Even though smoking isn't cool anymore in the Netherlands and has almost been driven to extinction by the government, this museum keeps its history very much alive. The Pijpenkabinet is a specialised museum, unique in Europe, dedicated to the global culture of pipe smoking and the use of tobacco over the past 25 centuries. With almost 2,000 items of its 30,000-strong collection on display, the museum covers five continents and categories vary from folk art to pipes from the pre-Columbian era around 500BC. We particularly enjoyed the original Chinese opium pipes and the different illustrations from a time when smokers weren't banished to sidewalks and smoking rooms just to light a fag.
