Vlaardingen Museum

                                                

Vlaardingen Museum

The Vlaardingen Museum was a perfect first visit for our museum year. Not too big, not too small -- we took about an hour to walk through all three floors. Not too simplistic, not too complicated -- there were scavenger hunts for the kids and displays at eye height, but also multiple exhibits with audio or video options with interviews and explanations by the archaeologists, artists, or sailors. 

A little fleet of ships

With three kids wanting to explore everything fast ("Only walk! We're not in a hurry!") we moved through at a fairly brisk pace. (Except when we couldn't find the ships for one scavenger hunt, because we were on the wrong floor. And except for when I wanted to do the other scavenger hunt, which had harder questions and a rebus puzzle.) The kids were running out of focus by about the 45 minute mark, and honestly would have been satisfied to do the whole thing in 20-30 minutes. So besides the fun of the museum itself, there was a bonus for today: I now have a good estimate of their preferred pace and when we might need a sit-down break. Especially important before we tackle huge museums like the Rijksmuseum, Nemo science museum, or the maritime museums. 

Tiny model fisherman

There were so, so, so many ship models, based on the real Vlaardingen ships. During the World Harbor Days I got to tour the herring ship that is moored outside of the museum, and see the hatches where they stowed the fish. Today we looked at miniatures of the ships, some complete with tiny people and even tinier fish! We had already seen the warehouses and villas as we walked along the harbor to the museum, visible proof of how much the herring fleet meant to the city's economy. I even learned that, from the 17th century, the Vlaardingse haringvloot grew to be the biggest in the world.  One of the black-and-white film clips showed crowds of hundreds lining the harbor and calling and waving as the herring float sailed off, and returned later full of fish. There were also glass cases holding clothing from that time, like the oversized yellow raincoats the fishermen wore and a woman's outfit with a dress, cloak, and black bonnet. 

As an architecture fan, this construction absolutely charmed me. Apparently the renovators literally built over and around a neighboring house when they made the museum, and then incorporated the house's attic into a display area of its own. My house has the exact same sort of rafters and beams, but thankfully our roof isn't open to the public. 

Another Important Highlight of this beautiful historic building with modern architectural additions: the glass elevator. They could have happily gone up and down for 5 minutes and looked at the exhibits that way. We brought our museum backpacks, but didn't pull out the new sketchbooks at all. Maybe we'll do some sort of review sketch later. But the kids brought the small camera and enjoyed taking photos with that and the phones before batteries ran out, somewhere in between the wallpapered reception room and the bathrooms. (Those had Bayeux-Tapestry-style artwork I barely noticed, until I saw the same artwork copied on a Playmobil castle in the entryway. This is how we learned about A, an ongoing  'Tapestry of Vlaardingen' embroidery project and, B, 'De Toiletmoord' of Godfried met de Bult, one of the oddest assassination stories I've ever heard.)

The archaeological dig section echoed and expanded what Bloom and Sharkboy had seen at the Masamuda archaeological center to the north of Vlaardingen. A volunteer had told us, "We hollowed out a canoe by hand from a tree trunk; it's a copy of the actual one dug up in Vlaardingen from this time period. The real one is in the museum." Today we got to see the actual canoe (680BCish, Iron Age). They also had a small model that showed how it could be used for fishing or hunting. It's hard to believe there's a boat... just sitting there... that's from more than 2500 years ago.  A real canoe for fishing and exploring, about 11 meters long. That's going to be fun to tie into lessons as we move out of ancient history into medieval times and Native Americans. (We learned in ancient history that they were already building complicated mound complexes around 1000BC and had their own established cities...but it wasn't until centuries later that they were 'discovered' by explorers and traders. Most of our books about Native Americans are set during the American colonial or Civil War period.)

Modern art isn't usually my favorite, but these displays by Dwight Marica ('Reality Architect') were 3D and so tempting to touch (we resisted). There was a whole gallery section of bright colors and massive artworks which we didn't walk through. Maybe next time. We also did not spend more than about 5.6 seconds in the exhibit of glass sculptures, because some small people were confused as to why there were large glass objects that were meant as decorations. "Just to be pretty in a house. Some people like that kind of art." I'm curious if the kids will learn to appreciate abstract sculptures and art this year, or if they'll still prefer realistic art and exhibits.

On the way home, I asked the kids to tell me one thing they liked about the museum trip, and one thing that could have been better. They enjoyed the mix of historical exhibits and modern art exhibits. Pippin and Bloom said they would have liked to move through faster, or been allowed to explore ahead instead of moving as a group. We are still brainstorming on a nickname for the third child, who is no longer a chunky baby or toddler, but a small human with STRONG opinions. His favorite animal is a duck, but we've been calling him ChunkyShark at his swimming lessons. Maybe we'll compromise with a name like 'SharkDuck' or 'Sharkboy', who knows. But this child, who was the most tired, had zero complaints when I asked.  His favorite thing today -- out of all the exhibits, buttons, ships, paintings, and museum perks -- was the kids' tattoo they got as a prize for completing the scavenger hunt. A herring. I think. I'm not a fish expert.

I didn't get nearly enough time to browse. The display case about early water gates? The audio fragment about someone being washed overboard with his father in a storm? The plaques about how the museum building used to be a herring-and-salt business and still has salt residue permeating the walls? I still have questions about the history of this city, where there were traces of humans living as far back as 3500-2500BC. An area so old that there's actually a term 'VlaardingenCultuur' referring to that Stone Age time in the Netherlands and Belgium. And even with all the problems of modern technology, one of the benefits is that we can look up any questions, which will lead us to even more questions. It's one of the things I love most about homeschooling. The answers matter, but the questions do too. 

Today wasn't about visiting the great art masters. Today was for finding out how we like to interact with museums, and for seeing how everyday people like sailors and builders change history. The mix of archaeological finds, history, and art in Vlaardingen was a treat. I'm looking forward to going back.