The Planetarium :O

The ceiling clock was from the planetarium was probably one of the most intricate devices I have ever seen. At first I thought it was a little disappointing because you really couldn't see it move noticeably since its units of measurements were of days or greater. I did have a chance to go upstairs in the planetarium to see the "guts" of the clock and I was flabbergast from all the components that make up the clock. It was powered with 3 weights, one of which would only be reset at most twice a year. There was a single pendulum that timed the whole device. Watching things spin a different rates due to gear ratios was pretty entertaining to say the least.

Nicolette

I really enjoyed going to the planetarium. It was much smaller than I had first anticipated but being able to see the world's oldest planetarium was awesome.  I thought it was amazing how accurate everything with the limited number of resources Eise Eiseinga had.  It must have taken him a really long time to paint the planetarium on the ceiling, it was really beautiful.  I was most amazed by the mechanism itself. Being able to go upstairs and see how everything worked was so cool. The rest of the museum, though not as exciting, was also interesting. We learned about Eise Eiseinga's life as a wool maker and the solar system. 

Planetarium

Seeing the ceiling of this mans house was very impressive. I was amazed by the amount of work he put into it and his ability to scale everything to size so that it fit perfectly with in the room. I thought it was cool that he had actual representations of the planets circle the sun. Going upstairs in this house was a bit challenging for some because the ceilings were so short. Although, once we got up there it was impressive to see all the gears, pins, and devices that are used to keep his solar system revolving so perfectly. Going into that little house i didn't expect much, but it was bigger then it appeared and I actually learned a lot about this mans life. For example, the astronomy part of his life was just a hobby, he actually did work with wool.

Marittime Museum

Our tour guide was a sweet old man but I couldn't hear him unless I was standing right next to him. The maritime museum was dedicated to the long history of Rotterdam being a vary important port in the Netherlands. I enjoyed the museum mostly because my grandpa was a sailor and I remember him telling me about the ships he was on. the new exhibit sex and the sea was definitely something you wouldn't normally expect from a museum like this. At one point we were watching some what of a documentary of sailors accounts of being out at sea and its peaceful with fish, dolphins and sun sets then it starts to change with semi pornographic art that the sailors would have or see and then it changed between the fish swimming around to naked humans swimming around back to fish. We all were so speechless our tour guide thought we really enjoyed the documentary, but we were speechless for a completely different reason. Even though it was odd it is something that you wouldn't think to have an exhibit on but it was interesting at the same time.

Planetarium

It was very interesting to hear about the planetarium and the time and work went into making it.  The planetarium has been running continuously since it was built which is incredible.  It is able to show us an accurate depiction of the current locations of the planets in our solar system, as well as the time, date, and moon type.  The gears that ran the planetarium were all hand made to precise measurements.  The planetarium was incredible to see especially when taking into account that it was built centuries ago.

Hordis Botanicus

It was cool to se some of the medical plants they had in the garden although those of us who where in the group that went in the garden at Utrecht had already been shown allot of the things the tour guide was talking about.  my favorite part ofcthe gardens where the greenhouses, there where beautiful desert and tropical plants flowering wjile we were there.  I also thought I could smell black tea leaves when I went in to the largest part of the greenhouse but I could not figure out which plant it was. 

Hortus Botanicus

I really enjoyed this site. I enjoyed it because it amazes me that people were able to figure out that plants could heal people and that they could be used to help others. I am sure with much trial and error they were able to figure out what plants and how much of that plant could be used to help the ailing. The guide was also very funny and made the tour enjoyable. The butterfly room was also very cool there. There were many butterflies flying around in the room. Which I thought was very neat.

Planetarium of Eise Eisinga

The Planetarium of Eise Eisinga was located in Franeker. It was a smaller museum but worth going to!  In the museum was a working solar system that is the oldest working one. The model was located on the ceiling of Eisinga's living room. The mechanical operations of the model is located in the space above the ceiling. The gears in the model contained about 10,000 handmade nails. The model is run by a pendulum clock. The planets on the ceiling move in real time.  To take in consideration of leap year, every 4 years someone has to reset the clock. The model also shows the current time and date.

