The Maritime Museum presents a fascinating display that depicts many aspects of the nautical history of this sea-faring nation, that created the world's strongest economy in the 17th century with major trade routes to Asia and the New World.
The collection contains nearly a million objects from six centuries of maritime history with appeal to young and old, offering interactive and hands-on participatory exhibits. But even if you don’t want to take time to pay and enter, at least walk along the docks lined with historic ships and with no admission charge. You do need a ticket to see the inside of the museum which you can purchase in the lobby, or if you have purchased the museum card, no extra charge.
The Dutch became great traders and occupiers, bringing together Asia, Europe and the Americas with their far-flung colonies in New Amsterdam (New York), Brazil, the Guianas, Africa and a vast empire in the far east. In Asia they had ports in Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, thanks to these ships and their well-trained sailors. It’s quite remarkable that the Dutch continue a remnant of this tradition into modern times with ongoing expansion of the Rotterdam harbor.
There are many other highly accurate models on display, including the old sailing ships from the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century when little Holland became perhaps the richest and most powerful nation in the world because of their excellent ships, military power, and business skills.
Along with the old history you can experience including life on the classic Atlantic cruise ships, re-created in one section with models of some of the famous early ships. You even get to walk inside some of the exhibits to give you a feeling of being there. The modern, functional building was opened in 1986, but the museum is 150 years old.
You’ll find quite a bit of the original furnishings of those stately old ocean liners and many maps on the walls and floors. Massive container ships are the main vessels of the modern harbor, and with a small-scale model we can look inside and see the containers are stacked down below deck more than above.
Living onboard a houseboat is quite popular in the Netherlands, and we can look inside some models to get a rare peek into the private life of these water dwellers. Sometimes a barge was converted to comfortable dwelling, in other cases it was a coastal vessel, self-propelled delivering goods on the canals and rivers. A video display brings you right inside the living quarters onboard, and then later you can physically visit a houseboat docked at the museum harbor.
The country’s many canals provide an ideal setting for thousands of these floating homes, some of which are more than 100 years old with original features, while others are quite modern. Some of these houseboats are available as vacation rentals, providing an authentic taste of life on the water.
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A major component of the Maritime Museum is the harbor display of boats, conveniently accessed by a series of walkways along the water next to the building. Many old ships are tied up at the dock, some of which you can step on board and go inside. This harbor section of the museum is open to the public free, no ticket required.
It’s a busy dock area with other activities happening, such as the water taxi which can provide a little boat ride in the harbor. The museum has a selection of city tours available for purchase at the lobby information desk, such as to an indoor miniature world, or the tall observation tower, or lunch onboard a cruise ship in the harbor.
You can also take recreational boat rides and a longer harbor cruise, including some departing from the museum using old historic ships, or the Spido boat tour described later.
Be sure to walk inside one of these old working vessels and chat with the caretaker, who is there to answer questions and explain about life onboard the ship.
“It’s basically a vessel that was sort of a coastal vessel which catered from, say for instance Rotterdam to Brussels with general cargo. There was a family living on board this vessel with the parents and the six children. They’ve got one living room downstairs and there’s two-bedrooms basically, one for the parents, which is quite large for a vessel, and downstairs there is an area for the children.
“This is the living room where the family lived which was actually quite luxurious for the time because there’s a lot of brass and copper in the vessel making it unique in that respect. It was built in 1905 and in 1920 was equipped with an engine. It cruised inland waterways, primarily canals and on the rivers towards Brussels, back and forth, Rotterdam, Brussels.”
Usually at least one ship is open like this for interior visit on any given day, and you can always look at them from the dock. These old boats are in very good condition thanks to the ongoing maintenance work by the staff of the museum. They are usually out doing some woodwork, painting or cleaning, keeping these historic vessels in working order.
Water taxis leave from the dock to bring you to various other harbor destinations. It’s quite safe to walk around here, and some people even jump in the water, especially if you’re a local kid just out having some fun. That gives you an idea of how clean the water is, quite remarkable for a harbor, which they’ve turned into the old swimming hole. With the apartment buildings all around, this is a residential community in which to live, work and play.
