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Offbeat Europe – 8 Unique and Lesser Known Attractions

Calli Duncan — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:14:59 +0000

Europe is a timeless travel destination. Full of historic charm and large modern metropolises, the continent is home to crumbling stone buildings, cobblestone streets, walled cities, and charming rural villages where fishing and farming are still the main economic drivers. However Europe is also strikingly modern, with some of the largest and most important financial hubs in the world – cities of glass skyscrapers with free public wi-fi connected by efficient high-speed train services.

And despite it’s well-trodden tourist trail, Europe is also scattered with unique, odd, and extremely obscure sites and attractions that visitors often overlook. Museums dedicated to currywurst in Germany or phallic objects in Iceland; odd sculptures and street art installations in Sarajevo, Prague, and Paris; and the uniqueness of Antoni Gaudi’s works in Barcelona offer visitors respite from admiring yet another baroque church or breathtaking vista.

While the Eiffel Tower or Colosseum are at little risk of losing their prestige to many these lesser-known sites, visitors seeking offbeat attractions will find plenty to marvel at in Europe. During our time exploring this continent we stumbled onto our fair share of unique, obscure, and sometimes plain weird sites. Here are a few of our favorites.

Gnome Sculptures – Wroclaw, Poland

Hundreds of small bronze gnome sculpture, about a foot in height, are scattered through the historic core of Wroclaw, Poland and surrounding neighbourhoods. “Cool” gnomes riding motorcycles, wizard gnomes in tall pointy hats, and environmentally conscious gnomes pushing recycling bins are tucked into corners, suspended form lampposts, and hidden in plain sight for those that know where to look. Anyone want to play I spy?

Comic Strip Murals – Brussels, Belgium

“Yoko Tsuno” – You can really see the size

Much like Gdansk’s gnomes, the city of Brussels is dotted with epic murals depicting a range of famous and obscure comic book characters. Tintin (and his little dog Snowy) is likely the most famous characters to appear in these murals, however even non-comic book reading visitors are sure to spot a few other familiar faces while exploring the city. They murals even have a Wikipedia page.

Pregnant Lady Street Art Installation – Prague, Czech Republic

image via

A contender for the strangest piece of public art we’ve seen to date, this sculpture depicts a pregnant lady, kneeling on the ground with her legs spread and her hands firmly clasped behind her head. Still not obscure enough for Prague, the sculpture is created out of shiny aluminum and is very reminiscent of a lego sculpture. Overtly sexual, somehow the sculpture works in Prague, even if passing school children look up at it with puzzled expressions.

Carmo Convent – Lisbon, Portugal

Rows of large arches

Ruined by earthquake in 1755, today all that remains of Carmo Convent are the beautiful Gothic pillars of the former church and a small museum. These exterior elements of Carmo Convent are quite stunning, especially on a sunny day, and the site’s museum houses two Peruvian mummies from the 16th century – an off-putting display that only gets creepier upon closer inspection. A real contender for oldest human hair we’ve ever seen in person.

Pere Lachaise Cemetery – Paris, France

The presence of graffiti shows we are in the right place

As far as cemeteries go, Pere Lachaise is far from the strangest we’ve had the chance to explore. What makes Pere Lachaise so unique is that it is the final resting place for The Doors frontman Jim Morrison, whose headstone has grown into something of a shrine. Forty plus years since his death, fans still leave flowers, graffiti, and the odd joint in tribute to Morrison, while a security guard watches to ensure no one jumps the guard rails surrounding his headstone.

Museum of Broken Relationships – Zagreb, Croatia

Rage and Fury Room (via)

It’s always a good sign when you first hear about a quirky museum like this while washing your laundry in an equally quirky laundromat in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and as promised, the Museum of Broken Relationships did not disappoint. The museum’s premise is quite simple – helping people emotionally overcome a failed relationship by contributing to their collection. In under an hour we browsed the personal belongings of hundreds of contributors from around the world. Some of these displays were funny, others angering, touching, or the equivalent of emotional napalm, but all were wonderfully quirky.

Abandoned Beelitz Sanitorium – Berlin, Germany

Delving deeper into Berlin and it’s tumultuous history, I signed up for a tour of the abandoned Beelitz Sanitorium just outside the city limits. A short walk from the primitive train station, in a small clearing, three buildings sit in a horseshoe shape. Constructed in 1902, these buildings first served as a tuberculosis clinic before becoming a hospital during both World Wars, even treating then soldier Adolf Hitler during the first World War. During the Cold War, this site was the largest Soviet hospital outside of Russia before being deserted in the early nineties. Many a rave have been held here since, and while the crumbling buildings are beginning to show their age, their original beauty is still evident.

Museum of Art Fakes – Vienna, Austria

Small space, big art (fakes)

Incorrectly reading the hours of operation for this tiny museum, Travis and I returned three times before we finally got our timing right, however all this back and forth was completely worth it to delve into the world of art fakes. In addition to learning about the immense level of effort that goes into creating an art fake, from the aged paper used to specific hardening processes, brush strokes, and in one case egg yolk washes, we were able to come face to face with fakes so good that they were verified as authentic and sold for millions of dollars.

