When you think of museums, what usually springs to mind are large, quiet buildings where you can find heaps of historic artefacts and iconic pieces of artwork.

But it's not all art and culture - there are some weird and wonderful museums around the world that highlight some of the quirkier things produced by humanity.

We're talking buildings dedicated to sex machines, salt and pepper shakers and even SPAM.

Or you could make yourself feel a bit better with a trip to the museums dedicated to failure and broken relationships.

What's certain is that they make for a very memorable afternoon - and make for an itinerary with a difference!

We take a look inside some of the best weird museums in the world...

1. SPAM Museum , Minnesota, USA

Spam Museum, Minnesota

The much-lampooned ‘precooked meat product in a can’ has its place in history, if just because it was the staple diet of US forces in World War II, and so played its part in saving the free world.

But did you know that there are 15 varieties, including jalapeño, chorizo and teriyaki? The museum has samples, games, interactive videos, etc – plus the Monty Python sketch, of course.

How much? Entry is free.

Extra tip: Hormel, makers of Spam and creators of the museum are located in Austin, Minnesota (not to be confused with Austin, Texas). A town also known for extra large doughnuts.

2. Museum of Failure , Los Angeles, USA

Blue Ketchup in the Museum of Failure

Partly inspired by the Broken Relationships museum, the City of Dreams has now reinvented itself as the City of Broken Dreams – at least it has within this pop-up museum.

The idea is to celebrate some of the largest flops in history by some of the world’s best-known companies.

Think Colgate’s frozen lasagna, Heinz’s purple or green ketchup and Harley-Davidson perfume. Visitors can divulge their own failures in the confession booth.

The message is optimistic, though: success comes to those who learn from their mistakes. The original museum reopens in Helsingborg, Sweden, on June 1.

How much? Entry is £14.

Extra tip: It’s in Hollywood, with all of the hedonism and materialism of the City of Angels – from Muscle Beach to Beverly Hills – just outside the door.

3. Sex Machines Museum , Prague, Czech Republic

Sex museum Prague

Did you know chastity belts were often worn by women to protect themselves from sexual assault whilst travelling? Or that the French made anti-masturbation suits?

This is a museum for the unshockable (or for those who like to be shocked) with all kinds of ‘equipment’ from over the years, including a 130-year-old ‘siege d’amour’ (love seat) created to aid various sex positions, and all manner of enlargers and embellishments.

How much? Entry is £8.

Extra tip: Prague is a brilliant weekend destination, and the museum is in a prime position just south of Old Town Square, a focal point for restaurants, buskers and living statues.

4. Toilets Museum , New Delhi, India

Even US Ambassadors go to weird museums (
Image:
Getty)

The motto of the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets is ‘sanitation is more important than independence’.

And there’s no denying the significance of a good loo in anyone’s quality of life, especially in a nation where the majority still use the great outdoors.

There’s history in the collection, plus philosophy, sociology, and porta-potty.

The most prized exhibit is the chamber pot of Louis XIV of France, but there are various thrones from over the ages, plus lots of pungent information: Indians, for example, produce 135 million kilogrammes of fecal matter per day.

How much? Entry is free.

Extra tip: Sulabh is a sanitation NGO, and their offices and the museum are out in the suburbs of Delhi towards the airport, so it’ll be an adventure getting here. Go to the loo first.

5. Lawnmowers Museum , Southport, UK

British Lawnmower Museum

There’s nothing quite as British as those striped summer lawns, but what about the machines that groom them?

They are celebrated in this veteran of esoteric museums, which is very much an exercise in nostalgia.

Here you’ll find Princess Diana ’s lawnmower (although it is hard to picture her doing her own grass), a Qualcast Panther that belonged to Hilda Ogden (aka the actress Jean Alexander), Nicholas Parsons’s secateurs, and a collection of vintage toy lawnmowers.

How much? Entry is £3.

Extra tip: Southport, midway between Liverpool and Blackpool, is a classic Victorian seaside town with a pier, a casino and a couple of theatres.

6. Currywurst , Berlin, Germany

Currywurst Museum

Berlin’s iconic fast food, currywurst is basically sausage covered in ketchup and curry powder.

The museum is pretty simple: it has a bit of socio historical background (currywurst was invented in 1949 by a street vendor), a spices section, a section on its role in literature and arts, and a café where you can sample three variations, included in the ticket price.

But however it is dressed up, there’s no hiding the fact that this is fast food with a metallic taste.

How much? Entry is £9.80.

Extra tip: The museum is right by Checkpoint Charlie, the main gateway in the Berlin Wall, and there’s plenty of interest nearby, including the gruelling Topography of Terror exhibition, documenting the cruelty of Nazi Germany’s secret police.

7. Thimbles Museum , Bavaria

Some of the exhibits at the Thimble Museum

If a thimble (‘fingerhut’ or ‘finger hat’) museum sounds as if it belongs to the world of fairytales, you won’t be surprised to hear that it feels like that too.

Creglingen is on the Romantic Road, a Bavarian route linking cobbled villages of half-timbered houses.

This thimble heaven is small in size – obviously – but large in number, with over 4,000 thimbles, many of historic interest. The Greif family that runs it are also thimble-makers.

How much? Entry is £1.80.

Extra tip: The Romantic Road is Germany’s most popular themed route, and rightly so. Many a scene from a fantasy movie – eg Harry Potter – have been filmed in nearby Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

8. Parasites , Tokyo, Japan

The Meguro Parasitological Museum is the only place in the world entirely devoted to parasites (
Image:
Getty)

The Meguro Parasitological Museum is part of a private research facility with 60,000 parasite specimens, 50,000 papers and 6,000 books.

If that sounds pretty dry, then be warned, the likes of the world’s longest tapeworm are not for the squeamish.

All the parasites in the world are gathered into one small space. For many visitors, the most valuable item is the T shirt they can buy saying they were here.

How much? Entry is free.

Extra tip: Meguro is south of downtown, but it is on the all-important Yamanote loop line, so it isn’t all that hard to reach. Shinjuku, Tokyo’s bright lights district, is six stations north.

9. Salt and Pepper Shakers , Tennessee

Just one set of the thousands to see at the Salt And Pepper shakers museum in Tennessee

Shakers come in all shapes and sizes. This collection of 20,000 compiled over 35 years has quite a range, from kitsch to classic, and is handily divided into categories: fancy, foreign, silly, vegetable-shaped, etc.

In short, the whole creativity, and ingenuity, of the human mind as manifested in condiment-delivery form.

How much? Entry is £2.

Extra tip: Gatlinburg is a cheerful resort town in the Smoky Mountains, a place stuffed with restaurants, gift shops and outfitters, but with forested wilderness all around.

10. Broken Relationships , Zagreb, Croatia

Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb (
Image:
Getty)

What started with the break-up of just one Croatian couple – Drazen and Olinka – has turned into something of a phenomenon. The couple decided not to throw away the mementos of their four-year affair, and asked their friends to donate their own poignant photographs, letters, and messages.

The result was the city’s first private museum when it opened in 2010, and it has since become one of Zagreb’s major attractions, and still run by the break-up couple – oh bittersweet irony! These days the concept has taken off online, too, as a post-it board for anguish, and a new partner property has opened in Los Angeles.

How much? Entry is £4.75.

Extra tip: The museum is in the cobbled, villagey, Upper Town of the Croatian capital, its parliamentary district. An ideal place to contemplate the injustices of love.