I know when you go to a museum you are supposed to stand in awe at exhibits that are centuries-old, or give yourself an interactive education in one subject or another, emerging from your experience bristling with new knowledge. What really blew me away at the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum (the Maritime Museum), however, was the amazing roof over the courtyard. Look at it!
Look at the shadows it casts!
I could have quite happily sat in the courtyard and watched the shadows make their way around the walls, overtaking and overlapping each other as if a hundred sundials from different ages were all searching for a single but elusive point in time. But actually this was not why we were here. Having seen The Amsterdam VOC, we headed off to learn about the Dutch slave trade and whaling. On the way we stepped into an interactive cargo container and went for a virtual trip on a container ship, which was a strange experience to say the least. The whaling exhibit was particularly interesting, as was its furniture. I wonder if you can order sofas like these on the internet?
Points on this part of our Day 3 walk through Amsterdam (copy and paste the co-ordinates into Google Earth):
- Roof of the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum: N 52° 22.298 E 004° 54.885
Walk Statistics (of which this post forms the third part):
- Date of Walk: 30 August 2013
- Walk/paddle distance covered: 7.10 miles
- CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP!!!
The Coastal Path 