It's
structure is very modern by Amsterdam standards, and
that gives away its function as the city's museum
of science. At first glance it appears to be a grain
storage facility jutting one-hundred feet out over
the IJ River and Amsterdam's harbor. Symbolically,
it appears to be a huge ship ready to sail into the
harbor like the dozens of other ships docked nearby.
But its shape is not the only odd thing about this
building. For starters, the main entrance is on top.
To get there, you must walk up a gentle slope of hundreds
of stairs that actually make up the roof of the building.
For the less-adventurous or physically active, there
is a ground-level entrance, but you miss the view
of the city from up top, and it's a relatively easy
walk. And as if things weren't strange enough on top,
the newMetropolis also marks the point where a tunnel
burrows below and under the harbor, giving the building
a tenuous existence, unable to find peace in the heavens
or on earth and dangling precariously over the water.
Inside there are all the usual science museum exhibits
divided into five neighborhoods -- Energy, Humanity,
Interactivity, Science, and Technology. Unlike most
science museums, this one promises to update its exhibits
as technology advances.