Nederlands - Costume Museum in Amsterdam

If I wanted to visit one museum in Amsterdam, this was the museum. I've researched it a long time before our trip to Holland and I knew that when the occasion came I will visit it.

Don't get me wrong, this was my fifth or even sixth trip to Amsterdam so at this point I've visited all the major museums, starting with Van Gogh, but I have to say that I like this small museums better. And on top of that they are very easy to find since most of them are on Herengracht street.

The national or folk costumes of Romania are one of my passions, I collect them, I wear them and I am proud of having them, so I try to find or to visit other ethnographic museums or even costume museums everywhere I go. I wrote about them on my blog, but some posts are in Romanian, The Ethnographic museum in my hometown, Iasi, Village museum in Bucharest, The Ethnographic Museum in Krakow, Poland, The Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, Poland, The Ethnographic Museum in Split, Croatia, The Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Roscheider Hof Konz, an ethnographic/village museum in Germany. I know I've visited more, there is one even in Luxembourg, but it probably didn't make it to the blog.

Going back to our topic, the Costume museum in Amsterdam is a small museum, only 7 rooms, on three levels. Be careful though, the staircases are so steep, that I almost fell at least one time.

As I understood, the museum started when three or four costume collectors teamed up and decided to show their collections to the public. The house of the museum was donated and as I said it is in a central location in Amsterdam. The ticket is 10 euro and during the summer season the opening hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m..

What I liked at the museum was, besides the collection, the photo booth where you can dress in those costumes and take a picture. You can do that without visiting the museum, so next time that is on my bucket list :) This time my husband was visiting another museum as he is more into technical stuff and taking a picture by myself was no fun. But if you are interested, a single picture is 15 euro and a family picture is 35 euro, for two adults and two children.

When I visited the museum, I found a woman who was doing her PhD in folk costumes of Holland and we visited the museum together. It was such a pleasure, that I didn't need the audio guide or any other form of guidance, as she told me a lot of stories and helped me to place the costumes and explained some elements that did not make sense to me. I even visited the bathroom, because on the website it said that it still has the Delft ceramic toilet.

The seven rooms of the museum represent seven regions and one could find the stories that go with the costumes displayed. I like that, because all Romanian blouses have stories to tell and I found a connection between them and the Dutch costumes. Different from the Romanian costumes though, the Dutch ones always have something to cover the head and also I found a lot of printed or painted fabrics as opposed to embroidered ones in Romania.

Overall it is nice to notice how the history and trade influenced the costumes, how they still have some practical parts (they are large to be comfortable when riding a bike) and how some communities still maintain the habit of wearing the costumes. So if you are passionate about costumes, as I am, I definitely recommend you to visit this museum. Here are some pictures.

These were not installed by jealous husbands as I initially thought. They actually go close to the forehead, similar to the ones in the cover picture of the museum's fb. page.

This is from some sort of material that we put on tables, some sort of rubberised fabric.

Similar to the Romanian costumes, I've noticed that they pay a little more importance to the top part of the costume, the bottom is sometimes black and undercoated. They also have some aprons in front, similar to Romanians, it's just that in the case of the Dutch costumes they seemed to me to be more functional, as opposed to Romanian ones which are more decorative. Also the length of the apron is different, the Dutch ones are larger going almost fully around the women's body, the Romanian ones are just pieces of cloth in front and sometimes in the back of a woman.  The same as with Romanian costumes, the richer and influential the person was, the more decorated the costume. 

It was a pity that I visited the museum on our last day in Nederlands and I didn't had enough time to grasp everything. I will surely go back to the museum.

If you liked this article or if you are interested in folk costumes, drop me a line on my Facebook page is Dichisuri.ro.

Raluca

Netherlands - All I know about tulip season in Holland

Tulip season is here!!!!

If you've read my latest post, I was talking about how I prepare for the long weekend of May 1st which I plan to spend in Holland watching, photographing, enjoying the tulip fields. It's the third year I'm doing this, so I'm what you can call a veteran of this activity. 

When to watch the tulip fields?

Tulip season starts mid April and ends mid May, but it all depends on the weather. I've read somewhere that if the winter is heavy the tulip season can start early May, but keep reading, as I will tell you how to find if the tulips are blooming when you plan to go, but just as a marker, mid April to mid May. I usually go around May 1st as it is an international holiday and we don't go to work. 

When to prepare for the tulip fields?

It all starts around February when I search for accommodation. If you ever went to Holland especially during the tulip season, but if you ever went to Holland, you may know that it is an expensive country. What I call, expensive? More than 80 euro per night. Close to tulip season you are lucky to find a room with 80 euro, as they usually go at around 200 even 300 a night, euros that is. I don't need to tell you that by room I understand a bed and a toilet. I've passed the age when sharing a toilet was ok, but if you are young, maybe you can look for hostels or even trailers or tents.

So if you don't have a room, you already missed this tulip season, but being Luxembourg I guess that you could make it a day trip. I usually book rooms on booking.com and sometimes on airbnb.com

The first year I wanted to go to Nederlands for May 1st, I started looking for rooms in April and already the cheapest room in Amsterdam was 1200 euro per night near the airport. I don't know what's with this country, but I've learned my lesson, I've stayed in Luxembourg that year and now I know. Being Nederlands, which is not that big especially near the tulip fields and Amsterdam area, I choose to book a room in a B&B, 40 minutes away form the tulip fields, but in a rural area, because I love rural Holland.

What are the tulip fields?

I've just realised that, I'm talking about the tulip fields, but didn't say what they are. They are exactly fields planted with tulips, like in Luxembourg you could see now a lot of rapeseed, in Holland they have tulips. So if you are looking for tips about the famous Keukenhof garden, this is not the place. 

The fields are between Leiden and Haarlem, two towns about an hour away from Amsterdam. The first year I had only that information so we drove to Leiden and then we took the road thru the towns and stopped wherever we saw a tulip field and we did see a lot. Now there is a website where you can see in real time where are the fields, with streets and everything. 

The website is this, and I like that people can upload pictures of the fields and you can see from your desk what to expect. I took a screen shot of the website exactly as I am writing this text so you can see that at this time there are a lot of bloomed fields. If you click on a flower on the website you can see how the field looks now. That is important because most of the farmers are growing tulips for their bulbs, so if you go on a period when they harvest the tulips you might have the unpleasant surprise to find the tulips, but not the flowers, as the farmers chop off the blooms to make strong bulbs.

What to pack?

This is more of a reminder for me. I am documenting now the fashion vloggers, so I might be tempted to dress for pictures, so heels, dress, stockings, the whole shebang. Well, don't! The fields are not meant to be visited, so you will not find paths with asphalt where to do a shooting. The first year I wore my new converse snickers and ruined them. The tulips are planted in a mix of straw and sand which I couldn't get of my shoes as much as I've tried. 

So comfortable clothes, comfortable but ordinary shoes and a camera with a full battery or enough space on your phone. Internet, as big as it is gives you advice as to how to photograph tulips, here, here and here. 

But from experience I tell you that no matter what you pack, no matter how many pictures you take, enjoy the experience, let the adventure take you, nothing compares to that. 

If you do see the tulips this season, please drop a line. Here you find my gallery with pictures from this season in Holland. My Facebook page is Dichisuri.ro.

Raluca