Game of Thrones madness is in full swing right now. The HBO show’s eighth and final season is currently airing, with an epic series finale scheduled for May 19, 2019. Sunday night socializing has ground to a halt for us as we huddle around our television set, hanging on every word and concocting new conspiracy theories.
But what if you’re itching to get your Westeros fix on the other six days of the week? Or what if your significant other keeps repeating “Winter is coming” and you think he’s crazy because it’s summer now, that fool? Whether you’re a hardcore fan or have no clue what a White Walker is, here’s why you’ll want to head to NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Museum Hack Game of Thrones-inspired tour.
But First, What Is Museum Hack?
Put simply: Museum Hack offers saucy, snappy renegade tours of the world’s best museums. Founder Nick Gray created Museum Hack in 2013 to solve “museum apathy” and make museums more dynamic and exciting for those of us who just want to exit through the damn gift shop already! The company offers tours at six major museums in the U.S., two of which are in NYC (the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History).
Basically, if you usually think that museums are dark and full of terrors, Museum Hack can change all of that for you — I swear upon the Iron Throne.
Museum Hack’s renegade museum tours are known for being sassy, interactive, and full of amusing museum photo opps. Photo Credit: Museum Hack
OK, But Why Take the Museum Hack Game of Thrones Tour?
I’m no stranger to Museum Hack’s tours: I’ve been a fan of theirs since taking the fantastic Museum Hack Tour of NYC’s American Museum of Natural History last year. I’d been dying to take Mr. Five O’Clock on one of their tours, so when they announced the return of their Museum Hack Game of Thrones-inspired tour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I knew we had to go.
Time to hit the Met for Museum Hack’s latest tour!
Humorously titled “Winter Might Be Coming – The Completely Unofficial Thrones Tour,” Museum Hack has been running this Game of Thrones-inspired tour seasonally since 2017. According to legends of yore — er, the company’s website — Museum Hack has “mined the Met for George RR Martin’s real-life inspiration and chose the examples most likely to knock a wildling’s boots off.”
The tour is marketed for “enthusiasts and dabblers alike,” which was perfect for us. While Mr. Five O’Clock can recite the Targaryen family tree without looking, I know nothing, Jon Snow. (Well, not nothing. I’ve watched each episode of the HBO series once and have clearly retained the classic one-liners so I can spout them out at parties.) Taking a tour with my Thrones-obsessed husband? Ah, the things I do for love.
📖 Have you read the Game of Thrones books yet, or do you just watch the TV show? I’m about to start reading the first book, A Game of Thrones (the whole series is called A Song of Ice and Fire). Better late than never!
Winter Might Be Coming: A Review of the Museum Hack Game of Thrones Tour
Similar to my first Museum Hack tour, meeting up with our guide was a snap. Anna texted us about an hour prior to the tour’s start time, alerting us that she’d be standing by the Egyptian Pharaoh statue in the Great Hall at 2:45 PM to greet us. With the size of this guy, he’s pretty hard to miss.
Super easy to find our meeting point at the Pharaoh statue!
Anna’s visible Museum Hack sign made her easy to spot. After gathering our group, we rode some dragons zipped up the escalator in true Museum Hack cardio-busting fashion to our first stop of the day.
If Westeros Isn’t *Technically* Real, What Do You See?
No, you’re not going to find Needle (Arya Stark’s sword) or an Iron Coin of the Faceless Man here at the Met. But you will look at the art in the Met in a different light after hearing hilarious and stranger-than-life tales about how they (may have) inspired one George R.R. Martin.
I won’t give away too many tour spoilers here, but here’s a few highlights so you get an idea of what to expect.
Valyrian Steel vs. Damascus Steel
Familiar with Valyrian steel? Looks like it was inspired by Damascus steel, which was on display at the Met. It’s not quite known how ancient Damascus steel was actually made. We do know, however, that it’s a composite of different types of metal.
Different stories abound about how ancient Damascus steel was tempered (i.e., hardened). Legend has it that you could run the heated sword through the body of a strong man (who died doing this, obviously) to absorb his strength or have a redhead urinate on it. Why it had to be redheads, though, I’m not sure…
Anna shared helpful Game of Thrones video clips on her tablet that jogged our memories about Valyrian steel.
