Washington is loaded with worthy museums, and most try their hand at playing the 'fun' card. But few are as successful at it as the International Spy Museum, which is found in the city's newly-revived Penn Street district. How so? Well, espionage may be a serious subject (lipstick guns aren't a laughing matter, after all.) but this museum goes for a fully-immersive experience which is kept firmly tongue-in-cheek. You don't go to the International Spy Museum as a visitor. You go there as a spy.
On entry, you are placed in a room, and are given 5 minutes to memorise a chosen identity – a cover – for your spying activity. Once you're through this screening, you'll have to find your mission in the main hall. And it's the mission that will give you your path through the museum's galleries and their 600-plus artefacts. And you need to pay close attention to your briefing – the museum staff are 'police' who'll pick on visitors, to see if their cover story stands. You have been warned.
It's not all fun-and-games at the International Spy Museum, of course. There's a lot of serious ground covered in the exhibits too. One, called the 'Secret History of History' tells the tale of spying through the ages (apparently it is the world's second oldest profession). You'll learn about Moses' espionage activities, the cyphers of the Romans and Greeks, and the dangerous double-lives of secret agents in the Second World War. You can test your code-breaking in a wonderfully interactive exhibit that shows how the successful cracking of German codes changed WWII. And that most famous of fictional spies – British agent 007, James Bond – breaks cover for an exhibit covering Bond's most villainous villains.
If you want to take your espionage experience one-step further, you can always buy a ticket for museum's innovative 'Operation Spy' feature. This hour-long interactive exhibit throws you into a spy simulation that challenges you to prevent a nuclear weapon falling into the wrong hands. Real-time clues, complex puzzles, sound effects and motion sensors make this thrilling stuff indeed. And you never know, the kids might just enjoy it as much as you do.
