There’s so much to see in Amsterdam and TONS to do, so it can be hard to decide where to start. In my four days in the city, I found myself doing a lot of the requisite “touristy” things: a countryside bike tour, a walking tour, a hostel pub crawl (don’t judge me), as well as just wandering the pretty canals eating stroopwafels.
I also spent a lot of time in museums, visiting four in total: The Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank House, and KattenKabinet. I would recommend visiting all of them (actually - skip the Van Gogh museum, unless you’re a big fan. The place seems designed to move large groups of tourists, and my friend and I had to muscle our way through most of the exhibits). The Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank House were well worth my money and time, but I’m here to talk about KattenKabinet, a museum dedicated to cats in art.
I almost didn’t make it, but managed to squeeze in a visit on my last morning in the city and I’m so glad I did. KattenKabinet is for a specific museum-goer: one passionate about both cats and art. Fitting into both demographics, I happily handed over 6 Euros and started exploring the two-floor house set-up.
The museum isn’t organized into any specific exhibits - rather, think of it as wandering through an art-obsessed crazy cat lady’s fancy apartment. There’s sculpure, prints, drawings, paintings and posters - KattenKabinet has it all! Aside from the labels that were mainly in Dutch, there wasn’t much for information panels. A couple of adorably-shaped labels, however, directed visitors to pieces from particularily famous artists (see above).
If you get a chance to visit, take your time, because although the museums looks compact, there’s a lot to see in the three small rooms. Some of my favorite pieces were the prints and posters - they weren’t in the main rooms, but were haphazardly displayed in a hallway.
If you’re either not a cat person or just couldn’t justfify paying 6 Euros to look at what you can see on the Internet every day for free, I understand. My point here is that sometimes in travelling, we get swept up in the ‘must-dos’ and the things we feel like we need to see to experience a city. Sometimes, you need to be true to yourself and take some time out of your day to look at art cats. Maybe for you, it’s a record store, a monument, or an antique spoon gallery. If it’s what you want to see, then it’s worth it.
The next stop for me is Germany, and I can’t wait to share all the weird and wonderful things I’m sure to see there. Until next time!
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