Museum Hopper

After the shrine, I walked to the Edo Tokyo Museum .   I had contemplated getting a cab, but unfortunately due to the rain, I could not find one.  I was soaked by the time I arrived...and cold (as you can see with the fogged up glasses).   I start with this as a preamble because I am very sure this impacted my view of this museum.   This museum focuses on the history of Tokyo; it started with when Tokyo was known as Edo .  It has been the third capital of Japan and has held that role since 1603.   You start at the top of the museum and work your way down.  The museum is fantastic for children as it is quite hand's on and full of interactive displays.  It starts out with large scale replicas of different buildings from different periods within Tokyo.  One was a theater, Nakamuraza.  Inside the theater, you could see a replica of a play with life-sized actors.   They also have a number of smaller scale models.  The level of detail is remarkable.  They have small magni

While I was in Tokyo, I wanted to hit the top museums, but at the same time, realized I did not have a ton of a time available.  Going to the Tokyo National Museum was a natural, easy decision. The museum is at the northern end of Ueno Park , which has a number of Tokyo's museums, similar to Berlin's museum island or even how Madrid has a number museums centered around the Prado.   The Tokyo National Museum is a museum compound of different museums.  I focused on the Honkan museum, which has the Japanese collection.  I also went into the Heiseikan collection. The Honkan had a wonderful brochure that pointed out the highlights in the collection.  I also really liked the stamps on the exhibit descriptions about " important cultural item "  This museum really had everything you would htink of when considering traditional Japanese items of cultural importance.   Based on my visit to the DIA to visit their Samurai exhibit , I have been really interested in the c

One of the mornings in Amsterdam, I met my dad at the Verzetsmuseum .  In English, the museum name translates to the Dutch Resistance Museum.  It felt like an appropriate activity for Rosh Hashanah.   It was an interesting contrast to Norway's Resistance Museum . It was one of those deceptive museums -- that looks like it is going to be really small and quick to go through.  This one quickly proved me wrong!   It was very interactive and multimedia.  I believe it had recently been renovated and redone.   It walks through what Amsterdam and by extension, the Netherlands experienced during WWII from May 1940 through the end of WWII.  It showed what the Netherlands was like leading up to the raise of Hitler in adjacent Germany.   I found the museum really well laid out.  It had a number of objects and interactivity.  There were videos, first person narratives to listen or read, objects saved from that time period, and photographs.   I did find it a little difficult at time

About a month ago, I went to Van Gogh museum with my dad.  He got off the red eye and pretty soon after we showed up at the Van Gogh museum at 10:30.   It was fairly crowded for 10:30 AM on a Sunday.  I would always recommend buying a ticket in advance.  It is pretty easy and they seem to be available even just the day before.   The new entrance is very well designed.  It provides some much needed extra space in the museum.  They have moved the gift shop and the entrance.  It gives so much more breathing room.  It also makes the first floor workable gallery space.   I loved the progression of self portraits on the first floor.  You can see how Van Gogh's style changed throughout the years. Every time I visit the museum, I learn/focus on something new.  This time it was how prolific Van Gogh was in, what really was, a short amount of time.  He went to Paris in 1886 where he was introduced Bernard and Gauguin .  At this point, he started evolving his style and his distinct

I was recently in England for a global conference.  I ended up staying through the weekend.  Before I went, I was scanning through my Goldman Sachs Alumni newsletter.  I happened to go all the way to the end (which doesn't always happen) when I saw that they were the main sponsor of a new exhibit, Picasso Portraits   at the National Portrait Gallery .  I knew I had to go! I bought my friend and I tickets advanced.  Highly recommend. There was a significant queue to buy tickets, but with advanced purchase, we could move to a very short line.   The exhibit was really great.  It is one large loop and is primarily in chronological order.   I continue to be amazed by Picasso's earlier work .  It is so lifelike and realistic.  It demonstrates that to bend the rules you need to know the rules, and Picasso definitely knew the rules.  Matt would probably get mad if I didn't mention how obsessed I was with how many different museums, collections these paintings, sculptures ca

I have wanted to visit the Schloss Neuschwanstein FOREVER.  It is about 2 hrs outside of Munich, so I had never been able to pull it off with my short trips before.  I mean, look at it?!?! The logistics to get there from Munich are a little complicated.  There is a train/bus combination that works or you can sign up to take a large tourist bus.  Since we ended up going with our three other friends (so five of us in total), we ended up renting a car for the dya.  We were staying across the street from the main train station in Munich, so this was pretty easy to do.  It gave us a little more flexibility.   We purchased tickets in advance. Please pay close attention to what time you are purchasing your tickets for.  It is recommended that you arrive an hour before that.  We had a little bit of confusion about what time was listed on the tickets.  The time bolded on the tickets is the latest you can pick up your tickets for.   We then took the bus up to the look out point as oppo

Once we wrapped up at Schloss Hellbrunn, we headed to the Hohensalzburg Fortress .  At the bottom of the hill, you can buy a ticket up to the top.  We ended up buying the "basic" ticket .  We did not think the extras were worth it, particularly with how late we were getting to the fortress. To get up there, we took the funicular!  I think those are so much fun! The views from the top were awesome.  It is well worth visiting purely for that.  Here are a few samples: This museum gave us a real picture of the development of Salzburg.  It took us through the development of the castle and the fortress.  The audio tour was helpful and really gave context and the history of the fortress. The views really were fantastic.  We had a 360 view of the valley. Time in fortress: 2.5 hrs Times visited: 1 Overall: A-

While we are in Salzburg, Jason and I went to both of the Mozarteums .  They are comprised of both Mozart's birth place and residence.  We ended up buying the joint ticket, but doing the museums on two separate days. We went to the residence first.  I will say the first one put me to sleep.  Something about the structured music was extremely soothing for me!  The residence is on the north side of the river.  The birth place is on the south side of the river. I learned a lot about his family and how his early talent was nurtured.  His father, Leopold Mozart , was a gifted musician and quickly identified it in his children.   Mozart often performed with his sister, Nannerl , who was extremely gifted in her own right.   I often forgot how Mozart really had not been alive that  long ago.  You could easily trace his travels through Europe to cities that we had often wanted to travel to ourselves!  At the same time, he traveled by carriage!  I could not even imagine!   I cannot