The DaVinci museum in Venice is pretty really good. It’s not too big but it’s interactive and concise (especially considering the works of DaVinci).
We really enjoyed the Milwaukee Public Museum. It was comparable to the natural history museums in Chicago and DC, but it was a little more current and extremely well maintained. We’ve been back and expect to visit again.
The museum island in Berlin. Just so many interesting artifacts from ancient cultures, you could easily spend multiple days there. (Just don’t think too hard about what all those artifacts are doing in Berlin while you’re there…)
I’m still salty that the Pergamum temple exhibit was closed. We went to Turkey and “sorry, that temple is in Germany now.” We went to Berlin a few years later and “sorry, that temple exhibit is being refurbished now.”
All that being said, I enjoyed seeing that very large gold hat.
I finally got to see a Saturn V up close last year, as well as the control room for the moon landings. I’ve always wanted to visit, and last year I found myself on a Houston work trip with a day to spare.
KSC museum in Cape Canaveral Florida is similarly awesome. They have tons of rockets and other stuff from the space race and shuttle eras
The main thing I took from KSC is that massive 50+ mile long road from the Orlando area towards Cape Canaveral, just such an American design.
The site and tour was amazing though - particularly the memorial set up like a space mirror, that was particularly poignant.
When I visited Florida a few years ago there weren’t any daytime launches - but I did hoof the youngest out of bed at 2am to watch from Orlando on a livestream and see the orange flame in the distance heading to the sky. The poor kid had a “bro wtf” look on his face but hey, there ain’t many British kids who can say they’ve seen a rocket go up into space.
Probably Musee d’Orsay in Paris. It holds many of the most famous paintings ever. You can walk right up to each piece and get a close look. And it has several nice cafés where you can sit and have lunch or a coffee. It’s very chill.
By comparison, the Louvre is a mad house, the popular stuff is roped off, and the cafés are more like a snack bar.
If you’re into U.S. (pop) culture, I think it’s hard to beat the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. It’s got historic aircraft, movie props, costumes, etc. Fun stuff. And it’s mostly/all? free so you can spend the day going in and out, having lunch nearby in DC, seeing famous monuments right outside, etc.
