#visitnetherlands

Naturalis

‘’Like a zoo, but all the animals stay very still’’

Location: Leiden, Zuid-Holland, The NetherlandsPrice: 17,- / Students 12,75Duration: 2 - 5 hours

Transport: 10-minute walk from Leiden Central train station Language: Dutch / English Activities: Look at taxidermy animals, skeletons, and fossils. And play interactive games. A T.REX Date of visit: Monday 3rd of April 2023 Expo at that time:  Website *it's recommended to make a reservation on busy days, but it's not mandatory

For Free!

So the first part of the museum is called the LiveScience and is before the ticket scan. So you can walk around for free, and I really recommend doing so if you’re in the era. This first part has a set of taxidermy birds and insects, you can also see all kinds of stones and a meteorite. It also has a bit of a library where you can read books about animals and nature, books for all ages. In the middle is a drawing table where you can try your hand at making anatomically correct animal drawings of the animals in the middle. But the coolest part must be the researchers! In the back is the Dino lab where researchers are working on real dinosaur bones right in front of you, and you can go up to them to ask questions. Underneath that is also a lab of researchers with microscopes, on a screen you can see what they see under the microscope and also ask them questions. 

Blathers Museum

Once you want to go up the massive stairs, you first need to scan your ticket. The building has about 8 floors with different rooms that all tell a different story (there's also a lift ofcourse). To me, it felt like walking thou Blathers museum, like from Animal crossing new Horizons. The way, you got immersed in the storytelling and the animals. It was set up beautifully. Also for kids, it's a sight to see as you are just allowed to touch anything (carefully), in one room you could just pick up and hold bones! There are a lot of fun interactive mini-games, so to say, and in one room where they explained how the layers of the earth move and make mountains using cooking videos. Interesting choice, but very fun to watch and understandable for all ages. And that's really what this museum is, for people of all ages, since you can choose how much you want to learn. You can only play the mini-games and play around, but deeper information can be found when you really look everywhere and even open some drawers. Also, once again the fun parts are not being ‘’gate kept’’ so to say, where in some museums they hide the mini-games and treasure hunts and only make them accessible by kids like I also like fun!!

If you love dinosaurs you came to the right place as they have a full T. rex skeleton and some others. You can even go through the dinosaur experience for an extra 2 euros, but I didn't do that this time as I am not a very big Dino fan, but my boyfriend is, so maybe I will go with him.

A lot closed off

It seemed like there were more rooms also called science labs, but I think you could do fun experiments there, that required the staff’s help. So that was all closed. This is probably because it was a Monday and on Monday most museums are closed. So I assume they just closed half of it. Or it is because it's a school week and those parts might be open during holidays when more people are coming. But I didn't mind, I mean I have a museum card, and I'm definitely planning to come back.

Would I pay the price: Definitely, I think It's actually very cheap for the experience. Would I revisit it: Absolutely! Who do I recommend it to: nature/animal lovers, families, tourists Interactive:         5 Educational: 4 Storytelling: 5 Price: 5 Memorable: 5 Total score: 4,8

Het Mauritshuis

(Maurice House) ‘’Come up close with paintings you definitely know’’

Location: Den Haag, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands Price: 19,- / Students 12,50 Duration: 1- 2 hours Transport: you can take the train to Den Haag Centraal and walk about 10 minuets Language: Dutch / English Activities: Look at famous historical art, audio tour Date of visit: Monday 27th of March 2023 Expo at that time: Vrel, Forerunner of Vermeer

website

*For this museum you need to make a reservation, I also recommend you take headphones with you.

On Monday I have most free time to travel as I have online lectures on that day, what i can watch just as well in the train as at home. Sadly, Monday is the day that most museums are closed, so I don't have a lot of choice. But today I went to Den Haag and just went to see what was open. Het Mauritshuis was open, well I actually had to wait an hour, but I just walked around a bit. It was very cold and windy outside, and I really recommend visiting this city in the summer, since it wasn't as pretty as I usually remembered it to be now.

Feel like a VIP As i got to the beautiful old building and walked through the gates to the door, I was pointed by a man in a suit towards the stairs going down under the Hofvijver. After that I got to a desk where they took my jacked and bag and i once gain was greeted by people in suit. All this was way more formal than any museum I have been to so far. Then I walked upstairs, and I was inside the beautiful old building. Old painting everywhere. 

It was kinda busy, which I didn't expect. I was there the second it opened, and it’s a random Monday, so maybe it's even buster when tourist will hit the city in the summer. You do need to make a reservation for this museum, luckily since it's not busy, yet I could do that right before it opened.

The peal earring

This museum is known for showing famous Dutch painters like Rembrandt and, most importantly, Vermeer. The highlight is the painting of the girl with the peal earring. However, that wasn’t there today, as they had borrowed the painting to Het Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for some months. To compensate for this, they did have other visions made by people all over the world and stories of people and how important art is to them. The painting will be back in April, so I just missed it, sadly.

Kinda… boring? As you know, I like interactive museums, and this is very much just.. Looking? Like bro, I can also look at the painting for free ON THEIR SITE. But I know this is how historical art museums are. After walking and reading for a bit, a group of students walked in, with a tour guide. And I just kept following them for a bit. They were Ukrainian students here fleeing from the war. I’ve heard from a lot of museums that Ukrainian schools or groups of adult will come by museums often. In the Chicken museum I went to some weeks ago, the man working there told me that these museum visits are mandatory by the state, so they will have a good integration in the Netherlands. I think that's a good thing and very interesting that I get to see it everywhere.

