Near Frankfurt is Hessen Park Open Air Museum, which is a fantastic way to see how people lived in this part of Germany for 400 years. With more than a 100 buildings on over 150 acres, it has the feel of a small village.
Jo, just wondering... has their been any progress there in the past two years? I enjoyed taking my dog on walks through the park, but the last time I visited, it was only about half complete.
The Openluchtmuseum at Domain Bokrijk near Hasselt in Belgium is probably the best example I've visited anywhere. They've replicated not just rural environments, but some urban ones as well. A good reminder that many of our ancestors probably lived in cities and towns as well as rural communities.
The massive Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnburg has an extremely large collection of folk artifacts.
... the(re sic) are still places in parts of Eastern Europe that have changed so little in 3 generations that they also provide a window to the past. My impression of some parts of the former Yugoslavia is that things have changed greatly, but the situation was often a regression to the past, rather than maintenance of it. I recall seeing the rusting, hulking ruins of 20th century industry and mechanized agriculture, while the people who lived there reverted back to the traditional occupations of their ancestors after the organs of the centralized state collapsed. Even in parts of the former east Germany, like Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg, the forced industrialization of the post-war period seems like it's fading into distant memory, whilst the remaining population reverts back to agriculture (although not pre-industrial practices).
