Toy Museum
Toy Museum
July 22, 2008
Meeting the sweet owner and collector in
this very special toy museum,
called Museu
do Brinquedo, was a real treat! There were
Meeting the sweet owner and collector, João d’ Arbués Moreira in this very special toy museum, called Museu do Brinquedo, was a real treat! There were over 43,000 toys there and he has been collecting them since he was a young boy of seven, our Mozart’s age. I had read that it is the best museum in Sintra and it certainly was impressive. We had been to a good one in Salzburg on Mozart’s birthday last fall, but this one was much better. It was really mind blowing for a toy museum, even for people like us that know little about toys.
We were all engrossed in different sections and I was taking some pictures of some fascinating small toys, when a man in a wheel chair started talking to me in English. He was explaining that the tiny toys were part of a Portuguese Christmas tradition and are put inside a cake. I knew about this tradition because they do the same thing on Three Kings/ Los Reyes Day in Spain. So we got into a conversation and I soon found out that he knew so much because he was the proud owner who had spent his life collecting all these toys and creating this museum.
That added an exciting element, so I quickly introduced Mozart and DaVinci to him and we all talked for a while. It was so interesting, that DaVinci asked him if he could do a spontaneous interview with him for our website via our video camera. He consented, so without further ado let me introduce you to João d’ Arbués Moreira :
We will be doing a whole flickr section with pictures of his cool toys,as we could not stop taking pictures of them, but here are a few from our enjoyable romp through what might be the world’s best toy museum!
This is absolutely awe-inspiring. “Children need to find their dreams” in toys, he says. How fantastic that he’s passing on dreams in this way. Thank you for sharing! P.S. I hope you’ll take your daughter to the “House on the Rock” in Wisconsin if you ever find yourselves nearby.
Thanks so much Margaret! It was really nice to see that you “got” what we did in this. Thus far, it has gotten our lowest rating on Youtube, so glad to hear that you enjoyed it! They tend to like Mozart’s videos the best, so perhaps his age mattered to them.
Thanks for telling me about “House on the Rock” & we will definitely put it on our list!! We love to find special places and people. 😉
No doubt You Tube people don’t get it because they don’t have the patience to listen all the way through to the most important part, at the end, where the man says toys are about dreams. Maybe you could put that somewhere in the title or something . . .just an idea.
Yes, I suppose, but some are getting it and the rating is going up! 😉 I did write but often times people are in too much of a hurry to read what is written. I OFTEN have to repeat myself..especially on YouTUBE.
Communication is a funny thing ( especially online) and it often amazing how different people perceive different things. Such is life!
I always figure that those that are meant to get things do. 😉