Astrolabes
If you’ve ever watched the opening credits of Game of Thrones, you’ve probably seen some circular objects appear during the title sequence. These disks, called astrolabes, are also on display at the Met. Astrolabes were invented back between 220 and 150 BC; the instruments were used to make astronomical measurements and helped with calculating latitude.
Astrolabes can be used to identify planets and stars, among other things.
Mother of Dragons
St. Margaret of Antioch, we learned as we gazed upon this statue called Saint Margaret and the Dragon, was kind of the OG Mother of Dragons. She did not have an easy life — she died at age 15, and was cruelly tortured when she refused to renounce Christianity as part of a (ridiculous) marriage proposal.
During her torture, Margaret was apparently swallowed by Satan (in the shape of a dragon) and she miraculously survived when the cross she was carrying irritated the dragon’s insides. OK, I’m seeing *some* similarities to Daenerys Targaryen, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea.
Saint Margaret and the Dragon statue, ca. 1475, at the Met
At this point in the tour, Anna let us know that, oh yeah, by the way, SHE LED EMILIA CLARKE’S PRIVATE MUSEUM HACK GAME OF THRONES TOUR AT THE MET. Um, what?? Apparently Clarke took one look at the St. Margaret statue and said, “Oh! I had to wear a wig that looked like that.” Because of course. 🤣
Game of Photos: Where You Win or You Really Don’t
Part of what sets Museum Hack’s tours apart is the interactive elements of their tours. In this instance, we selected a house to represent (I chose House Stark) and were tasked with taking as many photos of dogs and dragons as possible throughout the tour. For each photo we snapped, we’d score a point; whoever had the most points at the end would be declared the winner.
One small catch: if we took a photo of another person taking a photo of a dog or dragon, we could “steal” a point from that person. Needless to say, we had to watch our backs during the whole 90 minutes we were in the museum.
Spotted!
Turns out there’s a surprising number of dogs at The Met… if you know where to look. Most of these were captured by Mr. Five O’Clock, though I tricked him into making a dog-like shadow and caught it on film (upper left image, seen below), which makes me pretty proud.
In a separate activity, Anna asked us to find an object in the museum, take a photo of it, and share how the object led to her (fake) demise. Most people gave 10-second summaries, but me? Oh no. My tale of death and destruction involved an elaborate, jealous ex-lover’s plot to drown her because she was a witch. A+ for effort, I guess!
Storytelling at the Met, where I got really into my made up tale about Anna’s death and won a chocolate (dragon’s?) egg for my skills.
The Verdict
Museum Hack’s Game of Thrones-inspired tour was just as fun and interactive as my previous Museum Hack tour. I enjoyed seeing the Met’s artwork in a fresh and entertaining way, and our tour guide had an abundance of energy that kept us on our toes. As someone who doesn’t know Game of Thrones as well as others, some of the references were lost on me (which was difficult as we zipped through the museum at a rapid pace), but overall, I felt it was a well-spent ninety minutes.
Practical Info
- Museum Hack’s Game of Thrones-Inspired Tour costs $59 per person and takes place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
- Tours currently run for a limited time only on Saturdays through May 25, 2019. (Be sure to check the Museum Hack website for the most up-to-date pricing and availability.)
- Tour Length: 90 minutes
- Tickets are available online here.
Pro Tip ⇒ Tips for your guide are not included in the ticket cost, so be sure to budget some extra moola for tips!
Essential Info:
Where should you stay in New York City? Check out all options here.
Want a guidebook for New York City? I recommend this guidebook.
Where else have I visited in New York lately? Beacon, NY and Coney Island Brewery.
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Feature photo credit: Museum Hack.
Thank you to Museum Hack for providing us with a complementary tour. As always, opinions are 100% my own, and not even a chocolate egg can change that. For more thirsty adventures, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Jenn and Ed Coleman
Museum hacks definitely seem like a way to make museums more fun. I was always sort of a bee-line to the gift shop kind of guy. Although, back in college (when my eyesight) was better I would love sitting at the back of the display and reading the plaque. The people would look amazed at my knowledge and then approach to read it the plaque to confirm my claims. Of course, since we used the same source I was always right.