Photo courtesy Wikepedia

The most interesting thing about traveling is what you learn along the way. Some of it is down right surprising. For example, I learned that Island (Iceland) actually has a penis museum. I am not sure if that is a great cultural achievement, but there it is. We actually did not go to see it but we learned about it

It is actually called “The Icelandic Phallological Museum” and may be the only museum in the world to contain a collection of phallic specimens belonging to all the various types of mammals found in a single country. I had never heard of it before, but Phallology is an ancient science, or as some would call it, a pseudo-science that recently received some attention, not all of it prurient. Many genuine academic fields relate to the penis including history, art, psychology, literature and other artistic fields like music and ballet. Now serious students and others, such as non-serious students, can engage in the study of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion. I am not sure why anyone would want to do that, but they can do that in Island.

The museum contains more than 215 penises and penile parts from a wide assortment of marine and terrestrial animals. No doubt it would be interesting but we decided to give it a pass. Maybe next time. Isn’t it amazing what you can learn from travel?