Niche Museums

Alexander Ivanov opened the Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden in 2009 to host his collection of over 1,500 items made by Russian jewelry firm House of Fabergé. The firm was founded in 1842 and is most famous for making jewel-encrusted Fabergé eggs for the Russian Tsars.

The museum holds at least one of those Imperial Easter Eggs - the Karelian Birch egg, which was ordered by the Tsar for Easter 1917 but was delivered after he had been deposed during the Russian revolution.

The museum also holds one of two known versions of the Constellation Egg, which it claims is the finished original. This claim is disputed.

Voted "Best Comic Store" in Best of the Bay for 17 years running (2002 - 2018), Isotope Comic Book Lounge plays host to a unique museum of toilet seats. The collection was founded by accident in 2002 when Brian Wood (DMZ and X-Men) vandalized their bathroom and owner James Sime kept the toilet seat. Over 100 comic artists have now contributed illustrated seats, and a subset of the collection can be seen lining the walls of the lounge.

A building of unknown origins. The conservatory was bought as a kit by James Lick for his estate in San Jose, then purchased as a gift for the city of San Francisco after his death in 1876. it was assembled as the first formal structure in Golden Gate Park in 1879. The origin of the kit itself is unknown, though it is thought to have come from somewhere in Europe.

Today it hosts over 1,700 plant species, including some rare tropical plants that are over 100 years old and the world’s largest public collection of high-altitude orchids. Their Corpse Flowers attract a substantial crowd when they bloom for 2-3 days every 7-10 years.

Relocated from NASA Glenn Research Center to a new home inside the Great Lakes Science Center in 2010, this is one of just eleven NASA visitor centers in the USA. See inside the Apollo Command Module used in the 1973 Skylab 3 mission and celebrate Ohio's status as the fourth-largest producer of astronauts in the United States (25 astronauts so far).

Widely considered one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world, the Recoleta cemetery hosts 4691 above ground vaults, 94 of which have been declared national historic monuments. The cemetery is laid out like a small city with a complex network of streets dividing tombs representing nearly two hundred years of architectural styles. The residents tell the story of the nation, including presidents, writers, generals, Nobel laureates and Argentinian first lady Eva Perón.

San Francisco has few cemeteries: most of them were relocated to the nearby city of Colma in the 1920s. This Columbarium (a repository for human ashes), built in 1898, is now the only non-denominational place in the city that still accepts new burials.

Interments include FORTRAN creator John Backus, politician Harvey Milk and Harry August Jansen, aka Dante the Magician - the last representative of the Golden Age of Magic.

Many of the urns are accompanied by small dioramas representing details from the life of the person interred there.

First planted between 1880 and 1883 for Jane and Leland Stanford, then restored from 1997 onwards. The 30,000 square foot garden now features over 500 cacti and succulents, 10-15% of which are historical plants still in their original locations.

The House of Broel is a 1850 Victorian mansion in New Orleans which now serves as a wedding venue and museum exhibiting Bonnie Broel's impressive collection of dollhouses. Tours by appointment only.

Describing itself as "Perhaps one of San Francisco's least known eclectic treasures", Audium is a unique sound art event presented weekly since 1967 in pitch darkness in a custom theater with 176 speakers. Founder and composer Stan Shaff still presents his compositions in person every week and will enthusiastically answer your questions after the show.

Housed in a historic cable car barn and powerhouse, this free museum tells the story of San Francisco's unique under-road cable pulled street cars. In addition to vintage cars and other exhibits illustrating the history of the system visitors can descend below the street to see the cables running, or watch the engines that power the cars from a viewing platform.

Travel back in time to a street-scape replica of Tokyo in 1958, the year instant noodles were invented, and sample Ramen from nine different restaurants representing regional varieties of the dish. Easily accessible via bullet train from central Tokyo.

Judy Kaminsky has been selling high-end vintage cookware (mostly French) to the residents and chefs of San Francisco since 1981. Go with intent to buy something - cake stands and antique cocktail glasses are a good target. Don't bring your coffee!

Bequeathed to the nation by the widow of the illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess of Hertford in 1897 on the condition that no object should ever leave the collection, even for loan exhibitions. The collection includes a vast array of French 18th century decorative arts purchased during the revolutionary sales following the French revolution. This includes the Laughing Cavalier and a lot of very shiny decorative weapons and armour.

The tiny town of Locke in the Sacramento delta is a National Historic Landmark, so designated because it represents a unique example of a historic Chinese American rural community. The town's website states that "Locke is no tourist trap, nor is it a ghost town. Its unusual, out-of-the-way charm is genuine." The Dai Loy Museum was a former gambling house, closed down in the 1950s but now restored and open to visitors.

Friedrichshafen, the birthplace of the Zeppelin in 1900, now hosts the definitive Zeppelin museum. A full scale partial model of the Hindenberg lets you explore a recreation of the bar, cabins and smokers' lounge. They also have an original engine nacelle from the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and a 3.6 ton Maybach Zeppelin car from 1938, based on the Maybach airship engines and capable of a maximum speed of 170 km/h.