Tramway

Waiting for tram

The Amsterdam tramway network forms part of the public transport system in Amsterdam. Opened in 1875, the network has been operated since 1943.
The trams on the network run on standard gauge track. Since 1900, they have been powered by electricity, at 600 V DC. At the termini of almost every tram line there is a suitable turning loop, so that the line can be operated by unidirectional trams.

With 16 lines, the network comprises a total of 213 km of track. The fleet is made up of 237 trams.
Every line of tram is represented by a number and a flag.

You, me, electricity (before the trip)

As you can see in our last publication which talks about “You, Me, Electricity”, one area of NEMO museum, we only talked about one subject “cellular phone communication”. So when we went to the museum we realized that in this area there wasn’t only information about it, there, there were also information about radio, compasses… and now we would like to explain you more about it:

 Electrical revolution step 1 - 1820

Discover how electricity moves a compass needle without touching it.

When you flip the switch, electricity starts to flow through the wire. The electricity turns on thre lamp and a magnetic field is created around the wire.

The needle, which usually points north, is now attracted by this stonger magnetic field.

You can use this system to communicate if you agree a code beforehand but the receiver can't response you.

We would like to tell you that we also add photography in our last publication of NEMO museum. We wish that it likes you.

The Amsterdam Clogs

Durning the road with the bycicles, we stop to see an important part of holland, the Clogs.

You won’t see many people wearing clogs in Amsterdam, but they are still an important part of Dutch culture. The Dutch language has many idiomatic expressions associated with wooden shoes. Clogs are still popular with people working in agriculture as they’re great for walking on muddy ground and can easily be removed. Dutch clogs are made from different types of wood – poplar and willow being favourites – and are often painted. 

History:

As wooden shoes were used to fuel the fireplace once they were worn-out, it proved difficult fot historians to precisely date the origins of clogs. Nevertheless, they estimate that the first clogs appeared at least 850 years ago and the oldest wooden shoe known was found in the Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam. This clog dates from around the year 1230 and is made of alder wood. The shoes  were made in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on who would wear them. Some had rounded edges while others had pointed toes to help fishermen pull their nets in.

 

Amazing costructions

Amazing Constructions

Here we will explain why we chose this topic and what is about of one of the museum exhibits, amazing buildings.

We’ve chosen this topic because it’s related to items we are studying at school such as the balance of a building. And we think it’s a good exposition to complement our knowledge about the topic and maybe address us to a kind of degrees.   
                    
Amazing Constructions is an exhibit about technical constructions; about bridges and buildings with muscle. This is the place to discover the effects of form, strength and balance. Experiment with wobbly skyscrapers, trembling cables and high-speed lifts. Discover the difference between push and pull power.        

At Amazing Constructions you can also see the eye-catching, eight-metre-high scale model of the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam. Accompanying it are 15 installations about strength, all of which focus on an aspect of construction. These include different building styles, construction methods, building materials and so on. At certain structures you can experiment with some of the basic principles of building.

There we found a reduced exposition of some simple machines that we had studied before in class. Some like the block and tackle, the Maltese cross, a camshaft used in internal combustion engines with pistons...
And we can test the utility of the screw: we moved ourselves up just turning a handle. But we need a lot of revolutions to arrive at the top. Although it was very easy and didn’t need a kit of strength, kids can move it too.

From our point of view, it was a simple exposition but it has a lot of concepts to work deeply and spend a hole morning there. 

“You, Me, Electricity” (After the trip)

As you can see in our last publication which talks about “You, Me, Electricity”, one area of NEMO museum, we only talked about one subject “cellular phone communication”. So when we went to the museum we realized that in this area there wasn’t only information about it, there, there were also information about radio, compasses… and now we would like to explain you more about it:

Electrical revolution step 1 – 1820

Discover how electricity moves a compass needle without touching it.

When you flip the switch, electricity starts to flow through the wire. The electricity turns on thre lamp and a magnetic field is created around the wire.

The needle, which usually points north, is now attracted by this stonger magnetic field.

You can use this system to communicate if you agree a code beforehand but the receiver can't response you.

