Open air museums - it's like living history!
There are places in the Netherlands, museums in fact, that allow you and your family to learn about the life and culture of the Dutch people from different periods in history. I was amazed at how detailed some of their exhibits were, both indoor and outdoor. That captures the attention and imagination of the mind, especially of our little ones. Whenever we have visitors, both foreign or local from neighbouring cities, we encourage them to visit these awesome places of learning and history. Certainly fun for the kids!
ARCHEON
Archeon is an open air museum located in the city of Alphen aan den Rijn. It features different historical periods of the region arranged in order so at the front of the park (or rather, the open air museum), you are first greeted with the earlier periods from the Mesolithic (Middle Stone) Age. It’s such a treat to see men, women and children dressed as hunters and gatherers and you can ask them questions about ‘their life’ as if you’ve been sucked back in time to the stone age, or even the bronze age or the iron age.
In the middle of the park is where you will find the exhibits during the time of the Vikings and the Romans during the Medieval period. If you’re lucky you can time your visit when they have a sword fight or a gladiator show!
There are a lot of activities around the museum for kids to participate in as well as for grown ups like archery shooting, pottery and candle making. There are a variety of historical collections on display housed in designated areas for visitors to see and ask around about
Did you know that houses, farms and huts in Archeon are home to Archeo-interpreters? These are some of the men and women you'll see dressed in the clothings of the time that you can ask questions about on any period you wish. Cool, right?
PREHISTORIC VILLAGE EINDHOVEN
Similar to Archeon, but located in the southern province of Brabant in the city of Eindhoven is the Prehistoric village Eindhoven. A bit smaller in size but certainly as fun and interesting, this village features the lives of the first farmers who worked in the south from about 15,000 years ago! Families can also participate in learning about medieval craftsmanship like metal forging, pottery wheel throwing and various other historical activities like archery, making amulets or sailing a canoe. My sons even learned how to bake bread!
My boys always enjoy their time in both museums and luckily we have a museum card which is a subscription card available to families that allows us free entrance to hundreds of museums around the country. It is definitely worth having these cards especially for us because we love to go out on the weekends and explore as a family! The cards also allow us to travel to farther places in the Netherlands, so it also feels like we went out of town and yet our attractions are for free!
Would you like to know more about the places that we go visit, especially museums here in the Netherlands? Please check out the various playlists our Youtube Channel and enjoy watching!