The Netherlands counts hundreds of museums on all different kinds of art and history. Luckily for the parents amongst us, plenty museums offer educative and interactive museums, not just the look-but-don’t-touch museums. Take your children on an adventure into science or archeology.
NEMO Science Museum
At the NEMO Science Museum, located close to Amsterdam Central Station, all generations can learn a thing or two about science. With the help of small experiments and interactive tunnels, learning turns into an exciting adventure. You can also visit the workplace at NEMO. Here, people work on prototypes of exhibits and demonstration objects every single day. Learn everything about the human body, technology in and around the house, energy, and light in a fun and interactive way.
Read more about the NEMO Science Museum here.
Naturalis Biodiversity Center
The Naturalis Biodiversity Center – or simply Naturalis for short – you can view a beautiful collection of nature’s history. Go on an adventure and see extinct animals, such as the dodo, from up close. Stand eye to eye with dinosaurs or see the massive skeletons from the largest sea creatures in history. Unfortunately, the museum is currently closed till late 2018, due to a major renovation. However, it holds an exposition called GIF!. GIF!, which means ‘poison’ in Dutch, is an exhibition all about this mysterious and, sometimes, dangerous substance. The exhibition shows live, poisonous animals, but also which plants and minerals have poison in them. You will learn about how poison works and gets formed in this exhibition, which will end on September 2nd 2018.
Read more about the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden here.
This snake, among many other poisonous animals, can be found at the GIF! exposition at Naturalis. PICTURE: MARTEN VAN DIJL / NATURALIS
The National Military Museum
Visit the National Military Museum in Soest and introduce your children to the meaning of the Dutch military in the past, present, and future. The collection holds items starting with the arrows from the Stone Age, continuing on to the Medieval swords and harnesses, all the way up to the current weapon systems. View the planes, canons, tanks, and seven different jet fighters. The cherry on top of the cake is the V2. This was the first operational and controllable rocket. The Netherlands was the first country in the world to use this. It was used to fight the Nazi-Germans towards the end of World War II.
Read more about the National Military Museum here.
This plane is part of the impressive collection of the National Military Museum
The Kazamattenmuseum
At the Kazemattenmuseum in Kornwerderzand you can see the only place in Europe where, in 1940, the German Blietzkrieg couldn’t continue. With only 225 Dutch soldiers, the Netherlands successfully stopped the 150.000 German soldiers. View the weapons, the places the soldiers slept, and the lookout posts. With the help of today’s technology, you can feel what the soldiers felt. Hear the sounds of guns, bombs, and the soldiers’ screams. Find out about how the famous Kazematten were build and learn all about the time after the liberation.
Read more about the Kazemattenmuseum here.
The Louwman Museum
The Louwman Museum in The Hague holds the largest automobile collection in the Netherlands. You can view the development of cars starting at the year 1886 all the way to 2004. The collection not only holds a large amount of toy cars, it also features cars that had famous owners. For instance, James Bond, Sir Winston Churchill, and Elvis Presley. Perhaps the most special car is the one that the extravagant and rich Scotsman Robert Matthewson built in 1910. The car, shaped like a swan, is the most expensive car to ever be build. Unfortunately, Robert could only enjoy his creation shortly. During his first ride the car caused such an uproar, that the police took it off the road.
Read more about the Louwman Museum here.
Take a look at this collection of Ferrari’s at the Louwman Museum.
The Speelgoedmuseum (The Toy Museum)
For the younger ones, the Netherlands has a toy museum. The Speelgoedmuseum in Deventer holds the largest collection of toys in the Netherlands. Follow, for example, the history of the doll, as this museum has dolls from hundreds of years ago, to the modern-day Barbie. For the doll-lovers, there are multiple dollhouses, as well as a dollroom with tons of dolls from every era. Watch the miniature trains go by through a beautifully designed landscape, or see the big collection of toy cars. Let your eyes fool you in the Optica-room, where you can see optical illusions, the precursor of photography, and laugh about yourselves in the distorting mirrors.
Read more about The Toy Museum here.
The Doe Museum (The Do Museum)
Get creative in this museum in Veendam where you’re not just looking at art, you’re creating it. Use a spray can, a paintbrush, or a handful of LEGO bricks and make the most beautiful creations. Look at the permanent collection ‘Bricks’. Here you can view the most gorgeous creations made using LEGO or Bricks (the museum’s own adaption of LEGO). And of course, you can not only just view it, you can make your own art work. Buy your own artwork and take it home with you or give it a worthy place in the collection. More into drawing or painting? Buy a canvas – €3 or €5, depending on the size of the canvas you choose – and get creative with the big variety of spray cans, paintbrushes, and pencils.
Read more about The Toy Museum here.
Make your own beautiful creations with LEGO at The Do Museum.
