Het Havenmuseum

Today I went out looking for another bookstore to see if I could get my Dutch Bible.  I never did find the bookstore I was looking for (and I walked a really long way) but I did find the Maritime Museum (which I didn't go into because it was going to close shortly) and Het Havenmuseum, which is an outdoor museum dedicated to ships and harbors.  "Haven" means "port" but it is very flexible because it refers to little bitty docks that hold little sail-boats and also refers to gigantic ports that fit huge ocean liners.

Since it was a really pretty day out, I walked around the museum and took some pictures.  Het Havenmuseum is free and the have a pretty nice set-up.  There is an indoor section which includes a bunch of videos and interactive displays about the history of shipping in the Netherlands from the 15th century to the creation of the Europort (the hugely massive port which allows enormous container ships to get to the Netherlands from the North Sea and saved them from obsolescence).  There was a little display on the different kinds of things that have come through Dutch ports, including old packaging from 19th century products.  There was also a kids section which included a station where you could practice tying all kinds of nautical knots.

In the outside area, there is a large section of the port, and the walking area on the side, which is filled with old boats (some of which looked like they were being used as houseboats) and old port equipment.

 

This is a museum ship.  It is all fitted out inside but you can only go inside if you have a pass from the Maritime  Museum so I will have to see what the inside is like when I go in there.

There were rows and rows of different anchors from old wooden ones to old cast iron ones.

There were also at least two painted horses on the road next to Het Havenmuseum.  I do not know if they were related, or what the horse have to do with Rotterdam, but they are kind of nifty.

This one looks like it has a distinct Mexican influence.

 This is a lighthouse built in Dordrecht in 1900, which is about 15 miles from Rotterdam.  Now you can buy ice cream inside it.

 

 This is was a hydraulic crane from Antwerp that was built in 1903.
















This was large sculpture outside the Metro Buers stop, where I stopped to try to find the bookstore.  I do not know the message which the artist intended to portray but I am going to guess that it is something like "The Human Cost of Oil".