Amsterdam - museums, etc.?
 

My husband and I are an active recently-retired couple going to Amsterdam for the first time in mid-October. We'll be there a week and we love museums, history, etc. I am wondering if we should purchase the Museum Card? We've already reserved the Anne Frank House. Any other suggestions -- sites, restaurants, etc. -- would be welcome! Thank you!

The Museumjaarkart is now not nearly as good value as it used to be, since it's very complicated and time consuming to get one. Basically they restricted the use of the card for locals, but they didn't want to say this directly, so what they did is complicating what used to be a simple on the spot purchase of the card and making sure that short term visitors to the Netherlands won't be able to get one. You can now only get a temporary card on the spot, but this is valid only for something like 5 museums visits.

Since you have a week make sure to spend a few days outside of Amsterdam. Most of Holland is very close to Amsterdam, and even further regions of The Netherlands are well within a daytrip distance and Amsterdam is pretty much a transport hub.

For trips around Amsterdam use the Amsterdam and Region Travel Ticket, the 3 day version is very good value if you do more than just 1 simple return trip.

https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/plan-y...-travel-ticket

https://www.tropenmuseum.nl/en i found the Tropenmuseum very interesting. I wouldn't call it a must-do but it was a fun thing to do on a rainy day. Visiting Vondelpark was my other favorite thing. Wasn't so much a fan of the most central area (train station, RLD, the Dam) but did enjoy walking all around there one day. Leidseplein square at night where there were street performers.

I'm no expert but those were the highlights of my one visit to the city.

I'd call it a must do, along with the Scheepvaartmuseum(maritime musuem) since shipping, discoveries, trade, conquest, colonisation were integral part of Dutch history and shaped the country as we know it today. You can learn a lot more about the Netherlands in these museums than in the overrated, overpriced and overvisited Anne Frank House.

this is so helpful. many thanks....

That's good to know BDKR. I found it unusual and extremely interesting but I rarely see it mentioned when people are planning their trips and like I said I only have one trip's worth of experience. I walked there across the city that museum day so saw an entirely different area than the central core, that part was interesting as well.

As far as restaurant recommendations I just wandered I didn't do anything planned or special or particularly regional. The best meals I had were Italian and Greek, who knew? :-)

I can't visit Amsterdam without going to Het Loo to the Krüller-Müller Museum. I just love that place. It's a bit of a schlep, but a pretty one, and it doesn't take up a whole day.

Het Loo is presently closed for renovations.
The gardens are open.

For a "Kröller-Müller" experience that's in the western Netherlands:
Museum Voorlinden, near The Hague.

Is the Kruller-Muller accessible by public transportation? Would love to go if it is.

Pretty much any place in the Netherlands is accessible by public transit, including the Kröller-Müller Museum.

https://krollermuller.nl/en/address-and-route

Oooops! Typo! It's Kröller-Müller.

We took a bus from Amsterdam. It left us off at the side of the road, and a minivan came and picked us to to take us up to the museum grounds. I can probably dig up the info, but not for a couple of days.

Menachem, am I confused about where the museum is?

We also absolutely loved Den Bosch, BTW.

That's true, but it's rather involved travel. We know the system well and even we were caught out in Otterlo going back to "the West", last summer.

The usual route is: take train to Ede-Wageningen station, get on bus to Otterlo, change busses in Otterlo to get to the Hoge Veluwe park entrance (you need to buy an entrance ticket to the park and a museum ticket), borrow bike to get to the museum.

Alternatively, there's a minibus excursion from Amsterdam, costing €149 per person

Again, quite involved. I do recommend Voorlinden for a similar experience, although Voorlinden's focus is on contemporary art.

You're right, Menachem; that's what we did. I didn't find it too involved, and we walked to the museum, no bikes.

I didn't know about Voorlinden. Thanks!

Thanks, all...and still wondering if there is a museum pass you recommend our getting? Holland or Museum Card?

It's gorgeous and set in such a beautiful area, between The Hague and Wassenaar. The park surrounding it is wonderful for a stroll and the museum itself and its curatorial choices (by the former Director of the Rijksmuseum) are quite spectacular. Nice restaurant and cafe too.

Depends on the calculation. If you think you'll do 5 museums, then the Museum Card is a no-brainer. If you do the "big 3" only, then the Holland Card is better.

What about the Rijksmuseum? Loved it when we were there.

Two more museums we especially enjoyed in Amsterdam.