*We would like to tell you that we also add photography in our last publication of NEMO museum. We wish that it likes you.

Looking for bicycles!!

The second day of our trip, 18th of March, we decided to hired the bicycles. As usual we caught the tram in Burgemeester de Vlugtlaan stop and we went to Dam square, since where we would start a trek towards the Central Station.

Frist we stopped in an establishment situated near of “Van Gogh museum” but it was a disaster. The owner of business demanded us 200 € for each person or some credit cards as a deposit, and as it was expected none had so much money on him. So we had to leave such as we had arrived. Finally we arrived at Central Station and from there they sent us to the Tourist Office of Amsterdam. At last we found the correct store and we could hire our bicycles which would accompany us on a very hard journey the next day.

Monument in Dam Square

From the May 4, 1956 This monument is erected in front of the Royal Palace, surrounded by the Hotel Krasnapolsky, Bijenkorf shopping center and the building of De Groote Industrieele Club, Grand Club Industry. Each May 4, at the Dam is made the solemn and austere ceremony commemorating the Victims Day in World War II.
In the central part of the monument stands a blunt obelisk surrounded by other allegorical figures, this place was built the first dam (dam in Dutch), in the thirteenth century on the river Amstel, allowing the first flood control .

To the real Holland

Holland is a place under the sea level. During the last centuries Dutch people succeed in gaining land to the sea. They created the famous POLDERS to achieve it.
In our bike trip to Zaanse Schans we had the pleasure to see how they are and hoe many water they still have to conduct to the sea.

It was more than 40 km biking but at the end it was a worth trip, or not?


Send to fsolans.tecno.imatges@picasaweb.com with the title Zaanse and you could see them here.

A gymkhana in Amsterdam CITY CENTER

All of us had the pleasure to use our smartphones to follow some clues in our gymkhana. After creating some Qr codes we spread them and all the groups had to find them.
Was it nice?

Send to fsolans.tecno.imatges@picasaweb.com with the title Gimcana and you could see them here.
Here you have the pictures of this experience

THE RED DISTRICT

RED DISTRICT

The red district is the most famous neighborhood in the world, the red district is situates in the old downtown of Amsterdam. 
During the day the red district is full of turists of around the world, when the sun fells down the red district isn't a recommended place to go, because is at night when the red district is a DANGEROUS place where you can be stolen...
In the red district there are bitches all the day, the bitches are behind a glass door, at night there are more bitches than at night and is when the district acquieres the red colour!

 

THE FERRY

Explaining start the ferry is a ship carrying from one place to another, cars and people. In the picture we see that inside the ferry, there are two entrances, one on the right side and the other on the left, and in the middle we see that there are cars and motorcycles. A man from the top leads the ferry.
While We expect the entry to be seen in the photo below, you can go


by some barriers. A curiosity is that before leaving the ferry pita with a very loud horn. It is good to be free and afternoon two minutes to cross the river.

Italian Restaurant in Amsterdam

Dinner is common in many foreign restaurants in Amsterdam quarter, because they have very few foods typical of the country.

The second day in Amsterdam, we found this restaurant, where we ate pizza and other pasta dishes, as usual dinner at eight o'clock, which is an appropriate time to northern Europe.

Treasure hunt around the city

One day in the afternoon with qr codes and some clues that we made ​​previous in groups in Catalonia, we began a treasure hunt throughout the city of Amsterdam.
This was to find all the hidden codes around the city with clues and when we find  the code take a picture in it.
This activity from my point of view was one of the best of the whole trip, because we all discover the most emblematic of the city and know it and placed us on without the help of teachers, only for our mobile and a  map.
We were able to visit places like the red light district, the Waag, the Begijnhof, the Cathedral, Damm Square, some museums and some important statues.
All of this we did with bikes, traveling as most city dwellers.
It was an event to remember!

Albert Cuyp Market

The second day we rented some bikes.We took a ride through the city, living as an Amsterdam inhabitant. Everybody took a different way to arrive in our stop, in  near the Heineken museum. There we take a walk around the Albert Cuyp Market stands. There was new and second hand clothes, old military uniforms, old books, video’s and DVD’s, and it was also a good place to buy some souvenirs and mobile phone covers. We also had lunch there, eating in the street. For a cheep price, we ate more than in a restaurant, and maybe better.

