Het Schip

Het schip museum is located in one of the public housing blocks designed by architect Michel de Klerk. It got its name because it reminds people of the ship (het schip). It is example of Amsterdam School Architecture from early 20 century. These public housing blocks were sponsored by rich people of Amsterdam, because they realised that the horrifying condition of living of the working class who were living in the centre of Amsterdam in small rooms (usually in attic or cellar) where they did not have windows or proper toilet, can be dangerous for them because if those people get sick due to bad hygiene they will get sick too. The museum tour starts at former post office. Then we walk around the building to one of the appartments to see how it looked inside and we finished it in café situated in another block where they had an exhibition showing lamps, post boxes, bins etc. designed for these areas.

this is how people had to live before

another block build by Klerk

Board the ship and sail !

On thursday August 7 we have visited Het Scheepvaart museum ( The National Maritime museum). The museum is showing how dutch culture was shaped by the sea. There are different themed exhibitions. In one you can learn everything about Amsterdam port and nowadys shipping. In this exhibition you can experience the way of shipping container being shipped from one place to another. There is also exhibition focusing on paintings,  on navigational instruments or on yacht models. There is aslo nice exhibition about whale hunting where you can actually step inside whale model to see how big her hart is. Everything is interactive and children-friendly so you will definitely not be bored. There is also interesting exhibition about slavery, where finaly after many years they are admitting it and apologizing for it and teaching people about it. The exhibition is focused on one particular ship with slaves which sank, you could experience in how hard conditions they were transported. Next to the museum there is exact copy of  Dutch East India Company ship of Amsterdam which you can explore. You can see where people slept, where they stored the food, walk on the  deck and imagine you are the sailor.

 Dutch East India Company ship

 exhibition about slaves