It’s been a week since we had a wonderful girl power meet up. Last Thursday, the 30th of January IWNG teamed up with WBII from the Hague to visit Museum Rotterdam and have lunch at Restaurant Ayla. It was a great opportunity for both groups to meet members from another women’s group. This was networking at it’s best!
Museum Rotterdam
At 10 AM in the morning, we met in the entrance hall of Museum Rotterdam. Lucky for us, they had a special discount that day due to the teacher’s strike. The normal price to visit is 9,50 Euro. But its good to mention this museum is free every second Saturday of the month!
Girlpower
We visited the “GIRLPOWER” exhibit which was dedicated to celebrating Rotterdam sportswomen. As you might know, Rotterdam is known for its support in the sports sector. Sports and Rotterdam are inseparable. The city has brought many female top athletes to victory. Unfortunately, this was pretty much unknown up till now. And it was great to see so many women being so successful in sports, even at the young age of 9!
The exhibit started with an ode to Rie Mastenbroek. Born in 1919, she got Rotterdam and the rest of Holland cheering wildly for her during the Olympic Games in 1936. During her career as a swimmer, she won three Olympic titles.
Other well-known women were mentioned in this exhibit, like Leontien van Moorsel (bike), Inge de Bruin (swimming), Fatima Moreira de Melo (hockey), Nellie Cooman (sprinter) but also Noushka Fontijn (boxer), Jolanda Paardekam (table tennis) and many more.
It was nice to see how sports evolved. We saw original and personal pictures from the athletes, their uniforms, gloves, and shoes. We wondered how unpractical it must have been to be a gymnast and wearing a sort of sailor’s dress.
Ladies getting active
The fun part started when we tried out the active section of the exhibit where we could hit a ball with a golf stick and try to pass it into a certain hole in the wall, try biking as fast as Leontien van Moorsel, playing a bit of ping pong or challenging ourselves to get a high score with weight lifting. See pictures below to see we got really out of breath, but also that we have our own real girl power in the group.
yup she does bike very fast!
Lunch at Ayla
After the museum visit, we went for a short walk to Restaurant Ayla, where more IWNG members joined the group. Ordering and receiving our lunch was a bit of a hassle, but in the end, it was a super nice get-together and I saw many IWNG-ers mingle with WBII-ers which made me happy. Hope some nice collaborations will be realized. Definitely something we should do more often! I’m very thankful for Deborah Valentine of WBII/ACCESS for contacting me to set up a collaborated event.
Practical information
If you would like to visit Museum Rotterdam and see the “GIRLPOWER” exhibit (at location Timmerhuis), you’ll have until the 8th of March! Your ticket is also valid to visit their other location at Coolhaven on the same day. https://museumrotterdam.nl/tentoonstellingen/girlpower-1
