Utrecht University's museum (umu.nl; adult/child €15.50/8) is a curious mixture of ultra-modern and super-traditional, all thrown together with a small botanical garden for unwinding in afterwards.
Start by picking up a mystery box to discover your "research aims," giving purpose to your exploration of the startlingly varied series of exhibits. You can sit in a Philo-sofa to think about life or make a beeline for the gruesome highlight, a 19th-century collection of botanical specimens and skeletons designed as historical teaching aids. Spoiler alert: this includes humans with some utterly macabre deformities. Contrastingly beautiful are antique glass models of ephemeral creatures like jellyfish and slugs made as teaching aids. They would have lost their form if stored in formaldehyde.
