With the ‘last day in the Netherlands’ now pencilled into my diary, I’m in panic mode. But, I haven’t done this, I haven’t been there, I haven’t got my money’s worth out of my annual museumkaart...
The Museumkaart is a wonderful thing. For less than 60 euros a year it gives you access to nearly every museum in the Netherlands, and as individual entrance fees are between 10-15 euros, it’s a very good deal. If you use it.
A wet weekend is the ideal incentive to seek out some culture. The Hague is currently celebrating 100 years of Mondrian and the De Stijl movement, so we took a trip to the Gemente Museum to view the more permanent works of art as opposed to the red, blue and yellow seagull floats outside the Binnenhof. Another lure of the Gemente Museum was to catch the last few days of the Hubert De Givenchy exhibition – a collection of the fashion designer’s most iconic costumes, including several worn by Audrey Hepburn, a Dutch national treasure. Quite naturally, the exhibition featured that Little Black Dress, and I too could don the Audrey hat and sunglasses for a dress-up session in the photo booth, or at least I could, if the photo booth had been working.
From the Gemente we went next door to the Foto museum, where Mr T was positively inspired by the idea of transforming mundane subject matter into pictures of interest. On our walk home he insisted on snapping pics of parked cars, the beginnings, apparently, of a possible coffee table book.
The following day we headed down to the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam, where one of the new features is the ‘off-shore experience’. More dressing up was required – hard hat, florescent jacket, and following a safety film about what to do if your helicopter crashes (if I was a child – and it is aimed at children - I’d have been completely terrified at this point) you head up a staircase to a simulated oil-rig in the North Sea – complete with wind effect where you can press lots of buttons and pretend you control pipelines. Home from home for Mr T.
There are several old vessels to explore outside in the museum harbour, including a traditional Dutch barge which was used to transport coal, sand and peat, back in the day when Dutch people were considerably shorter than they are now – even I had to bend my head in the living quarters, which incidentally were about the size of an average family bathroom. Even more fascinating was learning that the family who lived on this particular barge had six children - there wasn't room to swing a cat let alone a child. However, the kindly curator showed us a photograph of the children strapped together on the canal bank towing the barge - children being cheaper than the cost of buying and keeping horse. Not now they're not.
A good weekend's worth of knowledge gained. Now I just have to get my money's worth out of the spa membership. It'll be tough.
(Not a picture of ex-pat wives on a day out but more outfits from the De Givenchy range)
There are several old vessels to explore outside in the museum harbour, including a traditional Dutch barge which was used to transport coal, sand and peat, back in the day when Dutch people were considerably shorter than they are now – even I had to bend my head in the living quarters, which incidentally were about the size of an average family bathroom. Even more fascinating was learning that the family who lived on this particular barge had six children - there wasn't room to swing a cat let alone a child. However, the kindly curator showed us a photograph of the children strapped together on the canal bank towing the barge - children being cheaper than the cost of buying and keeping horse. Not now they're not.
A good weekend's worth of knowledge gained. Now I just have to get my money's worth out of the spa membership. It'll be tough.
(Not a picture of ex-pat wives on a day out but more outfits from the De Givenchy range)
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