Amazing Constructions

Before the trip, we chose a topic to study. We choose (amazing constructions).

Amazing Constructions is an exhibit about technical constructions; about bridges and buildings with muscle.

At Amazing Constructions you can also see the eye-catching, eight-metre-high scale model of the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam. Accompanying it are 15 installations about strength, all of which focus on an aspect of construction. These include different building styles, construction methods, building materials and so on. At certain structures you can experiment with some of the basic principles of building.

Amazing Constructions

Here we will explain why we chose this topic and what is about of one of the museum exhibits, amazing buildings.

We’ve choosen this topic because it’s related to items we are studying at school such as the balance of a building. And we think it’s a good exposition to complement our knowledge about the topic and maybe adress us to a kind of degrees.   
                    
Amazing Constructions is an exhibit about technical constructions; about bridges and buildings with muscle. This is the place to discover the effects of form, strength and balance. Experiment with wobbly skyscrapers, trembling cables and high-speed lifts. Discover the difference between push and pull power.        

At Amazing Constructions you can also see the eye-catching, eight-metre-high scale model of the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam. Accompanying it are 15 installations about strength, all of which focus on an aspect of construction. These include different building styles, construction methods, building materials and so on. At certain structures you can experiment with some of the basic principles of building.

You, Me, Electricity

Before our trip we want to explain you some about “cellular phone communication”.

The cellular phone communication is that one in which the phones aren’t connected with electric cables, in which the message is send through the air in from of electromagnetic waves.

It has two parts: a communication network, which consists of some aerials around the world, and the terminals or mobile phones, which allow the access to the network.

Each operator divides the area in some spaces, which are called cell. In each cell there is a base transceiver station, which is an aerial that can emit and receive in the said area. They use some set of ten channels, which have different frequencies, fact that allows that a lot of people can communicate at the same time.

When a phone makes a call it connects with the network switch of the nearest base transceiver station that belongs at his operator network (Movistar, Vodafone, Orange…).

Then the network switch search the addressee in the base transceiver station network since find the base transceiver station in which this stay and connects the two base transceiver stations calling the recipient phone. If the recipient accepts the call it puts in contact both.

H2: Future Fuel

One permanent exhibition that we can find at Nemo Museum is ''H2: Future Fuel''. 

We consume a lot of energy. Oil and gas are running out and are bad for the environment. 

Scientist are researching to find new energy recurses. A new clean fuel could be Hydrogen. When it burns, energy and clean water are released. Hydrogen is the most abundant atom in the universe. At least 90% of all atoms are hydrogen.

At ''H2: Future Fuel'' we can find what hydrogen is and how much oil there still is, what we use energy for and which countries need the most energy. 

The phenomena exhibition

We chose this part of me Phenomena Exhibition, here it right: I chose this area because we like phenomena: Here you have it in the topic. Phenomena The exhibition covers both ordinary and extraordinary natural phenomena. In your everyday life, you spend the whole day going against the laws of nature. 

Drop an apple and see how gravity works. When you take off your sweater, you will hear it crackle (static electricity). With the help of pulleys, you appear to be much stronger than without them. And Archimedes Law explains why one object remains afloat while another one sinks. With 29 exhibits and four puzzles, Phenomana explains how the laws of nature work. One of the exhibits is Inside Bubbles, which shows you the inside of a soap bubble. At Pulleys! you have to pull yourself up onto three different stools. Discover why it’s harder to do this on one chair than on another. At Spinning Powers, experience how skaters can pirouette so quickly.

Water World

One section that we can find in the museum Nemo is:

The Water World that represents a water purification system. There we can find how to purify a bucket of water so it is clean enough to drink. We have to try to spill as little as possible, because water is a scarce resource. When we’ve finished the purification process we can water a plant, do the washing up or give a dog a drink.

