The Experimentarium

I know I have spoken about The Experimentarium previously, but I can't stress enough that if you have young children and you are moving to Copenhagen, or you are just passing through, you must make sure you visit this place. If you are here for a while, it really makes sense to buy a season ticket, a couple of visits and it's paid for itself. Trust me, you will visit so often that it doesn't make sense not to have one, it has been a real life saver here for me at times!

We hadn't visited for a while, and I was somewhat hesitant about going as the Body Worlds exhibition is currently there (it's now there until the 4th September), albeit in a separate area away from the main part of the museum. I wasn't sure about my two viewing it as they are still so small, but it was quite hard to avoid on arrival and it intrigued them, so we decided to test the water by starting off with the tame stuff in the glass case in the foyer, and they were completely fascinated. Obviously, I didn't overly stress to them that what they were viewing had actually been real once upon a time, but they certainly weren't scared by it! It turned out that it wouldn't have mattered if we had chosen not to visit, as there was a Body World exhibit hanging in the main part of the museum anyway, but I kind of find it refreshing that they don't hide certain things from children here, and they don't stop them from doing certain things in case it upsets them (sheep's heart and lung dissection for three year olds anyone?), life is life and there's certainly no pretending about things.

It's really nice because the displays constantly change so you are not visiting the same old stuff again and again too. This time there was a huge area dedicated to animal senses. Small boy immediately took off and spent a good ten minutes being a bee pollinating flowers, cheered on by a gathering of Japanese tourists, all snapping away and exclaiming how "Kawai" (cute) he was... I think he rather enjoyed performing for the cameras somewhat!

As always the staff are on hand to help you out, give direction, or explain stuff to the children. This time my six year old was eager to take part in a real experiment.... Meet Egg.

Egg was given to us in a plastic bag containing 3 straws, a balloon, some paper, some string and some sellotape. The idea was to design a protective container for Egg, using the given materials only, so that he would survive being slung off a high balcony without being smashed. Unfortunately for them, my children had the wrong parent with them. Their engineering father would have proved to be a much more reliable science partner, but nonetheless we came up with the idea to encapsulate Egg inside the balloon first before blowing it up, and then sticking stuff around the balloon to help him survive the fall. Three times we successfully managed to get him inside the balloon, successfully inflated it, and three times, the six year old managed to burst it rather loudly with what turned out to be a jagged nail. Constantly asking for balloons from the "Scientist" was getting a bit embarrassing, and Small Boy was at this stage sitting with his hands firmly clamped over his ears, so we decided on a different tactic...The Six Year Old really enjoyed the experiment, and her brother enjoyed being picked up by his rather glamorous assistant so that he could see Egg descend rather quickly, and be smashed into smithereens on the floor below. Apparently next time I have to stay at home, and Daddy's going with them. I might sneak along anyway and take a book and sit in the cafe, because that's also nice!We will miss this place, it's pretty special.