The Nemo Science Museum in Amsterdam is The largest museum in the Netherlands in this direction. It is located near the Central Station.
NEMO originates from the Labor Museum, founded in the 20s of the last century. During its existence, it even had the status of an institute of industry and technology. In the 90s, again changing the ideological line to an educational museum, it opened under the name “New Metropol”. The main goal of the institution was to raise interest in science and technology among compatriots of all age categories. NEMO had to endure some hard times. It was bankrupt, restructured and became the National Center for Science and Technology of Amsterdam.
The father of the Nemo Science Museum building is the world famous architect Renzo Piano. According to his design, ventilation pipes, steel ceilings and other functional parts of the building are not protected. They are specially left on display for the inquisitive eyes of visitors. The roof acts as an observation deck. This is the only place that offers a great view of the old city. The entire building has 4 floors, which are arranged in steps relative to each other. Each floor is subject to a specific theme.
The first floor topic is about chain reaction and DNA. There are ingenious structures with a flying car, a giant domino and a huge bell. The exhibits participate in a half-hour demonstration show describing the chain reaction.
Exhibits on the second floor focus on buildings, metals, the water cycle, and electricity. Those interested can take part in packaging and packing plastic balls. A real factory has been built here for these purposes.
If your strong point is chemistry and biology, then the third floor is for you. In the giant laboratory it is possible to put scientific experience or experiment.
The fourth floor is dedicated to man and the biggest mystery of the body - his brain. Here you can test the functioning of your brain and memory.
The levels of the Nemo Science Museum building in Amsterdam are designed in such a way that it allows you to observe what is happening on the floors almost simultaneously.
The word Nemo is translated as “nothing.” Empty space that can be filled with anything, but in this case knowledge.
The Nemo Theater regularly hosts presentations, public lectures and exhibitions.
The exhibitions at the Nemo Museum are very dynamic and, not without irony, witty. They introduce you more closely to the laws of the universe. Most exhibits were made by employees from available materials. You can play with them without fear, set up your own experiments and draw conclusions. Here you become not just an observer, but also a participant in the fascinating process of bringing the exhibits to life. A journey into the world of science and technology will captivate you. Science Museum Nemo is a huge interactive attraction. And it is not for nothing that it was located in Amsterdam, the capital of a country that has made significant contributions to the development of world science.
The building fits perfectly with the essence of everything that happens in it, since the “insides” are not covered (hidden) by the decor and you can see in detail what it consists of - floors, pipes, etc.
The open terrace on the top floor of the museum is one of the places that offers a panoramic view of the city and an excellent opportunity to take a photo.
It is almost impossible to fit the NEMO Science Center into the narrow framework of the concept of “museum”, because prerequisite his visits are carried out under the motto: “Touching with hands is prohibited and allowed!”
And not just touch, but twist, twirl, pull, assemble and disassemble... In general, explore the world in all possible ways that inquisitive creatures are capable of. How unmuseum-like this is, right? 😉
By the way, age does not matter: both old and young, playfully, in the literal sense of the word, and in an accessible manner, can learn how, for example, the laws of physics or genetics work.
These seem to be ordinary soap bubbles, oh, remember how much joy they can bring? Yeah... what if you “inflate” a bubble that can fit a whole person? Children's fun turned out to be a cool attraction: you have to see with what zeal parents try to enclose their child in a soap shell :)
Or, let's say a mirror... This little thing is in every home, but it is used mainly for aesthetic purposes, but as soon as you stand towards it from an unusual side, the mirror turns into a funny nursery rhyme and people line up to play with it.
Here, almost as in the film about Munshausen, you can “pull yourself out of the swamp,” although not by your hair, but by pulling yourself up on a rope.
Almost all the exhibits in the museum are interactive, so you can quite clearly imagine how a tornado is born
“catch” a molecule...
But experiments with fire are carried out by adults, for safety reasons, of course.
By using optical illusion you can become smaller than your own child (by the way, there is the same room of miracles in)
As you ascend to the next floor of the museum, the level of complexity of the exhibits and the “age” of the users increase. Look how concentrated the boy is, trying to overcome the force of attraction of the magnet.
In a real laboratory, dressed in a robe and glasses, children and parents with test tubes and flasks in their hands are enthusiastically chemistry, conducting experiments on the transformation of one substance into another.
Part of the exhibition, although we only looked at it with one eye, my daughter’s age is not quite right. I'll have to return to the museum in a few years, for educational purposes 😉
Several times a day, on the ground floor of the museum, the popular show “Chain Reaction” takes place, assembled from a bunch of everyday objects - from balloons to an office chair.
