Tag-Archive for » museums «

Madurodam
Monday, May 24th, 2010 /

So Much to See at Madurodam

Today we went to Madurodam, “the Netherlands in miniature”.  Mommy went there when she was our age.   She still likes it and we like it too!  The whole country, from the famous churches to the port at Rotterdam to the flower fields is there in miniature.

The East Indiaman We Toured Last Week

There are trams, trains, cars, ships, barges and boats that move around the tracks, roads and canals.   There’s even a fire on a freighter that is put out by a fireboat.  And the bridges go up and down for the boats.

Maastricht in Miniature

All the plants are also miniature and to scale.  So there are miniature oak trees and miniature chestnut trees as well as alpine flowers.

Category: Uncategorized  Tags: ,  13 Comments
Slot Loevestein
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 /

Mommy and the boys went on an expedition to see a castle today (www.slotloevestein.nl).  We took one tram, two trains and a river ferry to get there.

On the Ferry Approaching the Castle

Slot Loevestein was built in the 14th century to control trade and traffic on the Rivers Waal and Maas.   It has star shaped ramparts surrounded by a moat and then a second moat inside the fortifications around the castle itself.  In the 17th century it was turned into a state prison.  Its most famous prisoner was the “father of international law” Hugo Grotius.  His wife arranged for him to escape from the prison in a chest of books (true).

The Drawbridge over the Inner Moat

We climbed all the way up to the top of the tallest tower.  The stairs were very steep and very narrow.

In the Castle Door

After we explored the castle we ran all the way around the ramparts, stopping to go up and down the sides and say hello to the lambs grazing on them.  The ferry took us back to the town of Gorinchem which still has its old star-shaped moat and city walls.  We watched four boats go through the locks, had some pizza and took two trains and one tram back to Scheveningen.

Sir Henry Protects the Castle

Category: Uncategorized  Tags:  13 Comments
A Fun Day in Amsterdam
Thursday, May 20th, 2010 /

Our Dutch friend Maarten invited us to visit him in Amsterdam so we took the early train and met him at the mailboxes in front of Central Station.  We hopped onto a canal boat that took us to the NEMO science museum.

The Magic of Pulleys

   There were so many interesting things to do in the museum that we had to have a break on the sundeck with a game of giant chess.  Then we toured the replica of the 18th century VOC (Dutch East India Company) merchant ship.  The docents on board showed us the navigational instruments, such as the long rope with a wooden board on the end and knots every few inches to measure speed.  We noticed that the officers had much better food than the men, and more privacy, but the ceiling on their quarters was so low that the grown-ups had to bend in half to walk into the captain’s stateroom.

Sailor Boys

We got back onto the tour barge and rode through the canals under several bridges to  Rembrantplein, where we had lunch.  It was the first warmish, sunny day all year, so of course we ate outside.  After that we walked for a bit, with a stop at the beautiful Beguinage for a moment of quiet and at the traditional Cafe Hoppe for an ice cold genever (for Daddies only).

William on the canal

 

Henry and Our Dutch Friend Maarten

 

We finished off our tour with what must be the national meal: pancakes.  Henry had pancake with apples and bananas, William had apples and raisins, Mommy had bananas and bacon, Maarten had a bacon pancake and Daddy had a wheat-free, dairy-free omlette.  It goes without saying that everyone who had a pancake had it with “stroop”, a Dutch syrup.  Every table in the restaurant had it’s own ceramic “bucket of stroop” with a big wooden spoon in it. 

Henry Puts Stroop on his Pannekoek

It was a great day.  Bedankt Maarten!

Category: Uncategorized  Tags: ,  13 Comments
Juggling at the Cathedral
Sunday, May 16th, 2010 /

On our second day in Antwerp we swam in the hotel pool and then took the bus to the port.   Antwerp is the seventh largest port in the world so we took a boat tour of the harbor.

Antwerp Harbor

After lunch we wandered over to the cathedral where a juggler was giving a show.  The boys laughed so hard that William got to be in the show!  He balanced a ball on a stick and he rode on the juggler’s shoulders as he rode around on a unicycle!

William Amuses the Crowd

After that we walked over to Het Steen, the castle that used to guard Antwerp Harbor.  Of course we had to stop for Belgian waffles with ice cream and then we hopped on the intercity train and came home to The Hague.