Dutch Resistance Museum. Here is a recent news article about it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...?noredirect=on

Amsterdam History Museum. Very contemporary presentation. Presented in chronological order. Be sure to allow enough time for the end which about contemporary life in Amsterdam. https://www.amsterdammuseum.nl/en

The English name Dutch Resistance Museum suggests it deals with organized underground fighting during WW2. Not so much, actually. The emphasis is on how ordinary citizens endured the Occupation, especially since so many men had been taken away into forced labour for Germany. The running theme asks how the viewer would have reacted, or what decisions would be taken, just to find food and survival.
Plus, when I was there a few years ago,l a section was devoted to resistance against the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies, the immense Dutch colon know called Indonesia. As a North American I knew little about this side of the war, destructive then and of great significance after the peace when the Dutch tried to take the colony back.

"The emphasis is on how ordinary citizens endured the Occupation, especially since so many men had been taken away into forced labour for Germany."

Are there any exhibits about the Dutch men who volunteered to fight along Germany in the Waffen SS?

https://dutchmilitaria.com/product/d...orm-nederland/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23rd_S...sion_Nederland

A bit. But the fact that the Dutch SS volunteer contingent was one of the largest in Europe, proportionally, still touches an open nerve. As does the fact that NL is the country with the highest percentage of deported and murdered jews. That, like the colonial war starting in 1946 (in which many of the SS volunteers were offered a lighter sentence or even suspension of their sentence if they "volunteered" for KNIL, is usually swept under the carpet.

On that subject, it has recently come to light that those former SS volunteers from the Netherlands and also Belgium have been receiving a regular pension from Germany; those still alive are still receiving that war pension today.

You can say a lot of bad things about Germany, but they didn't let down the soldiers fighting for them.

When they realised in the 60's that their former colonial soldiers(Askaris) from German East Africa(today Tanzania) didn't recieve their pensions for decades due to WWII and harsh years which followed they decided to find the soldiers still alive and pay what Germany owed them."The Weimar Republic and pre-war Nazi Germany provided pension payments to the German askaris. Due to interruptions during the worldwide depression and World War II, the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) voted in 1964 to fund the back pay of the askaris still alive. The West German embassy at Dar es Salaam identified approximately 350 ex-askaris and set up a temporary cashiers office at Mwanza on Lake Victoria.Only a few claimants could produce the certificates given to them in 1918; others provided pieces of their old uniforms as proof of service. The banker who had brought the money came up with an idea: as each claimant stepped forward he was handed a broom and ordered in German to perform the manual of arms. Not one of them failed the test."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Askari#German_colonies

I found this video so moving where an old Tanzanian soldier(50 years after Germans left East Africa) says in German proudly : 'We German soldiers fear only God, nothing else in the world."
Sorry, for getting a bit off-topic, but I think this is a remarkable and moving story, that's not that well known.

How diffferent from what the Dutch government did to ex-KNIL soldiers, especially those of Moluccan descent.

The last 2 times I was in Amsterdam we stayed at the Hilton by the Central Station so we were within walking distance of most of the interesting sites/areas we panned to visit. We went to the Amsterdam Museum just off the Dam Square and the nearby Our Lord in the Attic (a hidden canal side Catholic church). After visiting the Anne Frank House we ventured down the canal a block or two to visit the Houseboat Museum (I could live in one I think). We spent the rest of the morning scouring the adjacent 'nine streets' district (an interesting area of varied shopping opportunities). We also explored three other churches: Oude Kerk (in the red light district), Westerkerk (next door to the Anne Frank House) and the Nieuwekerk a short distance away.

do visit the gardens around the Rijksmuseum, odd little pieces of art amongst newly restored gardens and all for free.

depending on where your hotel is get the multi day tram/boat/metro ticket

Reading along avidly as I'm going to Amsterdam the first weekend in October, and I've never been before.

Menachem's day as a tourist has been a great help so far, as have the other trip reports!

For my first time, and for first timers, I used Let's Go Amsterdam. I don't usually take a guidebook but this one is pocket-sized and I hadn't done much research (for me it was a last minute choice between London and Amsterdam at the beginning of a Europe trip). I found it extremely helpful for maps, highlights, and the "only in Amsterdam" ;) chapter.

Glad it's helpful. It was an interesting experience making it. BTW, there's one place in De Pijp that I've come to like very much during those two weeks: Venster 33. Very nice place during the day, quite acceptable dinner menu and a good place for drinks at night.
Mamouche, a "nouveau"- Moroccan restaurant just around the corner was also pretty good.
https://restaurantmamouche.nl/

Thanks Menachem - I've also been checking out the menus of all your recent restaurant recommendations, will take a look at this one too. This is a really quick trip, only 3 full days on the ground, so I'm trying to be smart with my planning.

3 days is the ideal length I think. Plenty to do in the city and some time to loiter and hang out.