It's been fifteen years since Frank and I were last in the Zuiderzee Museum, so it's high time this time to visit the Zuiderzee Museum with children! Because history suddenly becomes fun in the Zuiderzee Museum, even if you don't really have anything with it, and that certainly applies to the children. In this review you can read what you can do in the Zuiderzee Museum Enkhuizen, what the best route is and why this is such a suitable museum for children.
Tip:The Zuiderzee Museum is largely outside. Preferably choose a day when it doesn't rain 😉 .
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If you doubt whether your children will be happy with the Zuiderzee Museum, I would like to remove that doubt from you. Even the 13-year-old teenager has thoroughly enjoyed our day at the Zuiderzee Museum, while he absolutely has no interest in history if it comes out of the books.
Do you have no idea what to expect from the Enkhuizer museum? They take you back in time (before the Afsluitdijk was built) and you get a glimpse into the daily life of the people who lived here on the Zuiderzee.
The museum has an indoor museum and an outdoor museum, of which we have seen the outdoor museum. I would have liked to have seen the indoor museum, but unfortunately we didn't have time for that anymore.
First of all, it is useful to know that you will find the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen. The address of the entrance hall of the Zuiderzee Museum is Sluisweg 1 in Enkhuizen. If you are driving from the south towards Enkhuizen, or from the north or east, it is very nice to drive on the dike that runs from Lelystad to Enkhuizen, for kilometers with only water and birds on both sides. On one side you have the Markermeer and on the other side the IJsselmeer.
Of course you can also drive to Enkhuizen via Amsterdam-Hoorn, but we thought the alternative route was fantastic to do once. A ferry departs from the reception hall every 15 minutes and takes you to the Zuiderzee Museum.
Do you want to come by public transport? That is also doable. You can find more information on the website of the Zuiderzee Museum Enkhuizen .
When you arrive 'on land' in Enkhuizen, you almost immediately drive to the reception hall of the Zuiderzee Museum Enkhuizen with a parking space where you can park for € 5.00 per day.
A day at the Zuiderzee Museum with children does not have to be very expensive. For adults you pay € 16.00 per entrance ticket, for children from 4 to 12 years the entrance costs € 10.00 and children from 0-3 years are free. These prices include the crossing with the museum ferry. You can enter for free with the museum annual card. They also have a family card, with which you can visit the museum for 42.50 euros with two adults and two children up to the age of 12.
To the Zuiderzee Museum with a discount? Then check the ANWB for their offer and be sure to check out Tripadvisor if you want to 'substantiate' our review with other reviews about the Zuiderzee Museum with children, or without.
Keep in mind that you can also do very fun activities with children in the Zuiderzee Museum. A number of activities are free, but for some you pay a small contribution. The activities make it an interactive outing, which not only makes the museum visit more fun for children, but also makes it more memorable.
Of course sailing with the museum ferry is already fun for the children and they are also very excited when we are on the boat at 11:00 in the morning after our 2-hour ride to Enkhuizen.
We come ashore at the lime kilns and we are directly in the Zuiderzee Museum.
When we enter, we immediately go to the household of 1920 to taste a cup of coffee (made the old-fashioned way). We take the children back in time, while there are many recognizable items in the interior for Frank and myself from grandfather and grandmother's time. We check the box bed from the past and also see how it was cooked (there are potatoes and beets simmering on the fire).
Do you know why there used to be one chair in the living room diagonally against the wall? We already do 😉 . After coffee we really started our exploration.
We start at the rope mill where Lotte and Luc first make a rope of 7 meters long by twisting both on one side. Luc has to run at exactly the same speed as Lotte, which requires some precision. You cannot do it alone in this way.
But there is also a method where you can hit a rope yourself, your own skipping rope. For € 1.50 you can experience how to hit a rope yourself and you can take your own skipping rope home. This should also be tried, of course.
Strolling through the small streets with the cute houses from the past, you get the impression that you are in a real village from that time. And this feeling is reinforced by the residents. In a number of houses in the Urker part of the Zuiderzee Museum you will find 'residents' who have their daily activities, but with whom you can also have a chat.
For example, we chatted with Riekelt and Jannetje Weerstand, the residents of number 66 in district 5. Riekelt was a fisherman and he was able to explain to Lotte exactly why she should not use her own rope to secure a boat.
Jannetje made it clear that she was very disappointed by the fact that she is also called the 'Krabbekoater;'. At first I didn't know what it meant, but Riekelt whispered to me that Jannette talks a lot and goesssips a bit. Ah, learned something again. Yet - after talking for a while - Jannette turns out to be a very sweet, helpful woman.
We continue walking much wiser, because we have only seen a small part of this beautiful museum.
As activities we have done rope making as you can read above and made a clog boat. These are activities for which you pay a small contribution.
Apart from these activities where you can walk in with the children, you can also play all kinds of other Old Dutch games on the square.
It is beautiful to see for yourself, but even more beautiful to show to the children. All those old crafts from the past. And to think that it was really only such a short time ago. What is 100 years now? In any case, we have experienced a lot in the field of technology.
The children are completely overwhelmed by how things used to be. And even more so if we supplement our experiences with children in the Zuiderzee Museum with stories from our own grandfathers and grandmothers.
From weaving baskets to doing laundry in a tub and a steam laundry.
And from smoking fish to forging, making sails and assembling barrels.
We visited the story house where a very sweet lady told a story about the mermaid and the poor boy.
We 'smelled' just about everything and of course also tried a few things. Because what's so nice is that - in addition to the fact that there is a lot to see and do - there is also a lot to taste.
Want to taste a delicious cheese in the old cheese factory? The only thing you have to worry about is that the four of you decide which cheese is the tastiest and that it will be bought to enjoy at home for a while.
And what about the polder waffle? The Polderwafel is inspired by the past. Food curators created a new interpretation of the rather boring potato, a cornerstone of Dutch cuisine. The potato is inextricably linked to the Zuiderzee area, because the dike has led to large polder areas of agricultural land that is used for potato cultivation. Food curators processed the trusted Frieslander potato into a sweet pastry:the Polderwafel.
Yet the taste of the polder waffle is really different from the taste of waffles they resemble (from the outside). You should have seen those faces, haha. Too bad I was too late for a nice photo.
Also so nice to visit all the shops of the past in the Zuiderzee Museum with children. The pharmacy with laboratory, a shop with party supplies, an old bakery, butcher's shop and a sweet shop. Unfortunately no gumballs for 1 cent here, but no less special for that. Below is a small glimpse.
Did you know that they have taken all the houses that are here in the Zuiderzee Museum apart in parts and then rebuilt them in parts - and preferably as original as possible - at Enkhuizen? What a huge job that must have been.
In addition to the various houses and shops inside, I think the Zuiderzee Museum is also very beautiful to just stroll through. The streets are beautiful, each house is unique and the whole is simply special to experience. Hence a few snapshots to entice you to actually visit this beautiful museum. You lack eyes. I would have loved to have sailed through the canals myself, but we didn't get around to that either. Do we have to go back to this Zuiderzee museum with children!
