I’ve been living here for two months now and have only just got round to getting a Museumkaart – shame on me. I did visit TENT, the contemporary art gallery on Witte de Withstraat on one of it’s free Friday nights but as a student of Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship I should be more committed. I think that the ‘economics’ bit is relevant to my lack of enthusiasm. I know that these places need to be paid for. We’re spoiled in the UK as most of them are free, (unless you want to go and see the interesting exhibition that is). Here in The Netherlands they are not free. In Rotterdam the Kunsthal is €12, (about £9), Tent is €5 and The Boijmans Museum is €17.50.

It is not the cost – they are all full of wonderful things – it is the fact that I can only take so much in on one visit. The Kunsthal has about six galleries. If I’d paid €12, I’d want to get my money’s worth. I’d feel obliged to see everything. I would come out overwhelmed and feeling a bit cheated.

There is something wonderful in Rotterdam called the Rotterdam Card. With this you can get in free to all the museums and a lot more too. For ‘normal people’ this still costs €60 and it expires in March 2016 but for students it’s only €12.50. I queued to get one. I was planning multiple trips to all the attractions. With this card I could go to one exhibition at a time. I’d never be out of the places. A spare hour here, a sleepy Sunday afternoon there…. Unfortunately for the Rotterdam Pass, students need to be under 33 – oldies like me not welcome.

I was left with a choice. An expensive Rotterdam Pass that covers Rotterdam or a Museumkaart that covers the whole of the country. Sue is over for the weekend so this afternoon we both opted for the latter and used it to go to Kunsthal. We saw two exhibitions and enjoyed a coffee in the café.  I hope that we’ll get some use out of these over the next 12 months.