Nieheim Things to Do Tips by himalia11

Sackmuseum

The Sackmuseum is not part of the Culinarium, but you can visit it for free if you visit the Culinarium. It’s a funny museum, and I hardly can tell what it really is. It’s in an old house (build 1908) full of corners, pretty chaotic, with many old furniture, so already walking through it is interesting. They’ve collected quite a lot of old stuff and packaging, and on the loft you’ll find many different bags (mainly jute bags). Such bags had some value in former times, and they were repaired many times if necessary. Pretty different now in our throwaway society…

Address: Wasserstraße 6, 33039 Nieheim

Website: http://www.sackmuseum.de/

Culinarium – Beer and schnapps museum

The beer museum is in an old half-timbered house, similar to the one of the cheese museum. In the museum you’ll find a brew kettle which still is being used occasionally. You here can learn that in the medieval times, brewing beer was done by women in Westfalia. Instead of having coffee parties, they had beer parties! You can check which beer fits to which meal, and if you want to know how hop is looking, you can find some of these plants in front of the house, next to the small car park.

Website: http://www.westfalen-culinarium.de/

Culinarium – Ham museum

The ham museum is in the same building as the tourist information. You can learn how the different parts of a pig are called, the different ways on how ham is produced and what type of hams there are. There also were explanations of sayings related to pigs (like “Schwein gehabt” or “das ist unter aller Sau”) which for me was the most interesting in that museum.

Website: http://www.westfalen-culinarium.de/

Culinarium - Bread museum

The bread museum is a very small museum. You can get information about the various types of bread, have a look at the different ingredients that are being used for bread making, and there’s also an oven where they make bread. When we came in there was a group of children who obviously had made their own breads and which were put into the oven.

Website: http://www.westfalen-culinarium.de/

Culinarium - Cheese museum

In the cheese museum, you will learn what different kind of cheese there are, you can try to milk a cow, and you can test if you know which wine fits to which cheese. Also you will hear that Nieheim is a “cheese town”, having a cheese festival every 2 years and producing their own cheese called “Nieheimer Käse”. That cheese is similar to the “Handkäse” or “Harzer Käse”, if you happen to know these ones.
There’s also a good restaurant in that building – and it’s the only of the 4 museums that has a restroom.

Website: http://www.westfalen-culinarium.de/

Westfalen Culinarium

The Westfalen Culinarium is a set of 4 museums about the following things: bread, cheese, ham and beer. They are found in different buildings in the same street. You pay your admission in the shop where you’ll get something to wear around your neck which allows you entrance to all the museums. When we returned that thing in the shop, we got some cheese and ham to taste to make our visit perfect, very good. And of course this encourages you to buy something in the shop!
In each museum you can watch a short introduction film and then have a look at the exhibition. Everything is in German only. For details on each of the museums please see my other tips.

The shop was also interesting, you could buy cheese and ham of course, but also various types of tea, jam and mustard from Monschau, and also some decoration stuff. When I saw the mustard I had to buy some, since I’ve visited Monschau I love this mustard!

Admission: 6 € adults, 2 € children.

Address: Lange Straße, 33039 Nieheim

Website: http://www.westfalen-culinarium.de/