Nederlands Openlucht Museum

 Today was museum day. This time, however, it was an OPEN AIR MUSEUM!!!! Think Hoevander, or Pioneer Park, or the "Conservation Site" if you were a student in Bellingham of a certain vintage. Then give that place hundreds of acres, and millions of dollars. 

That's right, folks. We got windmills! We got canals! We got old trams! We got Egyptian Geese! We got chickens! We got old farm houses from hundreds of years ago that you could just go in and trapse about in. We got essentially a Dutch Disney for history and animal lovers--right down to an old timey tram that can run you from section to section in a circuit. All the buildings are authentic, and have their own history. They were moved to the site to help tell the history of mostly regular people of the Netherlands.

It took us a tram ride to Amsterdam Centraal, and a 60ish minute train ride to Arnhem which is south east of Amsterdam. From there it was a short bus ride to the Openlucht museum. We arrived a bit after 11, and began our day by walking to the left a bit through Erven. 

Erven (or "Farmfields") Had a series of buildings with enactors doing the thing that would have been done (in some capacity) in that building. There was a lady in an 18th century building spinning wool, in period garb (as far as I could tell). You could just watch this lady at her task, and you could wander around and look at all the period items that would have been with her in situ. Every building was like this (not necessarily with the people). 

We came across a home where Libby walked in and immediately turned to me and said, "I smell potato soup!" We walked into the kitchen and sure enough there was a lady preparing food with soup cooking on stoves around her. 

 We found a delicious lunch made up of sauscÿzenbroodje (sausage rolls), poffertjes (mine had cinnamon, apple, and raisins whereas Libby's was powdered sugar, custard, and some canned pear). They were DE-LIC-OUS. For a drink Libby had tasty iced tea that was also carbonated which is genius, and I had some made on-site beer. 

Wood lathe

We eventually meandered to Dorp (Village) where we saw their fishing home, and a  boat building area with a cute dock and some boats. This was some of the most idyllic and beautiful areas for me. I love a canal.  

Goslings of two different kinds. 

Selfie

A curious chicken

Nearly all the farmhouses had "box beds" these were very short beds built into the wall like cupboards. They had the actual beds inside and it kind of seemed like they slept semi upright. 

After knocking around Dorp we took the tram to Tunien (Gardens) where we saw some cool topiary, a bunch of trees trained into an arch, and a greenhouse. 

The tram took us to Platteland next, where we saw the majority of our farm animals (including our first in-person experience with bantam (bred small) chickens. We ran across three or four groups of chickens, and heard roosters a fair bit which was fun. After that we decided to head back to the main complex, run through the gift shop and head home. 

The museum really tried to show the gamut of living situations. From the very rich who could connect two apple trees via training it, to the poorest of poor day laborers that lived in a sod hut. 

Dinner involved burgers (Libby chicken Janet beef) and I had a Kapsolon. The Kapsolon is comprised of a bed of fries, a meat (I chose chicken AND shawarma ("shoarma"), two kinds of cheese, some mystery sauce, lettuce, tomato, olives, and pickle. I kinda froze on the veg options so it turned out weird. 

Tomorrow is our last food tour.