The Museum Van Loon--a Step Back In History

      This museum is the house of one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company, restored and furnished as it would have been when the Van Loon family occupied it in the late 1600's.  It gives one a very good idea of how the very wealthy of Amsterdam lived.
      The house fronts on Keizersgracht Canal, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site in Amsterdam that encompasses the canals in the central part of the city.  By the standards of the day, the house was a mansion.  It had servants areas below and family areas above.  The rooms were furnished as they would have been in the 1600's, and visitors to the museum are free to roam the rooms--but not sit on any of the antique furniture or touch any of the priceless objects of art around the house.
     This place is well worth a visit.  It really gives one a feel of what life was like for the upper crust of society.
   

The entrance hall and reception area of the Van Loon house.
Daughter Liz, is standing in the entry hall, where guests would first enter.

The dining room.

One of the family sitting rooms.

The livery of the servants were all coordinated and even the buttons were unique to the family with the family crest.  

The gardens with the couch house in back.  the couch house is now a tea room.
Liz and the kids looking at some of the flowers.  A golden sundial is in the center of the garden.

The Coach House was originally set up to house four horses for the family as well as the attendants who cared for the horses and drove the carriages.  

Some of the accoutrements for the carriage horses, and the livery for the driver.