As far as we know, earth is the only planet in our solar system with liquid water. Water is a precondition for life. In total, around 1.4 billion cubic kilometres of water (1 cubic kilometre = 1,000 billion litres) can be found on earth. This is a huge amount but only 3% of it is fresh water. Of this fresh water, less than a quarter is available to us as drinking water. So we have to be aware of how we use it; and, as a result of environmental pollution, useable water is becoming increasingly scarce.

We think this is interesting and important because the world is running out of water and is a good way to find ways to save and reuse water and so spend as little as possible.

Road to Western Blue Square Hotel

One possible transport to arrive to our hotel from the airport is by bus.
Stadsbus 69 (direction to Station Sloterdijk) stops in Lodewijk van Deysselstraat. The previous stop is Burg van Leeuwenlaan.
Then we only have to walk 230m to Slotermeerlaan 80, where is our blue hotel.
The traject has a duration of 30min and costs 2,93€.

This is the departure schedul
Schiphol Plaza    12:40    13:10    13:40    14:10    14:40    15:10    15:40    16:10    16:40    17:10  

Where are we?

Mostra Amsterdam'13 en un mapa més gran

Sharing our pictures (live)

During those unforgettable days that we'll visit Amsterdam we're going to take many pictures with our smartphones. It's possible that your friends wanted to see what are you doing. That's why we provide you the possibility to send the pictures just after taken them.

Send to fsolans.tecno.imatges@picasaweb.com with the title AMS13 and you could see them here.

Please you have to activate geopositioning in your smartphone to know where the picture is taken.

The best picture will be awarded somehow!!

Biking excursion

It seams that evereryday it's more clear that we're going to visit Zaanse Schans, at least no one has said anything against. Now the problem is to know how to reach this nice and interesting place. Can you help us?

Shopping in Amsterdam

Aquí trobareu els llocs més interesants i coneguts d'Amsterdam respecte a botigues.

El Kalverstraat és un concorregut carrer comercial de Amsterdam, per no dir el més conegut de tots.

És el carrer comercial més car dels Països Baixos. Aquest comença a la plaça Dam i acaba uns 750 metres de profunditat prop de la Munttoren.

Podem trobar-hi des de botiges com la crocs fins a Macdonalds o la Channel es a dir tot tipus de botigues diferents i per a tots es publics.

De Bijenkorf és una cadena d'alta gamma de botigues per departaments al Països Baixos amb el seu botiga insígnia a la plaça Dam , Amsterdam, on és el seu centre comercial més important. 
Aquest edifici va ser habilitat per monjes catòliques per a cuidar als més necessitats. Al seu voltant si troben molts dels edificis més antics de la ciutat.

Flower market, és l'únic mercat de flors flotant del món, i un dels llocs més fragants d'interès d'Amsterdam.

Mercat de flors flotant està obert tot l'any per als vilatans i els visitants poden gaudir d'una àmplia gamma de plantes de colors sense importar la temporada. Per descomptat, les tulipes holandesos (en una increïble varietat de colors) ja que són
les flors més famoses d'allà.

Per la zona del Flower Market es troba La Christmas Palace, que seria una de les botiges més diferents i originals de tot Amsterdam, ja que venen articles de nadal durant tot l'any.

Google maps

Com col·laborar i treballar plegats a googlemaps

UNA EINA IMPRESCINDIBLE!

Abans de poder marxar de viatge necessitem una serie de preparacions i en aquesta entrada parlarem del lector de codis qr. El qual ens serà molt útil per a poder completar la gimkana i a més es tracta d'una de les aplicacions imprescindibles en els nostres smartphones o tablets.

Per a android existeixen molts lectors d'aquest tipus però desprès de provar-n'hi uns quants ens em decidit pel QR Droid ja que és un dels més complets i en CATALÀ. 

QR Droid Descarregar

Per als altres sistemes operatius em trobat un lector multiplataforma bastant ràpid  que cumpleix tambè amb les nostres expectatives i és gratuit. És tracta del I-Nigma.

I-Nigma Blackberry                                      I-Nigma Iphone

I-Nigma Windows Phone                                 I-Nigma Android