Since the opening of the first museum in Poland 200 years ago in Pulawy (the Temple of Sybil), multitudes of others have sprung up to showcase Poland and the world in ever-new, inspiring ways. Some of them have been born out of passion of dedicated hobbyists.

The sounds of approaching aircraft and exploding bombs will surround you in the extraordinary Warsaw Uprising Museum where visitors are drawn into tales of resistance fighters in the city's underground tunnels and counting days of the deadly battle. The Papermaking Museum in Duszniki Zdroj gives visitors the opportunity to personally drain the paper pulp and press it into their own handmade sheets of stationary as it used to be done for centuries.

There are many different biographical trails that can be followed like the one that will take you to the workshop of the great astronomer Nicholas Copernicus in Frombork or follow the writer Kornel Makuszynski to Zakopane, the trail of the poet, writer and painter Stanislaw Wyspianski through Krakow or through Krynica with the primitivism paintings of Nikifor.

Ethnographic journeys explore forgotten customs in open-air museums by engaging guests in the traditional weaving processes of linen on looms in Kluki, manufacturing butter or baking bread using hundred year old tins.

Particularly fascinating are the industrial museums in Lodz, Miedz, Legnica and the Railway Museum of Jaworzyna Slaska where extensive collections of historic carriages and locomotives are on display.

The Arms and Military Museum in Swidnica is a private collection assembled by Stanislaw Gabrys of military uniforms, helmets, launchers and bayonets from all around the world.

Dolls and toy cars amassed by Henryk Tomaszewski, the legendary creator of Wroclaw's Pantomime Theatre, gave rise to the foundation of the Toy Museum in Karpacz and the amusing Museum of Socialist Realism will teach visitors the art of composing a successful party speech.