Ripleys Believe it or Not
Florida Guide > Other Florida
This attraction really is worth a visit although not really suitable/entertaining enough for very young children as they could get bored. It is open all year (including Christmas Day) from 9.00am until Midnight so you can visit as early or late as you like. Most of our party visited on a day when we were “resting” from the parks although one of the couples visited quite late in the evening. Last admission is at midnight although some visitors thought they needed two hours to see everything so it is better not to leave it that late.
The Odditorium is located at 8201 International Drive 2 blocks south of Sandlake road, just off (Eastbound) exit 74 - old 29 or (Westbound)74A - old 29A from Interstate 4.
Admission when we went was approx $17 for adults and $12 for children aged 4 – 12.
Money off vouchers worth approx $2 off each admission price can be found in most of Orlando’s free publications.
This is a self-guided tour and you can take as much or as little time at individual exhibits as you wish. Some of our party went round in just over an hour whilst others took nearly two hours.
Robert Ripley is renowned worldwide having twenty-seven museums around the world. He spent more than forty years travelling searching for the unbelievable and inexplicable. When his work was first published in 1929 he had a readership of over 80 million.
Be sure to see "Self Portrait In Front Of Easel, 1888". Cornel Biereng of Amsterdam created this gigantic portrait entitled Study For Portrait of Van Gogh from 3,000 postcards depicting 115 different Van Gogh paintings and drawings. Commissioned by the Netherlands Bureau of Tourism to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Van Gogh’s death in 1990, this 26 ft. tall by 20 ft. wide mural toured several cities throughout the world, including Paris, Berlin, Chicago and Toronto, as part of an extensive exhibition of Van Gogh’s paintings before being acquired by Ripley’s in 1992. We left Granddad at this portrait, as he was intrigued by it’s size and content.
The boys were enthralled with some of the rarer curiosities in the Ripley collection of unbelievable artefacts, the shrunken heads from Ecuador, South America! It is claimed that a shrunken head was once sent to Ripley with the following note: "Please take good care of this. I think it is one of my relatives!"
The practice of shrinking heads was once common amongst the Jivaro Indians of Ecuador as the heads of slain warriors were valued as trophies or symbols of bravery. When a fighter killed his enemy, the victim's head was removed. The skin was then peeled away from the skull and hot stones and sand were poured into the cavity. The head was sewn shut and boiled in herbs until it had shrunk to the size of a fist. I did not enjoy these but the boys thought they were “awesome”!
There is a great model of a 1907 Silver Ghost Rolls Royce made by a man from Manchester. He suffered from acute arthritis but matchstick-making models was his hobby. He used 60 pots of glue and over a million matchsticks. This is 13 feet long and about two-thirds the scale of the real thing and took over a year to build.
Our visit really started us thinking about the “oddities” of the world. We have only visited this museum but all of the museums claim to be 90% unique so if you have enjoyed this it is worth visiting others if you get the opportunity.
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