The Nike Athena Temple at the Acropolis. Photo by Audrey Sykes.

By Audrey Sykes—

The new Acropolis Museum is 2009’s addition to Athens’ already impressive archeological area of the Acropolis. The new, sleek, and grandiose building holds over 4,000 artifacts from surrounding excavations. The museum is not only impressive to the eye, but its one-euro entrance fee is furthermore impressive to the wallet.

Here’s a run down of what the upgrade brings:

New and improved

A mere 400-meter shift from its previous spot at the top of Acropolis, the new museum sits at the start of the hill’s slope atop ancient ruins of the Byzantines. To compensate for sitting directly without interruption artifacts, the entrance’s glass floors allow visitors to view excavations directly under the load of their feet.

The museum itself is dazzlingly modern and almost 14 times larger than the old museum (closed in 2007). A budget of about €130 million was invested in the four-level structure, providing chic displays, light-senitive glass walls, and illuminated open floors.

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The beautiful Estonian capital of Tallinn has long been one of my favourite cities, and I’ve just come across a reason to return for my third visit: the Kalev Chocolate Museum.

Open in the inner city subsequently to 2003, the museum documents the history of the Kalev sweets manufacturers since 1806, and since that time includes the Soviet era, there is much of interest to see. For example, the museum includes different labels and packaging from throughout this era, a lot of it politically motivated. It’s also interesting to billet that the USSR only authorised the Kalev company to produce chewing gum – a most controversial product throughout Soviet times.

I can only assume that, like any good chocolate museum, there are a not many samples around for visitors to try. If not, there is definitely a shop attached where you can buy chocolates and candies produced by means of Kalev, and that’s enough to get me there. Visiting the museum is free and it is open daily from 10am to 5.30pm, but closing at 4pm on Sundays.

Chocolate picture via Creative Commons from idhren