Odd little museums: Madrid for “Literature Fetishists” for instance

Sometimes, the best museums in town are some of the least known, at least to the tourists. After years of traveling, I have become an odd little museum person. Heck, what can be more interesting than a cigar box art museum or a slot machine museum. Perhaps a visit to the museum of old socks or the world’s biggest Zippo collection might interest you.

When I see crowds of people lined up to get into Barcelona’s Museu Picasso before lunchtime I get the urge to make a little announcement: Hello! Over in pretty Plaça Sant Felip Neri you can just waltz right into the Museu del Calçat! (You do have to get the timing right: the Shoe Museum is open strictly from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays.)

Nothing against the Picasso Museum, but the shoe museum is one of those Odd Little Museums that make you feel at home in a strange city. In its honor, here is the first in a series of brief reports on my favorite Odd Little Museums. I hope other Consumer Traveler writers will share some from their own corners of the world.

The announcement about the new Pequeño Museo del Escritor in Madrid came to me in an email promising thrills for “writter fetishits.”  I always love having something to add to my file of Odd Little Museums, but this one seemed doubly good because it also deserved a place in my Odd Little Translations file alongside the menu offering English-speaking travelers a dollop of “scum” (that was back when restaurants were still bragging about “foam” instead of disguising it as the less-ridiculed “emulsion”). Yes, I want my Spanish and Catalan colleagues to hire me to translate their advertisements and menus. But I’ll admit it, the stubbornness behind this invitation is one reason I find them all so charming. To wit:

This time we want to inform you about the inaguration today of a new museum in Madrid that we like to recommend your guests: The Small Museum of the Writters.

Inside, lots of personal belongins of Spanish-American writters could be found.
A space for Literatur Lovers and Writter Fetishits.

We invite you and your customers to visit Madrid with us and to dive in the big cultural offer of this wonderfull city.

Because we love our country… and we want you to do it as well.

And, after all, here you have a collection of items including Julio Cortázar’s hourglass, Juan Carlos Onetti’s ashtray, and Jorge Luis Borges’s copy of G.K. Chesterton’s Wine, Water, and Song. What literatur lover wouldn’t want to see all that?

Pequeño Museo del Escritor, at C/ Galileo, 52, Madrid. Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free.

A version of this essay was originally posted by Teresa Parker, founder of Spanish Journeys, in her blog, Olive Me.
Parker runs exceptional gourmet tours to Spain, especially the Catalan region.

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