Due to working at one of Amsterdam’s nicest hotels I get some pretty cool perks. And free entry to The NEMO Science Museum is one of them.

Talk about the perfect excuse to be a big kid for the day…

It is no secret that the NEMO Science Museum is for the smaller end of the human beings scale. Most of the reviews on TripAdvisor are titled:

1: “Museum for kids”

2: “Museum for Children”

3: “Not really a museum! Only for kids.”

4: “KID AGAIN”

5: “For young kids and it is great not for mid age adults”

6: “Don’t bother going unless you have children”

I bed to differ reviewer #6. And reviewer #5 you are boring. I will take any excuse to pretend to be a child again and NEMO Science Museum is one of the best excuses in Amsterdam.

If you’re as old as you feel I must have been about 5 and three quarters that day.

The NEMO Science Museum is located at the Oosterdok in Amsterdam-Centrum which is only a short walk from central station. It contains five floors of hands-on science exhibitions and is the largest science center in the Netherlands. It attracts annually over 500,000 visitors, which makes it the fifth most visited museum in the Netherlands.

After having a tense organisational moment of Dutch/Australian personalities clashing, my favourite Dutch man and I arrived to the museum tense. It didn’t take long after seeing the hundreds of hands-on, interactive things to experience and play with I was soon giggling my frustration away.

(See, it’s not just a kids museum – it’s also a couple therapy centre…)

We learnt physicals, biology and chemistry all over again through fun toys and games and then we discovered the lab. Yes, the lab.

22-year-old me was putting on a white lab coat and goggles just like in high school except this time by choice and with enthusiasm. We found a nice spot at a table with some fellow scientists (maybe a quarter of our age) and got our science on.

After we wore ourselves out with failing to complete children science experiments we discovered the sex education centre. I had certainly experiences Amsterdam’s grown-ups sexual education centre a few years before and was impressed at how liberal sexual conversations are even with the younger generation. I was particularly impressed with the karma sutra display. This place is definitely educating the next generation of Dutch lovers well.

After a big afternoon of experimenting we headed to the top of the building and admired the view. It felt good to nurture our inner kids for an afternoon but our grown-up selves were creeping out again and we needed some wine.

NEMO Science Museum

Oosterdok 2
1011 VX Amsterdam

NEMO is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:30. During school holidays we are also open on Monday.

Admission prices 2016

A visit to NEMO Science Museum costs €15.00 per person. Discounts are available for a range of cardholders, but only if you show your card at the ticket office. The NEMO e-ticket can now be purchased online.

• Admission for visitors aged 4 and over: € 15.00
• Children under 4: free
  
• CJP, Student Card: € 7.50
• I Amsterdam City Card: free
  
• Museumkaart: free
• BankGiro Loterij VIP-kaart: free
• Stadspas Amsterdam: free
• Carers accompanying disabled visitors: free
• Autipas holders: free