Download the App

This was the first museum that had an app and I really recommend it as that will give you access to the map, audio tour and other things. The museum also has free Wi-Fi with is nice when you require an app. First you choose your language, but after I clicked around some and tested other languages I noticed that if you chose anything other than Dutch or English you won't have access to the audio tour. Like everything in the app will be in your preferred language except the actual information about the paintings????? Which will still show in English. That was kinda weird tbh but okay. In the app, you can also select a tour, like ‘’the highlight tour’’ or ‘’the animal tour’’ and some others. Or you do what I did, and you just type in the numbers of paintings that you want more info off. So I do recommend you take headphones, otherwise you can still hold your phone to your ear, but headphones would just work better.

Would I pay the price: nooooooway, idk maybe I don't get the difference between looking at art in real life, I'm like ‘’hmm I already saw this’’ Would I revisit it: nah Who do I recommend it to: people/tourists who like to see famous painting Interactive:         2 Educational: 1 Storytelling: 1 Price: 2 memorable: 3 Total score: 1,8

Terraria-Houten (event)

"The largest terrarium event in the Netherlands"

Location: Houten, Utrecht, The Netherlands Price: 16,- Duration: 2 - 4 hours Transport: the bus from the station to the event location only goes once an hour, so it takes some planning. You can call in a bus, but even those were usually too full to take everyone. Language: Dutch, German, French, English. Activities: buying reptiles, insects, invertebrates, rodents, and everything related to them. Date of visit: Sunday 26 February 2023 Website

so much to see

Terraria-Houten is part of the ‘’Terraria-’’ expo series, where every month there is an event like this in a different city. The price depends on the size of the event, the one in Houten being the biggest. At this event, you can shop and find good deals on enclosures, health lamps, food, substraid, but also things like insect-inspired jewellery and taxidermied animals. That is all next to the obvious main attractions, the animals for sale. The most expensive animal I’ve seen there were 2.000 euros, as this is also a good place to find rare animals they don't have in most stores. Or to get common animals for cheap. I got my beetles from a pet store, 15,- for 3. Here you could buy the same kind 5,- for 5… Insects and interbred are a rare sight in pet stores over here. So once you find a store that has them, they overprice it. But besides it all it was also fun to look at animals, even tho I feel bad for the small containers, tho those are temporary. I got to hold a giant millepede, and petted turtles, ferrets and giant snails. The event does also have a rodent section (and frozen rodent) but it's small. Fun if you're ALSO interested in rodents besides the rest, but don't go if that's your main goal. Also, if you go, you have to take cash with you and download the PayPal app. I was not prepared for this but since the people behind the stands come from all over the place and from other countries, specifically Dutch paying apps are not going to work. And at most stands, it's not possible to pay by card at all. Cash is your best option, so be prepared for that. 

buy buy buy

I myself keep a terrarium with sun beetles and isopods, but I wanted to add more, so I went to get other kinds of beetles and millipedes. At the beetle stand, I asked what beetles would work well together with my beetles, and they told me beetles are actually racist!? no, but yeah they all have a different chemical smell and things, therefore pretty territorial to other species. So I decided to not get more beetles and focused on millipedes. i was so hyped by the first one I saw that I bought it immediately, it was a black and white millipede for 5 euros, I called her Mime. As we walked further, we found a whole stand with all kinds of millipedes. I knew about the giant millepede and really want one, but the enclosure I have right now would be too small (25 litres, 6.6 gallons). They were also kind of expensive on that stand, prices of the ones I wanted ranging from 10 to 25 euros per millepede. At the back of the event, something caught my eye, 4 millipedes for 10 euros. They were bigger than the one i bought before and that was a steal. As I bought them I got the entire enclosure including some wood pieces and stuff. He clearly wanted to get rid of them, but as the rest of the stand had no animals like that, it might have been that these were used for food or something. 

Another thing I bought was homemade fruit jelly. This guy sold them for 90 cents per piece, and that was already cheap for fruit jelly. We wanted all 9 flavours, but I only had 5 euros cash left, the guy said it was fine because we were so chill! Lastly, I bought a bird leg, probably a leftover from a failed attempt at taxidermy, I'm going to make an earring out of it. 

Not the best location

The location is not optimal as the bus only goes once an hour, and walking it will take you more than half an hour. Since it was already freezing, you (and the animals you probably bought) will not appreciate this. But the event does have free parking, so your best option would be to take the car. Definitely, if you have a long shopping list with you. 

Another thing the event could do better is an advertisement or the site. If you see the site, it almost feels like it’s not their real site, but it is.. If I was looking online and found this, I would have never gone there. I only went because my friend have been there before and told me it was cool, and so that's also how they got the info about this event from other friends. From a marketing standpoint, it's almost impressive they even get people to come with a site looking like that and 0 advertisement. On the other hand, I'm glad, it was just the right amount of busy, so more people would make it chaos. 

TLDR:

+ Fun expo with cheap deals and rare animals

+ anything you need for keeping any animal + handcrafted supplies from small businesses + free advice, and the ability to ask questions + A lot of stands

- bus only goes once an hour - how you can pay differs widely from stand to stand - the site looks sketchy

Would I revisit it: yes I would, it's a cool place to get good deals and get inspired.  Who do I recommend it to:people who keepreptiles, insects or invertebrates.