Touching is encouraged here: whether a historic farmhouse or Roman amphitheatre, the buildings in the open-air museums are not just backdrops, but walk-in replicas in their original design that invite you to take an exciting journey through time. For example, children and adults can use a washboard and tamper to find out for themselves how labour-intensive washing clothes once was, cook with a museum farmer's wife according to old recipes from the herb and vegetable garden or get to know and try out elements of Roman hydraulic engineering on a water playground. Whether travelling back to the 19th century or to the time before the birth of Christ, whether on the Rhine, Ruhr or at the foot of the Teutoburg Forest: in the open-air museums in NRW, the life of people in the past is not just theory.
