Final Remarks

And so our time in Holland ended. These were wonderful 90 days of hard work and enjoyment, of learning and education, or travel and living in a different atmosphere. These were 90 blessed days when none of us got even a light cold (except Denise who hurt her leg in the first days).

If you are visiting the blog for the first time, be aware that this is the last post. You will have to go backwards to read about a few of the things that were done, in Delft and beyond, in chronological order.

General Impressions

Our time in Europe is over and all I can say is that I feel it was too short and that it passed too fast. We loved living in Delft, a very nice place, very quite but with enough things happening to make us enjoy the place. Since we lived in the old area of Delft, everything was very close, walking distance, as opposed to Fredericton where we need a car to do most of things. The local commerce, restaurants, entertainment, everything was walking distance.

We lived in a very busy corner, connecting the downtown area with the train station. There was always people going back and forth, and the transit of bike was intense. We needed to look twice before crossing the street, even though the local bikers can divert from you very fast. There were not many cars driving in the streets and after some time in the evening cars could not ride in most streets anyway.

We found that life was a bit more expensive if compared to Canada, even though we were lucky that the Euro devaluated during our stay there. Things like car rental, hotel, gas, restaurant were leaning towards the more expensive side, not to mention Delft Blue which is very expensive. But then there were things that were very cheap in the local commerce. We were surprised that food in the grocer's store was cheaper, things like meat, bread, cheese, to name a few.

Something we are going to miss is the variety of cheese and wine, excellent quality, three times less expensive than in Fredericton. Also, the variety of beer is amazing. Not to mention that we could purchase wine and beer in the grocer's store as it should be.

Also, the bells, which sounded regularly providing a medieval atmosphere. We would go to bed listening to them; we would wake up in the morning with them as wishing us a nice day.

The fact that the apartment we rented was small, was a benefit since it demanded less effort for its daily maintenance, besides the fact that we were away in most of our weekends visiting other places and cities.

This is something that we will miss too. We could visit Amsterdam with the same travel time we would spend to go to St. John; we could go to Brussels with the same time as we need to go to Moncton; we would be in Paris faster than if travelling to Bangor. What a difference!

Schipol, returning home

We had to sleep at the Sheraton located right by Schipol airport since our plane departed very early in the morning. After a stop in Frankfurt we travelled to Montreal and then to Fredericton.

We arrived in Fredericton under a heat wave, hot and humid, quite different from what we left in Holland.

Temperature

During our stay in Delft we felt that the temperature was predominatly leaning towards the chilly side. The first week was cold and cloudy, with a constant drizzle. After that, between sunny and cloudy days, we felt it was more to the cold side, always windy, and increasinly so while biking. Luckly, there was rain only about three times (and we were told that the very first thing we would need after arriving in Holland would be a rain coat).

The interesting thing is that we kept track of the weather in Fredericton through the Weather Network and talked to friends there and our impression was that it was always warmer in Fredericton than in Delft. Just looking at the monthly mean temperatures, red for Delft and blue for Fredericton, and disconsidering other factors like humidex/windchill, we can see that Fredericton was warmer than Delft in May and June.

Van Gogh

The last entertainment was a visit to van Gogh (Pronounce it Gohh) Museum in Amsterdam. Very nice. Van Gogh's life was quite interesting. He started painting when he was already an adult and without any formal education. At the end he became one of the most influential painters of his generation, laying the foundations for modern painting.

To enjoy his partings, one has to look them from far away.

Van Gogh was also mentally ill at the end of his life and he ended up dying of self-inflicted wounds as a consequence of shooting himself at the chest.

Van Gogh dreamt of having an atelier where other painters could work together. Gaugin joined him and spend a few months there. Gaugin later left after van Gogh threatened him with a razor blade. In the process, a frustrated van Gogh cut part of his ear off.

What can I say: van Gogh was a genius.

Van Gogh is great-grand-uncle of Theo van Gogh.

Billy Beer

When we arrived in Delft we look around for a restaurant. We ended up finding the "Cow Square" for the first time. It was totally empty under the drizzle and most restaurants were closed. One in particular called my attention. it said: Billy Beer. That is it, I thought. A restaurant with beer in its name. Well, it happens that beer in Dutch means bear. So, the restaurant's name is Billy Bear. Indeed, there are lots of teddy bears inside, and kids like it.

We entered and it was full, we even had difficulty in finding a place to sit. We enjoyed a very large schnitzel and this restaurant became one of our favourites. (We later learned that it is a "student's" restaurant, very popular for its spare ribs. Well, I preferred the schnitzel.)

It was then, that our last meal in Delft was at the Billy Beer (Bear): schnitzel and potatoes.

The big game I did not watch

When I booked my trip in February I could never imagine that my return flight was going to be exactly during the big soccer match between Netherlands and Brazil. I arrived in Montreal one hour after the end of the game. I wish I was in Netherlands until the end of the World Cup. Whoever wins this match should win the whole competion, I thought. And Holland won.

Hup Holland Hup!

The picture invites Locus Publicus customers to watch the game there. I missed that too.

Dutch Scenes: movable bridges II

To complement a previous post, more movable bridges, both in Delft. The first is the Reineveldbrug bridge.

