Today was a four museum day, and at this point there are all blurring into one another, so I’m just going to do the highlights. My favorite was the Cromhouthuis (pronounced something like Crum Outhouse) a fine family house owned by rich merchants. None of the original contents are still there apart from a few glasses, but the house has been filled with a random mix of art and antiques bought and bequeathed from other collectors. They have antique silver…

… ivory carving…

… geodes…

… dead crabs…

… dead birds (who we were assured, all died a natural death)…

… paintings all over the walls and ceilings…

… including a set of family portraits (not the family that actually lived there, just some other random family with lots of portraits)…

… a miniature spiral staircase (as if there weren’t enough bloody staircases in this city)…

… weapons…

… jewelry…

… more jewelry…

… place settings…

… and the inevitable classical wardrobe malfunctions.

Now I know what you’re wondering. Did they have any skulls? Not as such, but they do have an Egyptian Mummy, and I’m sure there is a skull inside that somewhere.

We also visited Amsterdam Museum, housed in the former city orphanage. It was mostly an audiovisual history of the city, but the gems of their collection were a 350 year old giant mannequin…

… and the childhood football of Johan Cruijff.

The Canal Museum was another audiovisual extravaganza giving the history of urban planning in Amsterdam (which is more interesting than it sounds) followed by a huge dolls’ house occupied by holographic characters who might have lived in the house in different periods, with different soundtracks for each room. The best bit was when one of the 17th century characters wandered into a 20th century room and was chased out again by the occupants.

The Houseboat Museum was a chance to see how the other half of boat dwellers live. Compared with English narrowboats, Dutch barges are huge, and we wandered around inside marveling at all the space.