Meh. While I appreciate the artistry (everything on display in the rooms upstairs were made by…read morelocal vendors, and the items show off the skill and labor that goes into making a suit of armor, for instance) and the history (the residents turned Golden Lane into a "museum", staging and opening their houses [for a fee] to tourists near and far before the government bought up the land) of this place, it still left me feeling a bit underwhelmed.
Of course, that may be due to the enormous crowds of people we were dealing with the day we went, as well.
But, no. Maybe we'd seen one too many suits of armor in London, or maybe we'd seen one too many pointy weapons in Edinburgh, but by the time we got here, my eyes kind of flitted right over the displays. I stopped long enough to admire the handy work - there were some incredibly detailed pieces, after all - but room after room of armor did not appeal to me.
There was one room towards the back of the building that housed pieces of torture equipment, which I found strangely fascinating. And there are dioramas along the lane itself that give a good glimpse into how people lived and worked in the area. Those were probably my favorite part of the lane itself.
Otherwise, the hallways are too narrow, the lanes are too congested, and the doorways into the dioramas are too small to allow for proper viewing.
Plus, there's only one exit, and if it gets backed up (as it did when we were trying to exit, all because someone thought it'd be a good idea to put one of those "penny press" machines at the bottom of the stairs), you're likely to get stuck forever. Okay, I'm being melodramatic. But it does bottleneck at the one and only exit (stairs down), and that can be quite frustrating when one just wants to leave the grounds.