At the east end of Witte de Withstraat you’ll reach the Museum Quarter, starting with the giant Picasso statue of his muse, Sylvette, who appears in 40 of his works but none so large as this monumental piece. Yes, there are museums to see in this zone—culture history and art.
The small Nieuwe Instituut is open, featuring architecture and digital design and a series of special exhibits inside the museum, with a very nice café that you can go into without paying admission.
Across the street is the museum Boymans van Beuningen, a major art museum in the Netherlands, hosting an amazing collection that spans from the Renaissance and earlier right up through modern design. Take a look at the outside only however, because, the museum’s main building is now closed for renovation until 2026. Meanwhile you can view their collection of 150,000 objects next door in a newly-constructed, futuristic warehouse, called the “Depot,” designed by MVRDV, the same local architects who built the Markthal. This not a museum, but is the world’s first publicly accessible art storage facility. It is the first building in the world that makes a museum’s entire collection public while also providing behind-the-scenes glimpses of how a museum works.
In the Depot, fourteen compartments are fitted with shelves, racks and cabinets for all different kinds of artworks. There are compartments for paintings, metal objects, organic and non-organic materials, and black-and-white and colour photography.
Until re-opening of the main museum, a few selected works will be scattered around the city on temporary loan to other museums as listed on their website which also has gorgeous illustrations and descriptions of the artworks, some of which are shown here.
The large collection includes traditional Dutch landscapes with ubiquitous windmills and portraits by famous Dutch and Flemish artists such as Frans Hals, Rembrandt and Rubens, along with the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods. A large van Eyck is included and a whole series of paintings by favorite native son Vincent van Gogh, with some early work, later portraits and colorful vases loaded with bouquets of flowers.
Pissarro is among the major Impressionists here, along with sculpture by Dégas, Post-Impressionism by Gauguin and Cézanne. Edvard Munch of Norway is here along with several Picassos, a full expression of his twisted personal style bringing us right up into the modern world.
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Other major modern artists here include Mondrian, Paul Klee and Kandinsky, the inventor of abstract art. Or how about Andy Warhol and James Rosenquist? There are also quite a few paintings by Dutch artists with whom you may not be familiar.
In addition to the paintings and sculpture, there is a nice collection of furniture and decorative arts, jewelry, fabrics, ceramics, teapots, various objects created in aesthetically pleasing ways.
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During reconstruction the existing buildings will be renovated and large new buildings will be created to hold the collection, which is now numbering 150,000 objects. They’ll be spending about €225 million in this extensive long-term project. There are also some nearby open gardens you may enjoy.
The museum we are heading for next is all about people and history of human culture called the World Museum, or in Dutch, Wereldmuseum. You could walk one kilometer south to this museum of culture history, or maybe take tram 7 coming by frequently that will bring you there. Later you will see how the same tram back to the center provides a scenic ride.
This ethnographic collection features objects from Africa, Asia, New Guinea, Oceania and Latin America, along with changing special exhibits with sculpture, ritual objects, religious icons, clothing, jewelry, all sorts of cultural objects of art.
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An exhibit of Tibetan Buddhist art is so richly endowed you feel like you have been transported up to the Himalayas, into a temple, perhaps in Lhasa, that no longer exists. But thanks to the magic of museums we can be transported to distant lands.
One prime sculpture depicts a bodhisattva, a spirit who is able to reach nirvana but delays doing so out of compassion in order to save suffering beings, as a guide explained to me. At the bottom there are two dragons, then many figures, and a little pagoda above.
It’s wonderful you can visit a city like Rotterdam and experience not only Dutch culture and society but step through museum portals to distant worlds.
While you are in this neighborhood along the waterfront you might consider taking the harbor cruise now, because the Spido tour boat company is just 200 meters away.
Spido boat company is easy to reach on a scenic stroll along the harbor shore that’ll bring you to the boat dock by the Erasmusbrug. It does make logistical sense to do the 75-minute harbor cruise at this juncture. The boat ride is a nice way to spend some time, another good reason to stay here at least two days.
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