Europe offers visitors so many different types of attractions, it really is a mixed bag of so many wonderful things. Have you had a chance to visit Europe? What’s the most off-beat or quirky attraction you’ve seen there?

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Our Quest Into Art Snobbery (Part 2 – Lisbon)

Travis — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 17:02:00 +0000

Since our introduction into the world of art and culture went so swimmingly in Madrid, we figured that we should press on and explore more museums in Lisbon. After arriving at 5:30 am on an overnight bus and sitting on a bench in a park outside of our hotel for a couple of hours waiting for McCafe to open, we were quite possibly not in the best of moods to be wandering around a museum. However, our decision to fight the urge to sleep on the couch in the common room of our B&B, and instead bravely wander through Lisbon in the sweltering heat (34 degrees!) turned out to be a very good one.

Useful Information:

Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – open Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5:45pm; entry cost varies depending on exhibits, but museum entry is 4 euro; FREE on Sundays;closest metro stations are Sao Sebastiao or Praca de Espanha

Berardo Museum – open every day 10am-7pm; FREE entry; take Tram 15 out to Belem, it’s just past the park in front of the Jeronimos Monastery (you can’t miss it)

The reason we decided to ignore our tired feet and brains was to take advantage of the free entry day to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. We weren’t sure what to expect as we had only read about it about 5 minutes before deciding to go, but it was free and close to our hotel. The museum is split into two sections, a modern art collection with rotating exhibits and the main collection, with a lovely botanical garden right in the middle. Additionally, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation provides everything from art lessons to free concerts to guest lectures on a variety of topics.

The Exterior of the Contemporary Art Museum at the Gulbenkian Museum

We spent a few minutes in the Modern art building, but again had a hard time getting our heads around the stacks of wood and palettes of floor tiles that were supposedly “art”. We quickly headed through the gardens to the building that houses the main collection, and were immediately impressed.

Some of the “Art” that confuses us.

The personal collection of Calouste Gulbenkian (the person responsible for making the oil of the Middle East available to North American Markets) is stunning. It spans everything from ancient archaeological artifacts to furniture to jewellery to art, and consists of over 6000 pieces (about 1000 are on display). Perhaps even more impressive than the sheer scope of the collection is the quality of the individual pieces – there is a quote inscribed in the museum from Callouste Gulbenkian himself that states “only the best” – and this is definitely evident while walking around the museum.

The layout is very open and visitor friendly.

The highlights of the museum for us included the gold mask of a mummy nearly 3000 years old, the vast collection of rugs and carpets from the middle east, the collection of pottery from various Chinese dynasties that looks like it was painted yesterday, the various gilded and painted bibles and books, the sculptures by Rodin and Houdon, the paintings by Rembrandt, Monet, Rubens, and Manet, and of course, the room of Rene Lalique jewellery that alone would be reason enough to visit.

Some highlights of the collection…

Head of Sensuret III (c. 1860 BC)

Far Eastern pottery collection

A Classical Grandfather Clock

Edgar Degas – Portrait of Henri Michel-Levy (via)

Rene Lalique – Serpent hair tangle (via)

Rene Lalique – Dragonfly corsage (via)

Jean-Antoine Houdon – Diana, purchased from Catherine the Great (via)

Although we were tired and sore, the museum captivated us from the moment we entered. There were criminally few people there, and this, combined with the layout and placement of the pieces, allowed us to peruse and examine the collection at our pace.

After an amazing sleep at the Lisbon Dreams Guesthouse (which definitely deserves a mention), we decided to spend our second day in the suburb of Belem, home of the Jeronimos Monastery, Belem Tower, and the second focus of this post, the Berardo Collection.

The Berardo is Lisbon’s Modern Art Museum and is ranked 50th in the world for visitors, not too shabby for a museum that only opened 5 years ago. They had a number of pieces of Pop Art that we were interested in seeing including pieces by Warhol, Lichtenstein, Rosenquist, and Pollock – and these did not disappoint.

The entrance to the Berardo

And the rest of the museum was…interesting. From the Helio Oititica works of Tropicalia, where you walked around in a room with caged parrots, sand pathways, cabanas, and other tropical beach related items; to the “Cocaine room” where you had to take off your shoes and then walk around in a blue room with a soft foam floor, 60s music, and flashing black and white images; to the weird “self-hatred” art where shapes loosely based on humans had videos of human faces projected onto them and screamed “NO…NO…NO” at you – at the very least we had a fun time.

Andy Warhol – Colored Campbell’s Soup Can

More Andy Warhol works

Salvador Dali – White Aphrodisiac Telephone (via)

Helio Oititica – Tropicalia (via)

Roy Lichtenstein – Interior with Restful Paintings (via)

We were very happy to spend a few hours at each museum in the end, and the fact that the museums were free makes it all the more enjoyable as we felt that we only “needed” to see what we felt like.

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Top 10 Art – Spain and Portugal

Travis — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:04:00 +0000

After Travis’ in depth review of Madrid’s Museum Triangle and subsequent visits to the Calouste Gulbenkian and Berardo Museums in Lisbon (post coming soon), we thought it only fitting to share some of our favorite pieces from these collections, and possibly settle once and for all who has the better eye when it comes to art.