Also in the museum was a small exhibit on what Eisinga did for a living. He made wool and dyed it. The exhibit had a short video and tools that he used.

Planetarium

I thought it was amazing that someone could find out information with very little resources to make an exact replica of our solar system that consisted of many small pins and gears that was powered by a pendulum clock. The planetarium is the oldest working planetarium in the world and it doesn't use electricity to function; it used weights that you would pull down every so often to keep it running. Not only was the planetarium great, but the whole town of Franeker was an interesting place to visit. I would like to come back and see the planetarium at a different state to see how it changes.

Franeker Planetarium

The Eise Eisigna Planetarium was a great way to cap off a interesting day in the little Fresian town of Franeker.  Franeker was an interesting city as I was able to compare life in that village to life at home as both Galena and Franeker have a similar population and are relatively similar in their means of economic production.  On a side note, during our free time I had the chance to visit a church that was built in 1421, 71 years before Columbus "discovered" America.  The Planetarium, the oldest continuously operating planetarium in the world, was a fascinating site as it is a forgotten piece of history.  It was interesting that a guy with so little education could build a model of the solar system so accurately and still have it working 225 years later.  The town was definitely a place I would visit again and if I do I will have to stop by the planetarium and see if the model is still up-to-date and if it has changed since our visit.    

Maritime Museum/Rotterdam

As we arrived in Rotterdam, it became apparent to me what Liz meant when she said the architecture was different; the buildings were tall, glass buildings that seems familiar to a city like Chicago. The Maritime Museum was not what I was expecting, at all. I was very impressed with the model they made of Rotterdam; however the new exhibit in the museum, 'Sex and the Sea' gave us an overwhelming idea of what sex and entertainment was like at the sea. Overall, it was a great concept of adding to the museum but I think the tour guide could have used our time a little better than he did. It was nice to see the large difference between Rotterdam and the rest of the Netherlands!

Botanical Gardens

I'm not sure if it was just the really cool guide we had or maybe I was just really cold but learning about all of the different plants and what they did for the development though out the years for medicine really was quite interesting.  Most interesting is how some plants must be taken in just the right ways and it can help quite a bit, but if taken wrongly could cause severe consequences.  It was nice to know that they did not have any dangerous or prickly plants to run into, as far as we could tell, but its definitely interesting to realize just how much nature can evolve to both protect themselves as well as turn into the predator for a change.  It was also interesting to see the tree that had been growing underneath another tree its whole life and decided to grow sideways to get to the sun, as opposed to being underneath the shadow of the other tree, the plant just need there sun.  As far as the guide though, definelty the best one we have had yet, not that any were bad, but he just gave the tour a great sense of humor and you could tell he really cared to be tree and to teach us all about his beloved garden, I would definitely recommend him for any future tours be it on ones own or for a future school endeavor.

Planetarium

I think I could've spent all day at the planetarium in Franeker! It was the oldest working planetarium in the world and Eise Eisinga made it in the ceiling of his house. He did this during the 1700s too. All of the planets and orbits are to scale of each other as well. He did finish this amazing project right before the discovery of Uranus, as it was the first planet to be discovered by telescope. It also doesn't account for leap years, so he made instructions so that when he couldn't do it anymore, someone else could. This incredible model has each planet orbiting the Sun and has the planets moons orbit the planet. The model tells the time, date, and what zodiac sign it is. The time however is off by an hour and 40 minutes from day light savings. We got to go upstairs to see each gear of each of the planets orbiting pattern and it was so detailed and complicated, it was amazing. I really wish we could have taken pictures there. 

Franeker Planetarium

The planetarium was amazing to see, it may not have looked like much because not much is really moving at a pace that is noticeable in the few minutes we were looking at it.  All of the specialized clockwork that was put in place in order to keep the planets in their proper positions, the date and time, even way time the sun is going to rise and set along with lunar and solar eclipse predictions was just astounding.  The fact that it was built in the 18th century and is still working today while being accurate is even more amazing.

Hortus Botanicus

I thought the botanical garden was pretty interesting. I liked the guide and thought he did a very good job explaining everything. He knew his stuff. I liked the facts he gave us about the rare trees and plants and how plants will get stolen if they aren't careful! I had no idea that some plants were so rare and valuable.