This open air museum allows you to step back into 16th and 17th century Netherlands. Merchant homes, farmhouses, toll keeper’s residents, and the early Indonesian homes and gardens are hosted by docents dressed in period costumes ready to transport you back in time! One of my favorite places was this early version of a dry cleaners- wealthy town dwellers would send their dirty clothes to a laundry every three to six months where they were washed in pounding vats operated by a horse driven mill. After that, the clothes were hung to dry in a public area allowing anyone passing by an opportunity to inspect one’s inner and outer wardrobe. I couldn’t help but wonder if the expression “airing one’s dirty laundry” originated here.
