Janneke has discovered the website of the 'Royal Music Machines' exhibition and wanted to visit it. The museum is 50 years old now and because of this anniversary they collected all the very famous and rare clocks and music instruments from all over the World and introduced them for the public.
Janneke had some prejudices from her childhood that museums sometimes could be very boring… BUT definitely not this one. :)
The machines themselves are already amazing but what makes the visit really entertaining is the style of the guides. They are very enthusiastic and motivated, they do everything for visitors, even singing to show how the old street music machines worked in the past. To tell the truth she could get good money with it because she was doing very well. ;)
It's funny to think that these clocks and music machines were made just people wanted to be entertained in every way. There is a music machine which contains not only a piano but also 3 violins inside so it's like a whole orchestra in one machine without any human presence.
You can even see a small sailing ship with some drummers and soldiers on it. Rudolf II of Habsburg ordered this piece to scare his best guests during his luxurious dinners. How he did is something that you should find by yourself! The temporary exhibition is open till 30/07/2006.

Janneke brought Jip to the national museum of  automatic clocks.
Jip became over excited. There were clocks with animals and little figures moving everywhere. The guy who was showing us the pieces talked with Jip a few times, explaining him things about those extraordinary toys for rich people in the past.
Jip was really amazed by a Russian czarina's clock, made with a bunch of little tiny pieces of glass rotating that were looking like water… woooaaa… amazing!
Then we went to the other section of the museum, were they showed us automatic music machines. There were mostly pianos... playing without anybody pressing the tabs! You could actually see the tabs going up and down! That was done thru metal discs, or rolls of paper with little holes, where the music was "programmed"... Jip started to think about his computer, and the cd he uses to watch Japanese cartoons.. and well.. the concept is the same!
Actually the girl who was showing us the things was really energetic and nice.. so sometimes you couldn't really tell if Jip got over excited for the toys or for her.
So... Jip's suggestion is to go there without hurry… and don't forget to take a ride on the pedals music machine! ;)