The sci-tech museum NEMO looks like a ship rising from the water. Designed by  Renzo Piano, it is sheathed in copper. Courtesy of wikipedia.

Amsterdam is HOT! This city of 800,000– the size Detroit used to be in its glory days — packs a wallop culturally speaking. The Rijksmuseum with its glorious Dutch Masters paintings reopened last year after a 12-year overhaul. The Stedelijk has a funny new “bathtub” addition and opened its vast design collections as a free, digitial asset for everyone. The beloved Van Gogh Museum got a serious touch-up and is open again.  The Maritime Museum has a vast, new glassed-in  courtyard (a la Norman Foster) to bolster its exhibit space.

Amsterdam’s central public library has fun furniture, 600 terminals, a restaurant and books too! Courtesy of mimoa.

There’s NEMO — a sci-tech hotspot museum, in the Oosterdok area, designed by Renzo Piano, with exhibits for the whole family –and a rooftop terrace with commanding views of the city. And Amsterdam recently added a new public library –the largest in Europe. It’s seven stories, twelve hundred work stations,  fun furniture, a restaurant, and its own terrace and roof view.

The “road show” moves on this fall through Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the great Delta Works (flood protection system),  Oostvaardersplassen, Paris, Strasbourg and Colmar. Join us for the fun of it!

Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer is a centerpiece of the just-renovated Mauritshuis in Den Haag.