Disaster - Openlucht Museum Arnhem (Open Air Museum)

It’s been years since I last visited the open-air museum in Arnhem or rather, it’s been decades. I recognised very little. And although I was told it was much bigger, to be honest I can’t quite picture it. Anyone who fancies a walk in the woods and a chance to spot the odd cottage here and there might well enjoy it, but to be honest, I find the admission price a bit steep for that. You’d be better off going to Sonsbeek Park. They organise all sorts of events there during the summer too.

We went in the evening, which means you can get in from four o’clock in the afternoon, or three, I think, until nine o’clock in the evening. You pay ten euros, which is a reduced rate.

You do have to rush through the park like mad if you want to see anything, though, because the houses close at 5.00 pm.

There was supposedly plenty to do, but every workshop (mainly for young children) had, of course, already finished. The only thing you could do was queue for hours for a ridiculously expensive sateh, which turned out not to be a sateh on a skewer from the barbecue but strips of chicken on a bun. Yuck, such a disaster, and that for 8.50 euros for a cold snack.

Is this park worth a visit? My answer is: no. You’re better off, and it’s cheaper, at Sonsbeek Park, the city farm or, for example, the Intratuin garden centre. When it comes to museums, Arnhem and the surrounding area do have something better to offer. To me, it came across as a case of faded glory.
A lot of fuss and marketing hype about something that’s actually not worth mentioning.
A number of old cottages had been converted into shops; in a few of them, there wasn’t much to see. The sign by the house was more interesting than the house itself.

The SRV during my childhood, a mobile supermarket, was actually bigger than this cart. I remember exactly how it was laid out. The counter wouldn’t fit in this one. It was a good service and… having groceries delivered to your door was perfectly normal back then. The baker, milkman and cheese seller also came round to the house, just as the laundry service came to collect the laundry, and the scissors and knife sharpener. So so-called modern home delivery is nothing new at all.

The house pictured above is a farmhouse and was used in its original state until 1922. The owner refused to modernise the property, so it remained a draughty wooden house with paper-thin window panes and no proper heating. The box bed was also still in use; people slept sitting inside it, four children in one was normal. There was no room to lie stretched out. It was believed that if one lay down, the blood would rush to the head and one would go mad as a result.
There is also a workroom. Here there is a spinning wheel and a loom. Both wool and flax were spun.

The old farmhouses and buildings, which are listed as historic monuments, are moved to the open-air museum from all over the Netherlands when they are under threat, for example, because a motorway is being built that will run right through the property.
In the Netherlands, homeowners are easily expropriated, just like farmers.

In the park, you’ll also find a number of mills, such as an oil mill and a sawmill.

I had to try really hard to take a few decent photos. Along the path there are a few signs with place names from the Netherlands, and if you follow them you’ll find the corresponding cottage, which may or may not be open to the public.

The biggest disappointment was a relocated farmhouse dating from 1600. It had been divided into two homes and was furnished in a very modern style inside. You don’t need to go to a museum for that.

There was also a little bit of Giethoorn, nothing more than a house undergoing renovation, a bridge, a small boat in murky, duckweed-covered water, and a green Moluccan barrack. This was a reception centre in the Netherlands for KNIL soldiers and their families, in this case, exclusively Moluccans, who had been discharged and shipped to the Netherlands. These people, who are predominantly Christian, are now naturalised and feel at home as Dutch citizens, having no connection whatsoever with their homeland or the homeland of their ancestors.

_{Prompt: disaster
10-8-2026}