Nemo Science Museum Amsterdam(for kids)

Saturday I went to Nemo Science Museum with my kids and husband. The kids were awake very early in the morning and totally excited about the trip. It was a very stormy and windy day so we decided to go by car and park the car at my father's place. Then we took the subway to Amsterdam Central Station. I wanted to make some pictures outside during our trip but it was so windy/stormy that I didn't do it. So many things changed in Amsterdam that I wonder when they think it is ready and feel satisfied.

So many things changed at the Amsterdam Central Station that we little bit got lost which is funny because I grew up in Amsterdam and went to Amsterdam Central Station every week. We walked around 2 km which was around 15 minutes in the stormy windy weather.

When we arrived we saw something large from glass or plastic and it had blue liquid inside it. It seemed to be a water clock which people use in the past, maybe in 15th or 16th century BCE. They used this instrument to measure the time. Very interesting.

Looking at the right I saw a parking place for buggies and it reminded me of 2013 when I went to Nemo Science Museum with my kids (without my husband) who were at that time 2 and 3,5 years old. Probably you wonder why I went there at these ages? Well, tickets are free for kids age under 3 years. ;-)

The tickets cost 16,50 euro starting age 4. Very expensive for kids! It was very crowded and I can tell you, if you can not stand the crowd, then this is probably nothing for you because it is a crowd full of kids of different ages. My husband usually doesn't like crowded places so I really wondered at the beginning how long his patience would be.

The first thing we saw was a corner where you could play with bubbles. The kids were giggling standing in the center while my husband made a large bubble. The boy in the back had itchy fingers, wanting to prick and burst the bubble couple of times, so his mommy had to hold him.

Here the kids could see how a coin is spinning.

I am not sure what this was, but it had to do with magnets. Maybe you know what this was?

This is a lightning globe the kids were touching. The globe contains gas that lights up because of electricity.

This was so funny! The kids had to make sure the ball is not falling of the machine that is blowing wind.

At first I was thinking what this large mirror could teach children but then I saw on the sides a pair of feet painted prints where you had to place your feet and do crazy movements.

These are seats where you have to pull yourself up. My oldest struggled with his rope and I asked him how that was possible since he is older and stronger than his little brother. He told me that his rope is heavier and the ropes on the left side were easier to pull.

There were so many things to discover and to explore that I don't remember everything. I think this machine shows us what colours you can combine to get a new colour.

This is a vortex and the water starts whirling because of the rotating motion of the propeller. The faster you spin the more it looks like a tornado.

This is a chaotic pendulum and it is impossible to predict how the pendulum will move.

Suddenly we saw many people gathering in the middle of the floor. We were very curious to see what it was. We saw a man standing in the middle preparing a chain reaction experiment.

The man told us that he was preparing it for an hour to make sure the chain reaction would be successful.

We went to the next floor and saw in a corner small short stairs, we had a look and saw a room where you can make your own balloon car. The kids were jumping for joy. We decided to make two teams: team Mama and team Papa. Everything was available at the table and we saw other mama's and papa's helping their kids to make a balloon car.

Team Mama was the first that was finished making the balloon car. My oldest son was testing his car how far it could ride. I think it went 2.20 meters far.

Team Papa was very late! As usual papa doesn't want to follow the instructions written on the paper which was available on the paper. On top of that papa wanted to make a turbo speed balloon car. (yeah right!!! As if that would create more speed ;-D) So the car failed because he used two straws for the balloon. He said that would create more speed, Turbo Speed! He found out that the car didn't ride and removed one the extra straw. Even after he fixed it he lost from team Mama! The car went only 1.60 meter.....So funny to see that some fathers were doing the same, using two straws. I wonder if it had to do with ego/pride not want to follow the instructions. Hmmm........

I had a lot of fun seeing Team Papa losing. We left the room and saw other things to discover. We just didn't know were to start. The kids were running to a sort of stone. It was a real meteorite. It didn't feel like stone, it felt like iron. It was in fact iron!

Here the kids could see that the same amount of liquid fits in one of the spheres.

There was another large room where kids could make a long tunnel system and enjoy watching how a cockroach robot walked through the tunnel that the kids created.

This is so cool! The kids had to use these shields/boards to protect the earth from dangers from outer space like comets and meteorites.

At this section the kids could build a polyhedron. Never heard of it before. Reminds me of K'nex somehow. My kids stayed very long at this section and my youngest was looking very focused.

This is the water section, a very dangerous corner because my oldest son loves to play with water. They were building a dam.

My husband looked grumpy and I knew it was time for him to eat. He is so predictable. He told me he wanted to go home and buy Vlaamse Friet( fries) at Manneken Pis. My oldest son saw a room where there is a lab and wanted to go there. So we did. My husband and my youngest son were waiting because the lab wasn't for my youngest son. We could choose out of 4 experiments but when it was our turn, we were unfortunate as we got the least interesting experiment and the other experiments were occupied. It was an experiment where you have to guess first which almond paste is the real one and later on test it out with iodine. We both had a lab coat on which was obviously not fresh and used by others. Mine stunk terrible like arm pits! I almost had to threw up! The other coats were not available. We didn't really see any difference between the real and the fake almond paste after we tested with iodine.

It was a lot of fun! We all enjoyed it and we would love to come again because we didn't discover everything. It was just a pity that bigger kids pushed my kids away and I have seen this also with other small kids. If you're planning to visit Amsterdam I can really suggest you Nemo Science Museum. It is not just interesting for kids but also for adults.