The show is built on the domino principle: it would seem that just one chip falls and then... away we go. In the end, if everything goes well (!), a rocket flies up to the enthusiastic cries of the audience.
I think you’ve already guessed that you can talk about your trip to the NEMO Museum in Amsterdam for a long time and excitedly; you’ll be left with a lot of impressions from it. It even seemed to me that one day is not enough for this museum, you need to spend a week in it, but it’s better not to visit it on weekends and school holidays, on these days there is real pandemonium, noise and din.
NEMO Museum address:
Science Center NEMO
Oosterdok 2
1011 VX Amsterdam
The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:30
Tickets cost 15 euros, children under 4 years old are free.
You can get tickets to the NEMO Museum in Amsterdam or directly on my website by filling out the form below and receive tickets by email:
The Nemo Museum in Amsterdam will be perhaps the most interesting excursion for you, and even more so for your children. The exhibits presented here lift the veil of secrecy about the most important discoveries of our time. The Nemo exhibition talks about science, technology, information technology and other trends in human development. Amsterdam Nemo Museum not only shows, but also encourages visitors to participate! Here you can design your own robot or even build a dam. Be sure to touch all exhibited compositions with your hands!
The five-story Nemo Museum building - its structure
The Nemo Museum in Amsterdam is located in a five-story building designed in the shape of a giant ship with its bow extending into the bay. Once inside, you will find yourself in a hall with a reception, a cafeteria and souvenir shops where you can buy miniature models of exhibits.
The first floor is dedicated to the DNA chain, its structure, and reactions. In addition, here you will see a huge domino and a flying car, and you can also watch a small visual demonstration of a chain reaction.
On the second floor you will have the opportunity to become an employee of the ball factory. Yes, yes, balls, they need to be sorted by weight, color and size, and then sent for packaging. And on this floor there are exhibitions telling about the water cycle, the principle of operation of electric current, metal alloys, and construction. It is here that you can build a dam and redirect the flow of water, see and even “touch” real lightning, build a wooden arch and understand by what principle it is held.
The third floor is designed as a laboratory in which chemical experiments can be carried out. For example, testing vitamins, treating bacteria with antibiotics, creating sulfur volcanoes, and much more.
The penultimate floor is entirely devoted to the work of the most intricate and completely unknown organ - the human brain. Here the Nemo Museum in Amsterdam invites us to test our memory, assess the intensity of brain function, and test our feelings. The twilight of the fourth floor creates a certain feeling of mystery and mystery.
As you may have noticed, the higher the floor, the older the intended audience. It is unlikely that very young children will be interested in looking at antibiotics under a microscope or having their brains examined. For children 4-8 years old, there are special sections where performances that are interesting to them are collected; you can leave the children for an hour or two and go upstairs.
The fifth floor of the museum is for relaxing after the tour. Here you can drink coffee, have lunch, and there is a playground for little visitors. Also, there is access to observation deck, which offers a magnificent view of the city and the bay.
Opening hours and ticket prices for the Nemo Museum in Amsterdam
Nemo Museum in Amsterdam opening hours from 10:00 to 17:00. It is advisable to come early in the morning, because... You can stay for a very long time. The center is open every day except Sunday, and in the summer months there are no days off at all. Tickets to the Nemo Museum in Amsterdam cost only 12 euros per person.
How to find the Nemo Museum in Amsterdam?
The center is located near the Central Station. Once you find the bay, the building is hard to miss; a bridge on metal stilts leads to it. Looking at the map, look for the address Oosterdok 2. You can get to the center by metro, bus, tram, taxi, or whatever. Any public service goes to Central Station.
An excursion between reality and fantasy, a prerequisite is to touch the exhibits with your hands, make independent discoveries, and all this on the deck of a mysterious green ship that rises above the Amsterdam bay. Its name is "NEMO".
Amazing and one of a kind scientific educational museum appeared in Amsterdam in 1997. It was decided to create a center that would awaken interest in science and awaken a thirst for knowledge in children. Italian architect Renzo Piano built a high-tech building, stylized as a ship. Inside, the exhibitions are located on decks, metal ceilings, and pipes create the atmosphere of a journey through the ocean of science.
