There are so many beautiful and well thought out museums in Amsterdam, and I’m continually taken aback by the diversity and depth of knowledge available to everyone. In our most recent weekend exploration we headed out to the Scheepvaartmuseum! In English, this is the Maritime Museum. Given the breadth and depth of the Dutch maritime history, we knew this was going to be an amazing experience!
The museum is housed in the old Arsenal building that has been repurposed and refurbished in a complete metamorphosis!
But the truly wondrous thing for me was the replica of The Amsterdam which you get to run all around and climb through! The original hit a storm and sank on its maiden voyage in 1749.
For some reason I wasn’t keen to let Himself climb the rigging. I can’t think why …
But we did have the most beautiful day for it! Check out that amazing blue sky!
We went below deck and checked out the hammocks, which were conveniently located right next to the canons. I don’t know about you, but I like a handy canon next to my sleeping hammock!
Himself then found the floor cheese. We decided that this might in fact have been the find of the day!
Back above deck we may have taken aim with the smaller canons at the tourist canal boats … maybe. I can’t really comment on the grounds that I might incriminate Himself …
Then it was on down into the hold where you get to crawl around with all the cargo and the rats. Thoughtfully, they had it set up that a cartoon character rat and his flea friend were your guides through the ship. Nice. And I found the rum!
The cargo was all manner of amazing and exotic things. Like cheese, and gun powder.
Yeah. I don’t really have anything to add to that.
I can safely say that after crawling around on that ship for a while, as fun as it was, I seriously would not have wanted to live or work on it. Cramped doesn’t begin to describe it, and my brain can quite adequately fill in the stench and squalor that would be prevalent in its working life.
But I haven’t shown you the inside of the museum yet! So hang around a while! Read up on some of the other adventures we’ve had, and I’ll see you all again in a couple of days for some more of this gorgeous museum! 😀
ghoti industries 
What’s the story behind the floor cheese? It was just kept between floors? or this was the emergency supply, thoughtfully kept near the hammocks and canon in case someone got a bit peckish at night?
Looking forward to your post on the museum, too!
It was actually just a window through to the hold where the cargo was kept. Modern invention when the reproduced the ship to show the tourists 🙂 The later shot of the powder room was looking up and the same cheese that the floor window looked down on!
Ah! I see! That’s a bit less sneaky and neat than what I’d supposed it was. But a very cool feature for a museum-ship.