The Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen, NL

Put on your seatbelt because this one is quite the ride, which I want to keep together in one post.

This past Sunday Astrid and I drove 135km north to Enkhuizen to visit the Zuiderzee Museum on the shores of the IJsselmeer.  We had already visited the harbor briefly back in 2010, so I remembered it, but this time we were on a mission and we took Margreeth and Natascha with us.  Remember that they were the ones who encouraged us to buy the annual museum card, which we did.

So, here goes....

You enter the building, fetch your tickets, and grab the next boat to the open-air museum.

On that 15-minute boat ride, you pass the magnificent harbor of Enkhuizen, part of the museum fee.

And you end up at the chalk-factory chimneys, to start your open-air museum experience.

Before going off into the museum's town, we stopped at the bronze-age display near the chalk factory.

That's when I realized this museum was a lot about interactive play for kids of all ages.

That's the kind of museum I LOVE.

From the bronze-age site we walked along the shore to the museum's open-air village.

What you could see from the shore was its own special "museum."

But before we did anything else, we stopped at this darling café for koffie,

and to get our bearings (on a very off-n-on blustery, rainy day).

After koffie, first up was the fishing village.

(The Dutch use underground telephone lines today.)

The fun thing was to walk into the houses and see how they lived back then.

 And since it was the fishing village, we saw the fishing nets out everywhere.

Even real fish were being dried...which I wished I could have tried.

The windmill was nearby in the polder, where Astrid could demonstrate the drill for pumping out water.

As you'd guess, the animals were right at home, never guessing this was a museum.

 From the polder and fishing village we entered the Town Canal.
I just LOVE the little pedestrian bridges of the Netherlands, don't you?

I fell in love with all the boats everywhere within this open-air museum.
I love the Dutch harbors but canals are so cozy.

From that point we walked back-n-forth between the Town Canal and the Church Quarter.
After awhile my images started running together, but it doesn't matter.

We spent a lot of time in this man's sign/calligraphy shop.
It's a dying art and Astrid spent time talking to him intelligently about his profession.
She knows how hard it is because she once dabbled in it!

In fact, there were many professions/trades to see or watch in action.

I'm a sucker for tools of the trade, as you know by now.

 There even was a school where you could practice your penmanship skills.
See what I mean by interactive?!

Remember that this is an open-air museum.  It could be a real village!

 And just like everywhere, you had a chance to play.

The kids could even dress up from the dressing-up chest.
Doesn't this remind you of Humans of New York:  Microfashion!

 I don't think it gets better than this for an interactive museum.

Speaking of dressing up, there was even a room where you could find your shoe size
and try to walk around in wooden clogs.

You know the Dutch and their wooden shoes, of course.
They're everywhere, even if only for show.

 I told you this would be a ride!  There was something for everyone.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

As an aside, you may recall that we started our museum card in early May at another open-air museum, in Arnhem, NL:  the Openluchtmuseum.  I didn't think anything could get better than that.  But it did, with this Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen.  There are many similarities but also many differences.

Both museums have got to be right up at the top of the list of all open-air museums anywhere!

HILVERSUM, Netherlands: Astrid's Birthplace

After we spent those couple of hours in Lage Vuursche (last post) back on May 31, we drove the 10 km north into Hilversum, the city where Astrid was born and raised.  (And yes, it's the same city where the victims of MH17 are being identified...but we didn't know any of that back then.)

Hilversum is a city of ca. 87K inhabitants...with it's city center, the water tower from 1893 (top-right),
the new city hall, where Astrid's parents married on July 20,1949 (top-left), etc., etc.
Oh, and Meddens (right-center) was where Astrid had her first full-time window-dressing job.

But that's not what we went to see.

We went to see the places important to Astrid's growing-up years.

First up was the Mennonite Church where her family of 4 were all members.

Neighbors outside told Astrid the place is now a meditation/yoga center.

Primary school was from age 6-11, within walking distance from home.

Secondary school was from age 12-16, a bike ride away.

The stories I have heard about what happened at those side windows!!!

But it was Astrid's house...where she was born and raised...that made my day.

We parked the car across the street and walked through the side driveway to the back of the house...

where we met the Bosnian lady who now lives there with her family.

We stood and chatted out back, behind the house, with Astrid catching up on the neighborhood

since her mom's move to a senior center around 1999.

 Much to our surprise, the lady invited us in to see the house!

We walked in from the back, through the kitchen...saw the basement, 

the toilet room (without wash basin or shower)...

...the living room, dining room, foyer, sliding door, wood floors,

much of which was exactly as Astrid's dad had planned and built in her youth.

What was NOT there when she grew up was the central heating with wall radiators!

Upstairs was exactly how Astrid remembered it.

Her bedroom was on the left, brother Sander's on the right, facing the back yard,

with their parent's room at the the front of the house.

The upstairs bathroom has a sink and shower...but no toilet, which is very typical old Dutch.

I'm still pinching myself about seeing this with Astrid, from 60 years ago!

The memories, the stories.  Her whole family life was here in this place...and I got to see it.

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

It so happens that Hilversum has a museum and since we're trying to put our annual museum card to good use, we stopped in to see it.

It's in the old city hall where Astrid's parents actually got married July 20, 1949.

An "Oh My God" exhibition was going on at the time...

...asking the question, What do YOU believe?"

Of course, there were the other "normal" museum pieces, 

including information on Willem Dudok, the architect of many city buildings, like the new city hall.

 A lower floor had some bits-n-bobs to be seen....

But it was the renovated interior of the museum that enthralled me with it's columns down to the lower floor. Whether looking down or up, I felt I was in a holy, meditative space. It's what I will always remember most about this particular museum.

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Next up, nearby Laren and its museum, all in the same day!