The museum was originally called the “New Metropolis”; Queen Beatrix became its first visitor and cut the red ribbon with her own hands. However, the official style did not catch on, and a few years later the center was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was then that the idea came to play on the theme of Jules Verne’s novel about the adventures of the mysterious Captain Nemo. The goal was achieved; the museum receives half a million visitors annually.
In terms of the number of guests, it ranks 4th in the Netherlands. The purpose of the exhibition is to tell in a visual, and most importantly accessible form, how the world around us works; the laws of physics and chemistry can be learned in special laboratories, in game form. The live action takes place on all decks of the museum ship at once. The higher, the more difficult. The lower levels are play exhibits - soap bubbles, experiments with mirrors, building structures.
Children and adults can find themselves in the center of a huge bubble or assemble a construction set, and immediately understand on what principle the architect builds the building. By conducting an experiment with a mirror surface, you can unravel the mystery of image curvature. Large visual aids show the principle of operation of magnetic fields and the structure of DNA. The objects in the room on the first floor are arranged in such a way that in half an hour, the visitor can clearly see what a chain reaction is.
A little higher on the decks are the laws of biochemistry, information Technology, mysteries of the human body and secrets of consciousness. Tests of memory, emotions, intelligence. There is a huge laboratory on the third floor; with the help of consultants, you can perform any experiment. On the uppermost deck, for teenagers, there is a hall dedicated to the sacrament sex life. If you climb to the open area at the very top, a stunningly beautiful view of Amsterdam opens up at your fingertips.
The main feature of the NEMO Museum is that the exhibits are made of simple materials and they will work only if they are touched and interesting experiments are carried out with them. Children and adults experiment and get real results. Science in the NEMO Museum becomes an interesting and understandable game.
The Netherlands is an amazing country where ancient castles and picturesque nature are harmoniously combined with the latest scientific achievements. This is confirmed by NEMO Museum- the most famous and big center science and technology in Amsterdam. Conveniently located between Maritime Museum and the capital's Central Station, it attracts millions of tourists, most of whom come with children. The exhibits spark an interest in technology in young visitors through visual examples and participation in interactive attractions and science experiments.
History of the museum
In 1920, the Labor Museum was created in Amsterdam, which 30 years later was renamed the Dutch Institute of Technology and Industry. In the late 80s, it was decided to improve the museum and awaken interest in modern technology even among young children. It took six years to develop the project and build it, and in 1997 the museum opened under a different name. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands attended the opening. In 1999, difficult circumstances led to bankruptcy and reorganization of the museum, as a result of which the name changed again and the one under which it operates to this day appeared. Science Center This scale is the only one in Holland, which the residents of the capital are rightfully proud of.
Building structure
The building has an unusual design - it resembles a huge ship, the bow of which is directed into the Bay of Amsterdam. The museum has 5 floors: from 1 to 4 there are scientific laboratories, expositions, exhibitions, and on the top floor there is a children's playground and a cafeteria. From here you can also admire magnificent views of the city. Downstairs in the hall there is also a cafeteria and souvenir kiosks, where tourists are offered small copies of exhibits.
The museum is designed in such a way that the remaining 3 floors are clearly visible from any point on each level; in addition, the higher the floor, the more complex the exhibitions. The first level is devoted to chain reactions and DNA. Huge-sized dominoes, a flying car, and an entertaining show arouse genuine interest among young tourists. At the second level, visitors are clearly shown the water cycle, the principle of operation of electrical discharges, and the occurrence of lightning. In addition, you can assemble a wooden arch with your own hands and build a dam.
The third level is a scientific laboratory where everyone can take part in experiments: test the effects of antibiotics on microorganisms, conduct tests with vitamins, create a volcano from sulfur, or perform a lot of other exciting experiments. All exhibits are designed for adult tourists and teenagers; children are unlikely to enjoy such activities. The topic of level four is the human brain. Here you can test your memory, take entertaining tests on the senses, and learn more about the development and functioning of the main human organ.
Anyone who has visited the museum is convinced that science can be incredibly exciting and exciting. Exhibitions are constantly updated, supplemented with new films, performances and educational seminars.
Opening hours and tariffs
The Nemo Museum is open to the public every day except Monday. IN summer period Every second Monday of the month is also considered a working day. The museum is closed on Christmas Day, January 1st, and April 30th. Opening hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but it’s better to come early before there are large crowds of people.
The cost of one ticket is 15 euros, but children under 4 years old can enter for free. There are special prices for students, and a group of 15 people always receives a 10% discount. You can get to the museum from Central Station by tram, bus or metro, or walk across the bridge.
