Bible Museum in Amsterdam

[Guest]

I have occasion to lay-over in Amsterdam sometimes -- they've got some great museums -- is anyone familiar with the Bible Museum there? I'm going to try and go next time I can route through Amsterdam instead of London.

[Jepne]

Didja go? What did they have there? What could they fill a whole museum with about one book? Hmm. . ..

[darinhouston]

Not yet, but I'm intent on finding time to go next time I'm there --

http://www.bijbelsmuseum.nl/english.aspx

[steve]

What could they fill a whole museum with about one book?

I think they could fill a museum with just the various translations of the book!

[darinhouston]

I think they could fill a museum with just the various translations of the book!

...and the cultural,politicial, and historic settings surrounding them...

[Jepne]

We went to the Mennonite Museum a few hours from here - they showed a lot of history, had rooms set up to show how they lived, and so we could taste what they still eat. We are neighbors with them and fellowship with them often. They are not what I had expected to find, coming from an atheist background - I am wonderfully surprised!

Hmm. Amsterdam is in Holland - where the Mennonites began - and Calvin, also? It is so known for its blatant sinfulness - my, my, the world and all its wonders and contrasts!

[darinhouston]

Yes, Holland is full of contradictions, that's for sure, but I haven't found even Amsterdam so debaucherous as legend has it -- (I think maybe the rest of the world has simply caught up). Other than the "red light district" (which I've never been to), the only time I've seen anything drug- or sex-related was during a "street festival" one time. I've even taken my wife with me and walked the downtown streets for dinner late at night and felt more safe than I would in downtown Houston, TX. The people are very friendly, and the art and architecture (and museums) are outstanding. I thin it was such a trading center historically that it just got an early "rap" that other "port towns" now have come to deserve as well. In many ways, the rest of the Western world is open to trading in the same way only Amsterdam once was and I think that contributes to the spreading of such things to major cities everywhere these days.

Any country that can host an annual tulip and orchid festival like Kuykenhoff Gardens just can't be all bad. And, in the country outside Amesterdam, it's surprisingly slow-paced and community focused. I stopped in a crossroads town for dinner and was talking to one of the waitresses about the place an hour from there where we were heading, and she commented that she dreamed of going there some day because her grandmother lived there, and it's pretty rare for one to go places you can't get to on a bicycle.

[Jepne]

Thank you for enlightening me. It is amazing how primitive some folks still live in this day and age.

We often get impressions of things and it is hard to shake - like some of my theological views - as often as I have heard more enlightened views of such topics, it is like a huge rubber band pulling my mind back into the old way of thinking.

Perhaps that is why travel is so invigorating - so refreshing - it shakes one out of the ruts and routines.

Thank you again.

[darinhouston]

Perhaps that is why travel is so invigorating - so refreshing - it shakes one out of the ruts and routines.

Thank you again.

I agree -- I particularly like getting "out" and seeing how folks really live -- most of us here aren't living like those in Manhattan or L.A. Even when I visit a place here in the US on business, I try to take some time and drive through a few neighborhoods, etc. Hotels and airports and conference rooms all look the same.