Amsterdams Historisch Museum

Kylie needed to go to Amerstam to visit a speciality chocolate shop in order to purchase some different types of chocolate - all 100% chocolate - for a school chocolate tasting event.   It was half term term, so a combined visit to the chocolate shop for Kylie and a visit to the museum for all of us seemed a perfect way to spend a day during the October school holidays.    Or so we thought, but the centre of Amsterdam is not child friendly, given that it is always full of tourists, and often full of dodgy tourists who are there for drunken events.    

The train trip from Utrecht, was quick and uneventful.   As we now have an OV Chipcard (similar to an Oyster Card) it is a matter of scanning our cards, rather than worrying about having enough coins to purchase tickets, from the machine in Houten.   

A note of warning for tourists. The ticket machines in Holland only accept credit or debit cards from the Netherlands, and small stations do not have ticket offices, so it is impossible to purchase tickets over the counter.   The ticket machines will not accept notes either.  So it is important to have two Euro and one Euro coins, many of them, ready to put into the machines.  The trams in Amsterdam will only accept OV Chipcards, which need to be purchased from railway stations, although I have been told that hotels in Amsterdam hold OV Chipcards, and will lend them to their guests, at a cost of course.

We arrived at Amsterdam Central Railway Station, which is a much cleaner station than it was twenty years ago.   No longer is it full of drug dealers, homeless, and general shifty types, although I still keep my handbag close to me.    It is a most magnificent building though.  

And we walked down narrow streets, with a large buggy and two children, trying to avoid cyclists and pedestrians.     This beautiful building is now a shopping centre, with a hotel on the right hand side.

Finally we arrived at the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, which was once an orphanage, and housed children who were either orphaned or from families that could no longer care for them.    The central passage, where once sat the patrons of the orphanage, and who interviewed and gathered together children who needed to enter the orphanage.   It is now covered with a glass roof and has an amazing carpet which is made up of different designs.   

On one of the walls is a painting, which depicts the people and history of Amsterdam.    Anna Frank is in the bottom left hand corner.

The museum is not child friendly, or at least not if they are in a buggy.   There were three steps at the front door with a complicated lift for wheelchairs, which we were not allowed to use.   A ramp would have been more user friendly for everyone, and there was enough space for it.    Although there were lifts, there were many steps in the building, so not good for buggies or wheelchairs.    There were no children in the museum either, even though it was school holidays.

The first floor held Amsterdam DNA, which brought history to life, through image, sound, movement and specially chosen objects.   We spent a long time on this floor, and it was fascinating as it showed how Amsterdam began, and various important historical events.   It was very impressive and very informative. Raphy loved all the moving images.    When you pedalled the old bikes, the screen came to life

and showed the traffic moving around on the roads, early last century.

We went down to 'The Little Orphanage', which was the former residence of the headmaster of the orphanage.   Various steps and a narrow hall way meant an impossible situation with a buggy.   The door only opened if you used a special device that only the children were given, so it felt claustrophobic.    Raphy screamed in terror, and luckily there was an attendant who let us out another door.    There were no other children in there which added to the feeling of isolation.  Mia and Abi would not go back in either.

So back to the corridor between the two parts of the museum.    Goliath standing tall, and looking very fearsome.

A view through the doorway into the corridor.   Very impressive.

We walked back via Kalver Straat, the main shopping street, full of tourists but very few children.   Then a slight detour into the Bagijnhof, which were once cottages for single Catholic women of good character, and who did not wish to take full vows and join the convent.   The main church is now a Dutch Reformed Church but there is still a small Catholic Chapel.     It is a very peaceful area, away from the shops and tourists in Kalver Straat.

I obviously took this photo of Kalver Straat in a picturesque part.    The street is always full of shoppers.

And thankfully home again.    I must remember not to visit the centre of Amsterdam again!   Kylie was really happy with her selection of 100% chocolate, so success there.