Today we started our first day in Rotterdam by taking a two-hour bus ride back through Amsterdam to visit an outdoor museum. The bus departed at around 7:45am and although long, the ride was very scenic so I enjoyed all of it.
Once we got to the museum I was a bit confused as to where it was but I soon found out that we would be taking a boat across to the outdoor exhibits. The boat ride was probably my favorite part of the whole visit. It has been a while since I’ve been on a boat, or on a harbor with lots of surrounding boats and it reminded me of summers I’ve spent in Maine as well as my high school. Once we arrived we walked around to look at some of the exhibits, the first of which was an interactive exhibit where we all got little row boats and rowed around a small harbor to different exhibit islands. Some of these exhibits were cool but the rowing in general was the most enjoyable part. Next, we walked around to some of the different old houses that were around.
This museum was an old fishing village, so lots of these houses held lots of historical and cultural significance. My favorite of the houses was an old what looked to be a blacksmithing house that reminded me a lot of the house in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. There was also an old art house as well as many different homes where they lived and caught and cooked fish. Although it was more of an experience and site-seeing visit, I learned a lot about these types of small fishing villages, particularly how they are laid out and the distinguishable architecture. it was interesting to compare this architecture to the smaller houses I have seen around the Netherlands not by the sea. These houses seemed even older and more classic than the others I’ve seen in Amsterdam for example. It makes sense, as there was so much history within the small village, and you could feel that as you walked around.
As far as business goes, I thought a little about how this museum connects to more of a “blue ocean” concept. There are many museums, and there are also many boat cruises and village tours, but this place managed to combine them all into one. In this sense, they have essentially crafted an experience that is unique to the museum market as opposed to using a “red ocean” strategy and operating within the competitive norms. It was interesting to make this connection to my MCE class and I’m excited to see what other connections I can make, especially since we will be seeing more museums with similar markets.
