Europe 2014: museums

Among the many things I love about Europe, museums and churches are my favorite. I love history and I love art, more specifically paintings and sculptures from the 13th centuries to19th centuries. Thus, no surprise that most of the museums I've visited during my 23+ days were art museums with a few history museums and other misc type of museums. 

After much research, I decided to get the Museumkaart (  €54,90 ) in addition to the Amsterdam Holland Pass ( Pass 5 at €52 ) for my time in The Netherlands. With the Museumkaart, I can visit more than 400 museums in The Netherlands, although in the end, I've just visited 12 major ones. Below is the list of museums that I've been to, in the order of my visits:

1. Amsterdam (History) Museum
2. Rijksmuseum 
3. Van Gogh Museum
4. Stedelijk Museum
5. Hermitage Museum Amsterdam
6. FOAM Photography Museum
7. Mauritshuis 
8. Museum Meermanno
9. Gemeentemuseum
10. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
11. Maritime Museum Rotterdam
12. Universiteitsmuseum

Museums No. 7 - 9 are in Den Haag, 10 & 11 are in Rotterdam and 12 is in Utrecht. The rest are in Amsterdam. I've been to Museum Boijmans twice because of its vast collections and interesting exhibitions. Also, there are a few more museums that I would like to visit, especially Museum Catharijneconvent and Centraal Museum in Utrecht, but due to my timing oversight and time constraint I had to give them a miss. I did not realize that museums are generally closed on Mondays so my timing was off. 

In Belgium, I didn't visit as many museums as I did in The Netherlands maybe because the Belgian churches are far more majestic than those in The Netherlands. The reason? You can read here. Belgium did not have a card similar to Museumkaart so I had to pay for entry for each of them which came up to almost €80. Anyway, the list of museums for Belgium is much shorter, as shown below:

1. Rubenhuis (Antwerp)
2. Plantin-Moretus Museum (Antwerp)
3. Museum of Fine Arts (Ghent)
4. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Ghent)
5. Museum Dr Guslain (Ghent)
6. Groeningemuseum (Brugge)
7. Cinquantenaire Museum (Brussels)
8. Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (BOZAR)

From the lists above, you can see that most of my time were spend visiting these world-class museums. I must say that I am quite impressed with myself for visiting 20 museums in those 23+ days. These were time well-spent as their collections are extensive, invaluable and unique. Compared to the museums I've visited in Italy, Dutch and Belgian museums are so much more enjoyable as their lighting and layout are optimized for viewing and appreciation. 

I shall write about some of the museums, either because they are my favorites and/or because they are really memorable. So if you wanna see some nice art pieces and sculptures, watch these pages! :)