Museum

In Amsterdam, the Modern Contemporary Museum, or Moco Museum (Honthorststraat 20, 1071 DE Amsterdam, Netherlands; phone +31 203 701 997, www.mocomuseum.com), dedicated to modern art and artists, was set to open April 9, 2016. The two opening exhibits feature Andy Warhol (to July 3) and graffiti artist Banksy (to Sept. 4).

Located next to the Van Gogh Museum in the Museumplein, it’s open daily 10 a.m.-8 p.m. in summer and 10-6 in winter. A ticket costs €12.50 (near $14) and can be purchased online.

The mansion of former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, Palatul Prima˘verii (50 Prima˘verii Blvd., Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania; phone +40 213 180 989 http://palatulprimaverii.ro [in Romanian only]), opened for public tours on March 12.

Sitting on a 3½-acre property in Bucharest, the 80-room mansion was designed by Ceaușescu and his wife in the 1960s. It houses a cinema, wine cellar and many luxury bathrooms and has a large garden.

After extensive renovation, Shakespeare’s Schoolroom & Guildhall (Church St., Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, CV37 6HB, U.K.; www.shakespearesschoolroom.org) was scheduled to open to the public on April 23 (believed to be the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death).

Steam locomotives, royal rail carriages and ephemera are among historical pieces on display at Train World (Princesse Elisabeth 5, 1030 Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium; phone +32 02 224 74 98, www.trainworld.be/en), which opened in Brussels’ Schaerbeek Station on Sept. 25, 2015.

The museum is dedicated to Europe’s primary mode of long-distance transportation since 1835, when the continent’s first railway line was completed, connecting Mechelen and Brussels, Belgium.

In post-WWI Ljubljana, Slovenian architect Jože Plecnik designed and built many city landmarks in a neoclassic Greek style. Six works have been nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status, including, in Ljubljana, his promenade and bridges on the Ljubljanica River, the National & University Library, the Church of St. Francis, the Church of St. Michael and the Garden of All Saints in Žale Cemetery.

A German “Enigma” coding machine used in WWII is among more than 1,000 items at the Spy Museum Berlin (Leipziger Platz 9, 10117 Berlin, Germany; phone +49 30 206 203 54, www.deutsches-spionagemuseum.de/en), which opened in September 2015.

The theme of 2015’s world’s fair and exposition, Expo Milano 2015, held May 1-Oct. 31 in northern Italy, was “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” (Dec. ’14, pg. 14). My wife, Ging, and I visited in June, and it provided a taste of what people may experience at the next expos, in Kazakhstan in 2017 and in Dubai in 2020.

For two days of sightseeing in St. Petersburg, Russia, in September 2015 before I started a cruise to Moscow, I used Dancing Bear Tours (Prospekt Ko­smonavtov 15A-6H, St. Petersburg, Russia 196211; phone +7 812 379 26 33, https://dancing-bear-tours.com), which advertises in ITN’s Mart. I had contacted the owner of the company, Julia Ivanushkina, when I received my Russian visa, three months before my trip.

Taiwan was not a country I had expected to visit. I was planning a trip to South Korea, but when I saw a tour from Adventures Abroad (Blaine, WA; 800/665-3998, www.adventures-abroad.com) that included Taiwan, I thought, ‘Why not include another country?’ So I chose the Oct. 7-22, 2015, “Taiwan and South Korea” tour.

In northern Italy, the 7-hour, small-group tour “Land of Motors” begins in Bologna and stops first at the Ducati Museum and factory (ducati.com), where the history of Ducati motorcycle racing (1946 to the present) is on display. The group then visits the Lamborghini factory (www.
lamborghini.com), the Ferrari Museum (http://museomaranello.ferrari.com), next to Ferrari’s test track, and the Ferrari factory.