Museumweekend

Every year, one weekend in April, it is ‘Museumweekend’ in The Netherlands. In this weekend (the exact date varies from year to year, but it is either the first or second weekend in April), many Dutch museums are free. Those that aren’t free, substantially reduce their entrance fee. Four hundred and forty museums (440!) join-in during the ‘Museumweekend’.

This staggering number of museums participating, provides a great opportunity to view some of the Dutch masters and an immense range of interesting subjects, objects, artwork, history, culture and so on. There isn’t a topic in the world for which there is no museum in The Netherlands. Whale hunting, sex and slavery are just a (controversial) few examples. Friendlier examples are telecommunications, modern art, geology of the planet and museums on ancient history and all of the long gone cultures. There are permanent exhibitions on subjects from all continents.

Almost all of the museums in The Netherlands have a shop and a coffee corner. Prices of memorabilia and books as well as those of food and drinks are often quite steep. Yet, almost all of the museum shops try to offer little incentives (pencils, key rings and so on) for smaller prices. The Museumweekend being in spring means you can bring your own sandwiches and drinks that you can enjoy outside on a bench nearby. Besides, spring of course, is also the time when all the bulbs bloom to create fields and fields of colour.

For culture and museum lovers, the first half of April is the perfect time to travel to the Netherlands.