Adam Paul
Adam Paul
  • Home
  • Bicycling
  • Hiking
  • Photography
    • Instagram
    • Flickr
    • Birds
    • Wildflowers
  • Travel
    • Articles
    • Trip Reports
Menu back  
 

Prague, Part 20: Toy Museum

2010-04-264 CommentsPhotography, Travel

Incongruously located next to the heavily-touristed “Golden Lane” in Prague Castle is the Toy and Barbie Museum.  It’s apparently the second-largest museum of its kind in the world.  I cannot imagine that there is too much competition in that area, but one never knows….

For 60CZK (about US$3), it’s a welcome break from the medieval grandeur of the rest of the palace.

The museum is located in the Old Count’s Chambers, a grand old building.  The first floor features some cool vintage toys from back when toys were made of real materials and meant to last.

Displays are quite well-done overall, with many groupings of cheezy characters, witness the stern bunnies below:

Although nearby Golden Lane (which we did not visit) is very crowded with tourists, the Toy Museum wasn’t too bad, with only a handful of people in each room.

The entire second level of the museum is dedicated to all things Barbie, from Barbie #1 (below) to pregnant Barbie (farther below) to a couture Barbie designed by Bob Mackie (yet farther below).  As I have little to say about Barbie, I will let the photos do the remainder of the talking:

This quirky museum is worth checking out, even though it has absolutely nothing at all to do with Prague Castle.

Prague index:

  • Part 1: Vysehrad
  • Part 2: Vysehradsky hrbitov (Vysehrad cemetery)
  • Part 3: Karluv Most (Charles Bridge)
  • Part 4: Vaclavske namesti (Wenceslas Square)
  • Part 5: Letecke Muzeum Kbely (Czech Air Force Museum)
  • Part 6: Stare Mesto (Old Town)
  • Part 7: Staromestske namesti (Old Town Square)
  • Part 8: Prazsky orloj (Astronomical Clock)
  • Part 9: Josefov (Jewish Quarter)
  • Part 10: Vltava River
  • Part 11: St. Nicholas Cathedral (Chram sv. Mikulase)
  • Part 12: Wallenstein Palace (Valdstejnsky palac)
  • Part 13: Kampa Island
  • Part 14: Mala Strana street art
  • Part 15: Petrin Hill
  • Part 16: Mala Strana
  • Part 17: Mala Strana house signs
  • Part 18: Strahovský klášter (Strahov Monastery)
  • Part 19: Schwarzenberský palác (Schwarzenberg Palace)
  • Part 20: Toy Musuem <– You are here
  • Part 21: St. Vitus Cathedral gargoyles
  • Part 22: St. Vitus Cathedral (exterior)
  • Part 23: St. Vitus Cathedral (interior)
  • Part 24: Prazky Hrad (Prague Castle), I
  • Part 25: Prazky Hrad (Prague Castle), II

czech republicmuseumpragueprague castle
Share this post
TwitterFacebookGoogle+Pinterest
Related posts
Review: Billingham Hadley Digital camera bag
2015-07-31
X-T10 does pets
2015-07-08
Ai Weiwei at Alcatraz
2014-10-07
Wordless Wednesday: Calaveras Big Trees State Park’s North Grove
2011-02-23
Wordless Wednesday: Ferry Building Farmer’s Market
2011-01-19
Wordless Wednesday: Mission San Miguel Arcangel
2011-01-12
4 Comments
  1. Reply
    2010-04-26 at 22:48
    JennaFrancisco

    Funny. I can see that this would be a welcome break.

    It still amazes me that you were able to see so much while you were there. Did you have a local giving you tips about where to go? If not, then I admire your organization. Prague can be overwhelming, but it seems like that didn’t get to you.

    The Golden Lane is cute but no biggie. The part of it I’ve enjoyed is walking through the second story of those little houses and seeing the armor collection. All in all, you didn’t miss much at all by not going there.