You’ll find our top five masterpieces below – I use that term loosely as we still aren’t quite sure who determines what is and isn’t art…

Travis’ top five:

The Goya Sketches – Prado Museum

I am Still Learning (via)

There is Plenty to Suck (via)

Waterloo Bridge, Andre Derain – Thyssen Museum

(via)

Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking up, Salvador Dali- Thyseen Museum

(via)

Cana du Midi, Henri Matisse – Thyssen Museum

(via)

Mata Mua (In Olden Times), Paul Gaugin – Thyssen Museum

(via)

Calli’s feelings on Travis’ list (just for fun): A strange mix of styles, mediums, and themes, Travis’ love of art mirrors his love of food – extremely varied, often exotic, and always in generous quantities. I’m really struggling with the Dali; where do you hang something like that and not a) have to see it every day or b) immediately create the impression that you are living in a horrible 70s bachelor pad, complete with ninja swords, an overly large taxidermy collection, and shag carpet? The only thing that would make that painting more scary is clowns.

Calli’s top five:

Isabella II, Veiled, Camillo Torreggiani – Prado Museum

(via)

Portrait of a Peasant, Paul Cezanne – Thyssen Museum

(via)

Charing Cross Bridge, Claude Monet – Thyssen Museum

(via)

Racehorses in a Landscape, Edgar Degas

(via)

Colored Campbell’s Soup Can: 1965, Andy Warhol – Berardo Museum

Travis’ take on Calli’s picks (remember this is for fun…): To say that these are Calli’s “favorite pieces” is maybe a bit of a stretch – these are more like the ones she found the least repulsive. To be fair though, this may have been a result of the 20km of “museum walking” that we did over two days, and the fact that on one of the days we had probably two hours of sleep on a bumpy bus ride through the night. Also, very little art has perfectly symmetrical straight lines…

So there you have it, our favorites from the museums we’ve visited in Spain and Portugal. We have a few more museum stops planned for the second half of our trip so make sure to circle around and see how we make out – Calli has tried to initiate a rule of one museum/week (on average) but it isn’t gaining much traction.

In the meantime, why not weigh in on the debate and share your opinion on our top five lists?

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Carmo Convent – Lisbon’s Best Kept Secret

Travis — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:33:00 +0000

Half ancient convent, half museum, the Carmo Archaeological Museum is really only half a building.

Rows of large arches

After surviving a large earthquake in 1755, Carmo Convent, roofless and exposed to the elements, was left untouched as a symbol of loss and hope for the city. Now home to the Carmo Archaeological Museum, lucky visitors can gaze in amazement at the stone columns and gothic arches that date back to 1389 – as well as a small but interesting mix of prehistoric, medieval, and per-earthquake finds on display in the covered museum.

Stained glass fragments that have survived

A large column arches up towards the sky

One of the museum rooms featuring two mummies

Affordable, centrally located, and fascinating to explore, the museum is also extremely peaceful, quite, and seemingly tour group free (a wonderful rarity!). Oddly contradictory to the mile long line for the Santa Justa lift just blocks away. It appears not many people have “discovered” this lovely little museum – yet. We haven’t seen it featured in any of the popular guidebooks or common online references – however with just the name we were easily able to find the museum’s website, hours of operation, and entrance fees.

Model of the convent pre 1755

Wonderfully preserved sarcophagus

One of two Peruvian mummies from the 16th c.

Arches, sky, and crumbled brick

A good impression of the former convent’s size

Easily one of my favorite attractions in Lisbon, I couldn’t take enough photos of the contrasting columns and sky, and was pleasantly surprised by the museum which houses two uncovered mummies, the first I’ve ever seen.

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Lisbon in Pictures

Travis — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:25:00 +0000

Our four short days in Lisbon were shortened by a short bout of heatstroke, and the most comfortable bed we’ve encountered yet (making it even harder to get up in the morning). However, even with two weeks, Lisbon has so much to see and do we couldn’t have fit it all in.What we were able to fit in – three museums, a monastery and streetcar ride, the spiciest Goa curry we’ve ever eaten, some shopping while exploring downtown, an enormous street market Sunday morning, and two fabulous feasts of piri-piri chicken…

A funicular and graffiti

Typical architecture in Lisbon

The Santa Justa Elevator – in operation for more than 100 years

The Carmo Convernt – roofless but still an amazing place

Lisbon has some amazing graffiti artists

Treasures at the weekly flea market

Tram 28 still makes the rounds

Praca do Comercio – one of the main squares

Beautiful architecture in Belem

Art in the Berardo Museum

A Warhol at the Berardo

Details on the Jeronimos Monastery – UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Jeronimos Monastery from afar…it’s pretty big

A Portuguese take on Goa curry…tasty and spicy

Piri Piri Chicken – never, ever touch your eyes!

… all of which left us too exhausted to check our bus tickets to Seville before heading to the station. As it turned out, our bus departed at 10:00 and we realized we were at the wrong station at 8:30. Two metro rides across town and a mad dash through the station, we found the correct bus and settled in, saying good-bye to Lisbon… for now.

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