Granada Science Park - part 2

Part one of this post on the Science Park in Granada more or less took us up to lunchtime. We had hoped to eat there but just in case, had packed a few nibbles...

As it happens, this was a good idea because lunch ended up being haphazard. When most of us were hungry, we couldn't drag Mateo away from the exhibits so he got an extra hour on his own to explore. We sat in a little shade and ate what we'd brought with us - chorizo, jamon, cheese, bread and some fruit - then whilst FR and I indulged our addiction to coffee, Romy and Ruy decided they could also eat a plate of pasta in the less than inspiring restaurant (only real criticism of the place) -  so they did - plus ice-cream and some cans of lemonade... and in the end....

Mateo had nothing more than a crust of bread that was left. He just wanted to keep on looking and looking. And it was his day.

One of Romy's favourite parts of the Science Park was the 'Body' bit. She really enjoyed putting all the bits back in their proper place and did so with confidence - definitely a doctor in the making.

We saw stuffed animals, animal skeletons, human skeletons, human bodies - real and models;

There were laboratories with brains, rats, snakes, pickled piglets and organs of all shapes and sizes.

 There was a machine for two people which allegedly measured brainwaves. The idea was to stop thinking so that a ball that was placed between two 'competitors' moved away from the person who was most relaxed mentally - who could reduce their brain activity.

FR (Player 1) beat Mateo hands down, though he swears he was thinking about Einstein's theory of relativity at the time. Mateo admitted to not knowing how not to think, so we're going to work on that over the summer holidays...

Interestingly, Romy was excellent at this and beat me twice, though I put up passive resistance for quite a while both times

We visited the Sahara, going back to its original settlers to see some cave paintings. I'm sorry - I wasn't paying too much attention so can't tell you how long ago these paintings were done. I just thought it was rather well presented for the ignorant tourist...

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I was impressed by this giant ammonite that was found in the desert though - my history might be loose but I do know that the Sahara is no longer anywhere near the sea...which is where I presume this ammonite once lived.

Then we entered a hall of permanent exhibits - many of which we were familiar with from other science museums but which were irresistibly good fun.

Balls that floated on their own

And made little girls look like magicians

I love this photo - guess why!!

Not quite got the angle here...

Three-legged Romy

Exhuberant Ruy

FR won't mind me publishing this picture of him flying

Couldn't drag him away

Mateo going for the special effect

It's all done with mirrors, you know.

Even the exhibits that had nothing to 'play' with hit the spot for father and son. Not born to shop, born to visit museums!

We went up to the top of the tower and looked out over Granada. (I did get the hang of it eventually...)

And of course, I had to capture the Alhambra, where we could just see people on top of the highest part looking at us through spyglasses too!

And then we had only just enough time to visit the Tropical Butterfly House. Always a favourite with us, I was dreading entering into a hot place - but as it was already so very hot outside, the dampness of the tropical house actually felt rather cool and pleasant! And we took rather a lot of photographs of butterflies...these are just a few.

It felt to be quite an achievement to capture these creatures in a settled position - we seemed to be surrounded by them flying.

I think Romy and I were admiring some turtles that shared the space - Romy I know has a peach stone in her mouth, not the beginnings of mumps!

And finally, we were too late to get into one part of the science park where there are penguins and other animals but as we walked past it, we met the animal carers who looked after the birds. We got a really good close up of some of them, including this very impressive vulture.

And my only real criticism of the park is that it closed at the ridiculously early time of 7pm. No one was ready to leave and the staff were not rushing us away, but, apart from the shop, of course, everywhere was closed or closing. We could easily have spent another hour or so - guess we'll just have to go back again one day.

All finished off by a wonderful meal at the Brasserie on our way home called Tu y Yo. We ate really well for an incredible price. Perhaps we will do that again too. Excellent day out. 

Granada Science Park - part 1

Mateo's birthday wish was to go to the City or Art and Science in Valencia (or CAC as they say - Cuidad de Artes y Ciencias) but it's a 1200km round trip and this year, impossible to organise. He should have gone with school but it was cancelled - we're not sure why but we might as well say due to 'la crisis', which is what takes the blame for most things these days.

Anyway, he agreed he would 'make do' with the local science park in Granada. Ruy and Romy had both been here on their respective school trips and I think we were all expecting something aimed at younger children. But I'm glad to say we were very pleasantly surprised - and scientifically and artistically improved on our return. So good, I'm posting in two parts. This is our morning's activity.

Firstly, we took Darwin to visit a friend, who lives on the way to Granada. Despite the name, Darwin would probably not enjoy the science park very much and probably couldn't be trusted not to have a little chew on some of the many bones on display there.

We'd tried really hard to get up and off in good time and in the end, managed to get to the park by 11.00 - which was good as it didn't actually open til 11! We had it in our heads it opened at 10...so our inability to get out of bed when the alarm rang didn't matter at all. And we were one of the first into the park. It took us an age to actually enter the place as we were already impressed with the entrance and the water features and the domes that demonstrated the Coriolis effect - that swirly, cloudy effect you see round Jupiter. They were wonderful!.

My personal favourite was one of the special exhibitions called 'Títeres' which is the generic name in Spanish for puppets. The exhibition was celebrating 30 years in puppet theatry of a local company called 'Etcetera' and had the most fantastic selection of puppets on show together with workshops showing the making of puppets and films of the actual performances.

The photographs cannot do this exhibition justice, and I knew this as I snapped away but I couldn't resist trying to capture almost everything!

These were puppets made of light

This old man was incredibly lifelike as he played the violin

Part of  a 'Carnaval of the Animals' show

Absolutely amazing puppets..

- enormous, see FR infront of them! They were watching a puppet show!

We got to have a go at shadow puppet theatre

Not much of a story line to tell you though.

  

But lots of animation

More neon puppets

We couldn't drag Romy away.

Eventually, we had to so we could explore the Dinosaur exhibition. It was a blast from the past for me because I first saw these giants in the Natural History Museum around 18 or 20 years ago. I didn't have the  shock of seeing the animated models and hearing the roar of the T. Rex  as I did the first time - so much has changed in 20 years and we have become so much more accustomed to impressive visual and aural stimulus, but it was good to be reminded of the incredible size of the big dinosaurs - to stand next to one, looking up.

Did that dinosaur just move!

Watch out Romy - dinosaur feeding time!

Romy is not put off by the gorey bits.

Face down a T. Rex or run away...

More delights from the afternoon to follow. Doesn't do to try and take in too much information in one go, does it? Which is my excuse - in reality, I am absolutely exhausted from our busy day yesterday and must just go and lie down for a little while!