    • Reply
      2010-04-27 at 17:46
      Adam R. Paul

      Hi Jenna,

      I was there for 2 weeks, the first week for work (stayed in Vysehrad), the second my wife flew out and we vacationed for 6 days, staying in Mala Strana. Although we had some great advice, particularly on the food front, from my Czech colleagues, I also spent a good deal of time researching places that sounded interesting.

      An advantage of being there for 2 weeks was that I could take my time and see many thing the standard tourist loops would pass over. And honestly, although Old Town Square & Prague Castle are definitely great, I enjoyed the less-touristed areas more. If there’s a next time, I’d like to check out the surrounding area more. The only day trip we did was to Konopiste to see Archduke Ferdinand’s castle & armor collection (very cool, but no photos allowed, so I’m not going to blog about it).

  2. Reply
    2010-04-28 at 21:05
    JennaFrancisco

    Mala Strana is a lovely area to stay. So quiet and feels so old…
    I may have mentioned something like this before, but Prague is a city that I think suffers from tourist overload even more than other European capitals. I visited many times from 1996-2000 and think I got to know the city pretty well. Then I went back almost 4 yrs ago and have been a little disheartened by what I saw and still hear all the time– that it’s super crowded with tourists, and that many tourists do things that I would never choose there, like buy those tacky Russian dolls or join in some kind of group dinner with hired Czech dancers. Maybe that’s fun, but the “real” Prague is a gem, and, as you know, it can be discovered with the right eye for what to do.

    • Reply
      2010-04-29 at 17:07
      Adam R. Paul

      I cannot imagine how crowded with tourists Prague is during the high season. We were there in early May and even still on a sunny Sat or Sun, it was nearly impossible to walk across Charles Bridge.

      More annoying than tourists (afterall, that’s what we were!) are the stores selling junk, as you mentioned, and the restaurants selling overpriced crap. One on Old Town Square had the temerity to charge 70CZK for a 400ml pour of beer – 3 times the normal price, and 100ml short of a normal pour, uggh!

      And then there’s the roving bands of sotted British stag parties…. Ah well, the price for being a beautiful medieval city with reasonable prices, I guess!

      Mala Strana was wonderful to stay in – peaceful, yet convenient. Vysehrad was actually really nice too – Vysehrad park is beautiful, and there’s a lovely walk along the Vltava from Vysehrad to Narodni Divadlo (National Theater)

Leave Comment

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

clear formSubmit

Recent Posts
  • Review: Billingham Hadley Digital camera bag
  • X-T10 does pets
  • Ai Weiwei at Alcatraz
  • Wordless Wednesday: Calaveras Big Trees State Park’s North Grove
  • Wordless Wednesday: Ferry Building Farmer’s Market
  • Wordless Wednesday: Mission San Miguel Arcangel
  • Wordless Wednesday: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
Popular posts
  • Review: Billingham Hadley Digital camera bag
  • Wildflowers
  • Wordless Wednesday: Calaveras Big Trees State Park’s North Grove
  • Wordless Wednesday: Calaveras Big Trees North Grove Hike
  • Prague, Part 24: Prazky Hrad (Prague Castle) – I
  • 2001 Davis Double Century Ride Report
  • A weekend at the cabin
Categories
Architecture Art Bicycling Birding Books Camping Cooking DIY Drinking Food Hiking Jewelry Memes Misc Movies Music Nature Photography Travel Uncategorized Urban Wildflowers Wine Wordless Wednesday Yoga
Tags
abbott's lagoon air force alfons mucha art nouveau baroque bradley grove burn of the century calaveras big trees cemetery century charles bridge chico wildflower climb to kaiser clock columns of the giants crowds czech republic davis double death ride devil mountain double double century ebbetts pass farmer's market ferry building fighter gargoyle giant sequoia golden gate park gothic graffiti grand tour grizzly peak century half century mala strana marin museum pleasanton prague prague castle primavera century san francisco solvang century st. vitus cathedral top hat classic vysehrad
Adam Paul
Copyright (c) 2015 by Adam R. Paul. All rights reserved. No scraping. Don't be a jerk. Dream-Theme — truly premium WordPress themes