Aye Aye Captain..Life of a mariner captured in museum

Narrow streets above wide canals, tourists cycling…1000z of parked cycle’s coffee shops, fantastic museums cheese to die for. Whenever I thought of Amsterdam I could only visualize of two things one of the beautiful girls in the red light district dressed to kill and second being squiffed with marijuana and alcohol but in real Amsterdam city had to offer more than that.

 

Yes every time I watched Queen (bollywood movie) I wanted to visit this place.
Amsterdam is where modern architecture developed organically between facades of historical buildings. The city has outstanding museums and theaters. The intimacy of the streets, canals and squares create an atmosphere that visitors find unique.

One of the best part of my visit to Amsterdam was –Scheepvaartmuseum. To be honest, I am not a kind who will visit any museum, I can visit any number of clubs any number of times..I imagine museums as a place that kills me with boredom.
However The Scheepvaartmuseum a.k.a The National Maritime Museum is an exceptional!

I have never been happier spending much of one full day going through all the exhibits and the real ship out at the dock imagining as if I was a captain 300 years ago……
Nothing was spared to make this place a treasure trove of information, paintings, and ship models.

The building itself is very nice and the history of the Dutch shipping industry was educational. The exhibition of the museum is divided into many sections. The information’s are many as per you interest. From discovery and history of Atlases to the day to day equipments used by sailors to different type of Yatch models everything is there. There was also a section dedicated to Whale hunting.  Totally amazing would be a real understatement.  This is the place to be if you want to see a collection of objects, sorted by topic. The new ship replica was excellent, and that justified the 15 Euro entrance, we began with the Golden Age, which is very well presented. On entry there is an audiovisual introducing a group of people from the period, including a cartographer, a diplomat and a young boy. Their lives are covered during the walk-though, with a summary at the end.

The dark side of the empire is not neglected with a stark exhibition on the slave trade. It gave us so much more information into the Dutch Slave Trade. Atleast I was not aware of the fact that almost 5 million black slaves had been traded.

The visit to museum also provides an opportunity to feel what life was like on board in 17th century.

East Indiaman Amsterdam!
This is a exact copy of real size ship with that name which was set sail on North Sea in 1749. Unfortunately this ship was caught in the storm and though attempted to save but later sank in sea near the coast.

This was my favorite museum in Amsterdam. It was so unique 🙂