Museum'ed out

[Libby]

What do you do when you can't stand the thought of visiting another museum or walk through another art gallery?

I've been told that by the time I reach London I'll have probably been "museum'ed out". Does that happen? What are some cheap alternatives?

[megamay]

We were definitely Museum'ed out by the time we reached London, after 3 months of seeing what felt like every musuem in Europe, in fact we were Museum'ed out way before that.

One thing that we found really great in London, even in the col (we were there in December) were the londonwalks walking tours. They were really cheap and interesting and informative. We even took a walking tour of the British Museum and Westminster Abbey (we were church'ed out too). And those tours were great because we didnt miss those big sites due to being tired of musuems, but we they were more tolerable because we got some really interesting explanations of the highlights instead of wandering around looking at - what seemed to the untrained eye as pretty much the same thing we had seen in every other museum.

Meg

[WillTravel]

I second the London Walks!

And in general, walking if you're tired of museums is a good idea. The Eyewitness books have some self-guided walking tours you can do, and I tried one on my last trip, and enjoyed it.

I did find I could handle only so much art and churches per day on my recent trip.

[Nicstar]

this is why I tend NOT to go into museums and the likes. Obviously I'll go into things that I already know about and are keen to see (eg London, there were a few I for some reason or other, without doing research, knew of and wanted to see, so they were the only ones we went and saw). But otherwise I'll skip it.

People say "oh but you HAVE to go into such and such"....well why? If I wasn't interested before to know about it, why would I suddenly be interested in it when I go in?

I guess part of this is from travelling with my parents from a very young age, who did not believe in wasting money on going into every thing available to us, but instead choosing a couple, and instead soaking up the atmosphere of wherever we were. There are many things I didn't go in and see on my first trip to the UK, but I don't actually have any regrets, because we made sure we went and saw only the must sees.

It also tends to make my travelling a bit cheaper. My friend gave me a list of "you must go see this museum and this attraction etc etc" for Paris, but I think out of the 10 she put on there, I'll definitely see one, and maybe two.

[ERIKAerikaErika]

Enjoy the city. Pack a lunch and eat it in one of the many parks. If you have some money to blow, so horse back riding ( i believe you can do that in Hyde Park). Check out the retail stores and shop (or pretend to shop). Stop doing the toursit thing and act like you would back home. Go see a movie.
Thats what we did in Dublin. It was great to feel 'normal' again.