Microbia: It's the little things...

Upon entering this museum, we entered an elevator and told to look at our reflections on the ceiling, that got closer and closer and closer.  We stepped out into the room and we are welcomed by the words...

"When you look from really close, a new world is revealed to you.  More beautiful and spectacular than you could ever have imagined.  Welcome to Micropia."

The room is filled with Microscopes and information on all sorts of mini-life around/on/near us.

Here you can do a body scan and find out what lives on and in you. It is interactive and a little too detailed for me to handle - Gross

You can also see what type of kisser you are and get an estimated # of bacteria, so lovely!

Connor and Easton pose with their favourite microbe - the Water Bear.  This thing is really quite cool actually and can live for about 100 years, even being dehydrated, frozen, radiated, overheated, etc.!!

I didn't realise Malaria (on the left) and Ebola (on the right) were so beautiful! Although there is nothing beautiful about the effects on a person.

Here is the lab they grow all the microbes in. 

There are many more things at this museum, I confess I stopped here as I was feeling a bit too, up close and personal.  I did learn a lot of interesting things but to me, there are things I would rather not know about, haha.

Diamond Museum

The Diamond Museum was surprisingly interesting.  We weren't sure what to expect, certainly not clips of famous movie "Diamond Heists", replicas of most of the well-known world diamonds and definitely did not expect a giant gorilla skull covered in diamonds.  While most diamonds were not real, it was still fun to see and a quick visit, free with our "MuseumKaarts"

The museum starts with the science behind diamonds, how they form from coal and where major deposits are located.  This was a next step in our summer geology lesson, after going to Frank Slide with Aunt Geologist Nicole, learning all about coal, then going coal hunting.

I did not realise Amsterdam is the Diamond Cutting capital of the world, while the diamond selling capital is Antwerp, Belgium (80% of the world's diamonds go through here!).  We learned it is a very specialised skill to cut diamonds and there are only a few places it is done in the world.  The Dutch have records of doing it for over 400 years and some very special diamonds included - Crown jewels!

Practising our diamond cutting skills...

There was also a cool section on real v. fake and how experts tell the difference.

Yes we are fancy, trying on Diamonds...haha...

Nicole, can you take us on a field trip to find some diamonds soon?  In the meantime we'll be catching up on some movies...Pink Panther, To Catch a Thief, Ocean's Eleven, Flawless, any others?

Stadelijk Museum - Modern Art

This was a fun museum and we only got through about 1/2 today.

Great paintings - recognize any of the masters? Chagall, Kandinsky, Picasso, Van Gogh, and more!  Such an interesting collection of classics, new work and even political posters.

Fun activities:
At the museum they are using images on stickers of current buildings and materials to allow families to create the "City of the Future" and we added our own touches. They are capturing the changes with time-lapse photography and it will be interesting to see how it evolves.

Connor created a defender of the city against Cyborg dragon enemies.

Easton and Luke created a mammoth 800-story tower.  Unfortunately a ship may have already crashed into the top of the tower.  I added some bridges and highways between other buildings.

Kinderdijk - UNESCO World Heritage Site

We took a "water bus" from Rotterdam to Kinderdijk.  Most people took their bikes on the boat. There were several bus stops along the river.  The river is a branch of the Rhine River called Nieuwe Mass.  There are a lot of small towns and beautiful vacation homes along the banks.

It was a hot and sunny day, so it was perfect to be on the water. You can also drive here.

On the website it explains: "UNESCO considers the area...to be proof of human inventiveness in reclaiming and protecting the land. The gorgeous windmills of Kinderdijk are part of a unique phenomenon. The windmills and pumping stations drain the excess water from the Alblasserwaard into the river Lek via the Elshout sluices. Subsequently, the river discharges the water into the sea."

There are 19 windmills from the 18th Century and most are fully operational. It is a really beautiful location and full of history.