Het Steen, Antwerp

Category: Uncategorized  Tags:  13 Comments
The Delta Expo
Sunday, May 16th, 2010 /

Domburg is only 20 km from the Delta Expo, the exhibit about the gigantic engineering project that protects the Netherlands from flooding.  So we rented a bakfiets and a kindertandem to go see it.  The kindertandem is a tandem designed for a grown-up and a child to ride together.

Henry on the Kindertandem

William on the Kindertandem

The bike path took us through the dune woods, along some fields with grazing sheep, through a small town where we stopped for lunch and then over the giant storm surge barrier built after the catastrophic floods of 1953.  After about 3 hours of serious pedalling we made it to the Delta Expo.

The Expo had a film about the 1953 flood, exhibits about the historical creation of Zeeland by draining the sea and, of course, about the storm surge barrier we had just ridden across.

William Controlling the Storm Surge Barrier

Henry the Mussel

Outside at the Expo we saw a seal show, walked through a whale building and played in the water park.

It took only 70 minutes to ride back to Domburg with the wind at our backs.  We were ready for our pancake dinner!

Opening Up the Sluice Gates

Category: Uncategorized  Tags: , ,  13 Comments
The Railway Museum
Sunday, May 16th, 2010 /

We took the train to Utrecht to see the railway museum.  They had a special exhibit of royal carriages, some of which we could go into.  They are a lot more luxurious than the trains that we ride in!

Railway Boys Making a Getaway

You could also ride down a mine elevator down to an old mining village and saw the workshops where they made the first locomotive in the Netherlands and the first train station (in Amsterdam).

Kindertrein

There was even a scary roller coaster ride through a train yard.  The scariest part was when it got completely black and we dropped down with a train coming at us!

After that we had to go to the playground to ride the train.

Riding the Rails

Category: Uncategorized  Tags:  13 Comments
M. C. Escher Museum Visit
Saturday, February 13th, 2010 /
escher-fish

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is a world famous Dutch graphic artist, he worked mainly with woodcuts and lithographs.

Today we went to the Escher museum with Daddy. He is famous for his interesting transitional pictures.  Henry found the most interesting part was the Angel/Devil picture since it is the first time he has ever seen a picture of a devil.  Henry picked up this postcard on the right to remind him of his visit.

Since Escher did a lot of things in terms of perspective we really had fun in the ‘perspective’ room.  It really looks like Henry has had a growth spurt doesn’t it?

The other fascination was with the fancy chandeliers throughout the museum.  They had nothing to do with Escher but can you guess which one Henry loved most.

After the museum we decided to surprise mommy at the archives.  Lucky for us we ran into her at the train station and then took her out  for Indonesian food for dinner.


Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Category: Uncategorized  Tags:  13 Comments
A Foggy Day at the Beach
Sunday, January 24th, 2010 /

Today (Sunday) Mommy took us to the Scheveningen Museum.  Our neighborhood used to be a fishing village separated from the city of Den Haag by hilly sand dunes.   So the museum is full of models of fishing boats and the tools that fishermen used and lots and lots of sea shells and paintings of the fishing boats.  There’s a little room that’s just like the cabin that the herring fishermen used to live in while they were at sea.

So we decided to go to the beach ourselves to see what sea shells we could find.  First we stopped on the “boulevard” at the top of the beach for a snack from a kiosk.  Henry had a plain sausage and William had a paper cone of french fries with ketchup.  The tide was very, very low and it was foggy and about 34 degrees out.  But there were hundreds of people walking along the beach with their dogs and their baby buggies.  The tide was so far out that we could walk out on some causeways that are usually underwater.  They were covered in shells.  It was great.

Here’s a photo of the shells we found today.

The Shells We Found on 24/1/2010

By the way, the photograph at the top of the blog is of the beach at Scheveningen, where we were today.

Category: Uncategorized  Tags: ,  14 Comments
Henry and the Legionaire
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 /

On Sunday Mommy and Henry went to the Museon, a hands-on science museum just a bus ride away.  It’s full of interesting things like fossils, stuffed birds flying across the ceiling, and a badger tunnel.   Henry’s favorite was the room about the Romans.  It turns out that we are living very close to the site of a Roman settlement so we saw some metal clamps and bits of pottery that Romans left lying around our neighborhood.  But best of all was the mannequin of a Roman infantryman and the movie about being a Roman soldier.

Henry and a Roman Friend

William and Daddy stayed home to work on Daddy’s Dutch homework.

Category: Uncategorized  Tags:  13 Comments