the hill and then walk up to the Observatory.

Still the entrance was free (tickets to the planetarium show are $7) and the views are breathtaking, even with a slight touch of smog. Best of all, we loved being inside an educational place in Los Angeles. It felt like exploring a secret counterculture of some sort.

Related Stories:
· Griffith Observatory [Official Site]
· Star Gazing in LA [Jaunted]
· Stargazing Map [Jaunted]

Tags: Musuems / Animals / Whale Oil / → All Tags

Destination: New Bedford Whaling Museum

If you were that kid who stood under the giant blue whale at the Natural History Museum for a little too long, you have to check out the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The largest museum in the country dedicated to the history of whaling in America, it's one hour south of Boston.

The museum's got a ton of interesting exhibits going on, like a rearticulated 45-ton sperm whale that was found off Nantucket in 2002. Friday nights through October offer live music and the chance to roam the museum with a drink in hand. Check out the full-scale replication of an whaleship's forward section, or inspect old-school portraits of New Bedford during its whaling glory days.

Admission will set you back $10, a small price to pay to climb aboard a reconstruction of a whaling ship and learn facts you'll never remember, like the gem that a whale's ear is as big as a pencil tip and its tongue weighs more than a VW bug. The perfect adult field trip.

[Image via rinzable/Flickr]

Tags: Festivals / Art / Musuems / → All Tags

Gone Off the Ostend

Despite Belgium's reputation for being a screen-door country of Europe--other nations constantly barging through without wiping their feet--the Belgians themselves encouraged the most recent invasion of their coastline. In order to promote tourism at seaside locations, different towns along the North Sea coast, or rather their beaches, are playing host to some crazy sculptures as part of the Beaufort 2006 festival.

The art keeps with Belgium's tradition of surrealist art; Elephants walk along the beach at De Panne while Louise Bourgeois's giant pregnant spider climbs over James Ensor's tomb in Mariakerke. Let's just remain thankful that she chose to exhibit a giant spider. Also connected to the sculptures is the PMKK museum in Ostend, which is hosting a René Magritte exhibition. He's Belgium's go-to surrealist, after all.

A three-day pass, including tram travel along the coast and entry to the PMKK is about $16.

[Image via willy whopper/Flickr]

Related Stories:
·   Surreal on Sea [Guardian]

Tags: Musuems / → All Tags

Ugly Art For Bratty Kids

The DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park is a museum of contemporary junk. As it's in close proximity to Boston, it fancies itself a bit more high-brow. Boston is, if nothing else, a city of colleges. This evokes two divergent images: one of college kids running amok and wreaking havoc and the other of Professors' own children running amok and wreaking havoc without any proper parental supervision. Unfortunately, the DeCordova sculpture park tends to the latter crowd, for the most part.

After running though the maze of sculptures, people generally head inside to replenish their liquid count. This might be one of the only reasons to head inside. Cafes at museums are generally worth experiencing since most of the endowment goes into them. Think about it: Most of the people giving huge wads of cash to museums have money, which means they are probably old enough to have amassed that fortune, which means they are also old enough to not like to walk around too much anymore, which means they like to sit in cafes at air-conditioned museums in the Summer.

An apropos point? We think so.

Nearly every piece in there is framed by bare white minimalist walls and wrapped in a venerable mystique that surely eludes even the worthiest of pieces. It will elude you too, but makes for some quality entertainment. And when you think about it, isn't that worth the price of admission?