A Great Day in Haarlem 2

A Great Day in Haarlem II

Teylers Museum
Teylers is like walking back in time. The collection originated with a huge endowment from a 18th Century merchant Pieter Teyler. The place really hasn't changed that much since the first century or so of its origin. The display cases ware solid wooden cabinets with display windows that are lit by tall the exterior side windows. The first three two exhibit rooms are filled with fossils of every conceivable life form, skeletons of dinosaurs and a cave bear. There was an English audio tour for many objects and I listened to most of them.

I was excited about the next room filled with instruments. Not musical ones but hundreds brass, wood, metal, and glass objects of the 19th century in that enlightened time when man was dealing with how to measure and modify light, electric current, sound, and gasses. Unfortunately, there was no audio tour available for all the objects in English as they had a special one in Dutch. But they did have a printed book to consult. Very cool stuff.

Teylers comes from a time when museums were still collections of cabinets for the curious. They had a great flourescent room for both minerals and gasses. There was another room devoted to models that showed how a 19th century magician performed his illusions. And then there is the glorious round room in the center of this building filled with minerals and more 19th century applied science.

Next I visited the museum cafeteria and had a cheese sandwich that redefined by whole concept of such an item. It was Stilton and cranberry on wonderful brown bread along with a bowl of Oxtail soup. The room was filled with grey haired Dutch ladies. I saw many of them earlier in the contemporary exhibit space the museum also maintains intently watching a video of Prince Charles giving a tour of how green the royal gardens were. The cafeteria had very high walls which acoustically influenced the sound of scores of the elders all talking loudly in Dutch.

Another fun moment was when a tightly controlled group of school children came in. The only table I could fine was right next to where they queued past where I was sitting. Every one of them seemed to check out the American tourist sitting in front of a sea of their Grandmothers and aunties.