I really began to appreciate and admire the artists and all their amazing talent more and more as I entered each new museum during my travels in Europe. Monet, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, etc., etc.

And the art that these people created are classic and timeless. Water Lilies, Starry Night, Mona Lisa, David, etc., etc.

But what about toys and paper dolls? What about fire trucks and miniature bottles? What about pharmacies, porcelain and amber? Or how about shoes? Or even coats of arms and church bells? What about nutcrackers? Aren’t any of those items worthy of being in a museum?

Well, believe it or not, all of these objects have at least one museum of their very own, most of them being in Europe. I made it a point during my travels to not only visit the infamous art museums, but also to experience many of these small, different, or what I shall call “quirky” museums.

I have actually already written a couple of blogs on a few of these quirky museums. The Souls of Church Bells were displayed in a church in Tallinn, Estonia, and the Gold of the North glittered in The Amber Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania and several other cities around the Baltic Sea.

I think I shall now write a small series of blogs on some of these fun, entertaining, off-the-wall, yet still cultural, educational, historical, and artistic quirky museums.

The Toy Museum in Helsinki, Finland, is actually on an island where the Suomenlinna Fortress is located, a place that has played a key role in Finland’s history. Easy to get to by ferry, and with thousands of toys, you can’t help but be brought back to your childhood.

This museum features historical toys, dating back to the 1800’s, to modern toys. There are baby dolls, dolls with different outfits and costumes and uniforms, porcelain dolls, cribs and carriages for dolls, games of all kinds, stuffed animals, teddy bears, Disney characters, tea sets, wartime toys, toy boats and ships and cars and trains and fire engines, miniature doll houses filled with miniature furniture, rocking horses and bunnies and monkeys, toy phones and toy cash registers and toy sewing machines. Whew, the list goes on! What fun!

“Oh, yeah, I remember playing with that,” I must have said a dozen times as I wandered through my past. But it wasn’t just my past that was intriguing; it is the past of several generations of children, of items that have brought countless smiles, laughter and joy to kids for several hundred years. (And I’m sure they have brought a few fights between siblings as to who gets to play with the toys…)

But there was a section of this Toy Museum that I found particularly fascinating…the Paper Doll collection in an upstairs room. You remember, those figures cut out of paper, with separate clothes, usually held onto the dolls by folding tabs? Yes, I remember playing with paper dolls as a child. But I only had a few of the cutouts.

This collection was something else…it had paper dolls of various time periods, dating back to the 1880’s, the 1900’s, the 1920’s, 1960’s, 70’s, and all decades in between. The dolls themselves varied in different characters and ages; there were celebrities and royalty, Disney characters, and cultural dolls from various countries. The clothes varied with historical costumes, vintage styles, fashions from the decades, outfits for babies, boys and girls, men and women, wardrobes of royalty, attire from different countries, garments appropriate for the seasons, anything from bathing suits to fancy dresses to nighttime pajamas. Whew, the list goes on! What fun!

Wikipedia notes that “paper dolls have been around as long as there has been paper.” And that today, “many artists are turning paper dolls into an art form.” See – even though paper dolls are no Picasso painting or Rodin sculpture, they truly are museum-worthy!

And when you are all done reminiscing about your childhood, you can stop by the café attached to the Toy Museum, and have yourself a big piece of chocolate cake…or maybe some milk and cookies!

Stay tuned for more blogs on “quirky” museums.

Sweet (and Fun) Travels!

Postcards of Toys purchased at Toy Museum

Did you know that the saying quite possibly originates from farmers because they are actually familiar with the time that cows really do come home to their barns? Apparently cows come home especially early in the morning because they want to be milked.

And because of this early morning timeframe, many people use the phrase to imply how late they might stay up at night in bars or nightclubs…or I suppose in pubs, too…

And I can attest to all this, having really experienced the cows coming home…and I am not a farmer. It was actually during my travels…

I was on a payphone using an international calling card (yes, not a cell phone) to talk to my mother from Doolin, Ireland. It was 7:00 am on July 9, 2004. It was a brisk and clear morning. The previous night, I had been at one of the three pubs in all of Doolin, listening to some great traditional Irish music, and talking with some local fisherman. (And probably having a Guinness.)

That morning, I was actually hoping to get on a fishing boat to experience fishing off the coast of Ireland. Ah, but no such luck (pun intended). It was not meant to be a day for being on the seas. But before I began the rest of my day (which turned out to be a wonderful bicycle ride), I called my mother instead to update her on my travels.

This payphone happened to be located on a quiet country Doolin road, literally just across the street from one of those three pubs. Surrounding this pub and me were green grassy fields and the blue ocean beyond.

When all of a sudden, I heard cowbells and mooing not too far off in the distance. I turned around and saw a farmer herding his cows down a nearby street. At first, I thought nothing of it. But then, slowly but surely, the sounds became louder, and the cows headed towards the road that I was on. The next thing I knew, they were strolling leisurely right in front of me, right between me on the phone and Gus O’Connor’s pub across the way.

I said to my mom, as we both heard more mooing, “Well, Mom, the cows are actually coming home….” I explained to her what was happening, and we both got a good laugh.

And I now that I know more about the origins of the phrase “till the cows come home,” it has been proven to me that the cows really do come home quite early in the morning. At 7:00 am, to be exact, in Doolin, Ireland. And, yes, at a snail’s pace, too.

And what is more appropriate is that not only do the cows come home early, they even pass by the pubs on their way…

And not only do they pass by pubs, they meander next to O’Brien’s crafts store as well.

Sweet Travels!

History of the phrase compliments of urbandictionary.com and phrases.org.uk.

Ok, ok, you get the picture. It must be Valentine’s Day.

I was inspired by Kristen’s Puddle of Love blog to write a “love-blog” of my own. Her picture, and her comment about “finding love at the weirdest times and in places you never imagined” reminded me of a random unexpected experience of love that I had. It was during a walk on the beach at Homer Spit, Alaska, this past summer.

As I was enjoying the gorgeous scenery during my stroll, I would occasionally look down at the rocks on the beach. I wanted to collect a few rocks (ssshhh, don’t tell anyone) to take back to My Love back home. He has a wonderful rock collection that was started by his grandparents as they combed beaches all over the Northern California and Oregon coasts, and I wanted to bring him back some rocks from the Alaskan coast.

Out of the thousands upon thousands of rocks on the Spit that day, I glanced down at this one particular rock…yup, it was shaped like a heart! I just had to take a photo of it. Don’t ask me why though, but I did not take this rock home with me. I now wish I had, but oh well. It is now there for someone else to randomly feel the love.

I have also purchased a few polished stones shaped like hearts from various places during my travels to give to My Love, such as these.

Oh, here is one other blog that I previously wrote about hearts and Valentine’s Day, Heart Art.

Sweet Travels, and remember, Love Is All You Need!