Visiting The Miffy Museum (Nijntje Museum) in Utrecht

As you may know, SCK has a bit of a Dutch element as me and Nicolette have a Dutch mother and Natasja lives in the Netherlands. We were all able to meet up in Utrecht recently and visit the Miffy Museum! I’ll be calling her Miffy in this post, though her original Dutch name is Nijntje. Read on to find out all about the museum, and other fun Miffy spots in Utrecht.

Utrecht was the hometown of Miffy’s creator, artist Dick Bruna, and you’ll find Miffy everywhere! As well as the museum, there’s a recreation of his studio, statues around town and even Miffy traffic lights!

The museum is the main draw though and located in the Museum Quarter. It’s easy to spot as Miffy stands outside waiting for you. We were able to walk straight in but at busier times of the year and school holidays, you’ll want to buy tickets online in advance. We’re not looking very kawaii here as it was a cold and rainy day!

The museum is aimed at small children but if you’re a big Miffy fan, it’s still a lot of fun to visit. Kids will have a great time playing with all the activities, plus there’s play areas, a theatre and an art room. Adults can enjoy seeing the colourful illustrations come to life and there’s plenty cute photo opportunities including a giant plush.

It was especially nice to see the original Dick Bruna drawings and these very early Miffy models – the first one is from the 1950s! There’s also a room full of books from around the world and lots of hidden things to find including some surprising products.

Once you’re done with the museum, there’s more Miffy to see across the street at the Centraal Museum. They have a huge shop, about half of which is all Miffy. We forgot to take any photos in our excitement but you can see it on their website.

Here’s some of the cute things we bought including postcards, t-shirt and very shiny pins. The shop only stocked larger size plushies but we were able to get some smaller keyring sizes ones at the airport (where Nicolette even met a Miffy mascot!). I’ll share more photos on Instagram this evening.

You can also visit their cafe, which has Miffy cakes and pancakes! The pancakes didn’t really look like Miffy but we were able to improve them with some syrup. The museum also has a permanent Dick Bruna exhibit of his studio and a cool 360° Miffy in the garden.

On the way back to the station we were also able to see the Miffy traffic lights – such a cute idea! It’s clear that Utrecht loves Miffy and Dick Bruna. If you have a chance to visit the Netherlands, I would really recommend Utrecht – it’s only a short train ride away from Amsterdam but much less crowded and touristy.

Information

The Miffy Museum and the Centraal Museum (with shop and cafe) are open 6 days a week (closed on Mondays). Both are around a 20 minute walk from Utrecht Centraal station or you can take the bus. Tickets to the Miffy Museum are €6 and can be bought online in advance or from the Centraal Museum shop.

You can see more of our photos on Instagram and Flickr.