The other movable bridges shown in a movie is the swing Oostpoortbrug bridge. You can see in operation in a sunny Summer Wednesday here.

Farewell, Delft

When we arrived in Delft in April it was very cold and rainy. So cold that I started to be concerned that my decision of not taking with us any Winter coat was a mistake. Luckily, the fleece coats we wore ended up enough. Our early pictures of Delft have a predominantly overcast sky. It was interesting that every place we visited was warmer, but in Delft it was always chilly with an unstoppable wind. In the last weeks

though Summer seems to have arrived at last.

As our trip back to Canada is just two days away I biked around to take my last pictures of Delft with a blue sky as the background.

The first four pictures show Delft's main square, the Markt, except the New Church (Nieuwe Kerk) which was shown in other post. The first picture shows the Stadhuis, the Town Hall, that serves as a kind of civic center where, for example, marriages are celebrated. The other pictures show other sides of the the Markt, respectively, South, South (with the Church Maria van Jessekerke on the background) and North.

The last picture shows the old towers of the Eastern Gate (Oostpoort), built in 1867.

We had a wonderful time in Delft and we will miss it.

French teacher

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Thales was home schooled during our time in Delft. Math and science Denise can cope. As for French, he had private French lessons with madame Nadia. It was interesting because she emphasized grammar and it gave a new perspective to him.

Dutch Scenes: train and tram

Public transportation in Holland is composed of trains, trams and buses. I think that trains and trams are the most popular of them. They work in an interconnected way and can take you almost everywhere. They are totally reliable except when they brake down. One exemple was when we had to go to Schipol station, located right at the airport, to take a plane to Munich. The train ahead of us broke down and blocked the track. This fact delayed our trip in 2 hours and we missed the plane.

The first picture shows a train in Delft station. The second picture shows a tram at Amsterdam Central station.

Germans celebrate soccer win

We left our hotel towards Munich's airport at the same time Germany was playing an elimination match against England. The S-Ban was nearly deserted as most Germans were in front of TV sets at home or in large groups in front of big screens located all around Munich. I think the only passengers were tourists heading to the airport. When we arrived at the airport, we passed through a big food plaza in the Mall located by the airport. A huge celebration was going on in a large but separate area by a big screen: Germany had just beaten England 4 to 1.

"Scientific Research" (part 31, 32 of many)

Well, here I am again trying Paulaner. You see, I need more samples to increase the degrees of freedom of my investagion.

Below, HB beer from Munich. It is from the Hofbraeuhaus pub, a very traditional and touristic house of Munich. I had it along side a Bavarian sausage in the market on a hot Sunday, listening to live jazz music.

German in typical dress

The picture says it all.

Looking from above in Germany

Going to Munich gave me the opportunity meet with my former Ph.D. student Rodrigo Leandro. This was the first time I saw him since he defended his thesis last year.

Rodrigo drove us all the way to Newschwanstein Castle. Her daughter Camila was with us. It was a very enjoyable day, good company with a breathtaking scenery.

Solar panels

Back to Munich we could see several of houses with solar panels, some with the roof totally covered by them.

I was told that the government of Bavaria (Bayern) has provided subsidy to people to purchase solar panels.

Newschwanstein Castle

Over one hour drive from Munich is Castle Newschwanstein, located above the village of Hohenschwangau, in Southwest Bavaria. This castle is famous for it is said that Walt Disney was inspired by it to draw the castle of the Sleeping Beaty. This castle was built by (the crazy) King Ludwig II of Bavaria who died before it was completed. A few weeks after his death, in 1886, the castle was opened for public visitation.

The castle was dedicated to Wagner, and most of the paintings inside portray portions of his operas.

Close to it is Castle Hohenschwangau (second photo).

We ended up the day eating authentic Bavarian sausages.

Visit to DLR

In Munich, I took the S-Bahn, then the U-Bahn, all the way to Oberpfaffenhofen. There is located the German Aerospace Agency, DLR, acronym of Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt.

A pleasant day when I had the chance to present a seminar entitled "PPP-based differential code bias estimation" and had follow-up discussions with Oliver Montebruck's group. The first picture shows Andre Hauschild, myself and Oliver.

After lunch I visited DRL's mission control including the real-time view of upside-down astronauts on board the International Space Station.

Later, I visited Achim Roth's group when I got the latest news about the recently launched TamDEM-X mission. The picture shows myself, Achim, Birgit Wessel and DLR's new scientific advisor :-).

"Scientific Research" (part 28, 29, 30, 31 of many)

After visiting DRL I rushed towards Rodrigo's house to watch Brazil playing against Portugal. There, Rodrigo had a surpise to me: four Paulaner beers, each one different from the other. They were Naturtrub, Dunkel, Hell and Pilser. What can I say about them: they are all from Bavaria!

I personally do not like to quote Wikipedia, but anyway, see what it says about Paulaner:

Paulaner is a German brewery, established in the early 1600s in Munich by the Minim friars of the Neudeck ob der Au cloister. The mendicant order and the brewery are named after Francis of Paola, the founder of the order.

Paulaner ranks number 8 among Germany's best selling breweries.

"Scientific Research" (part 27 of many)

Indonesia is a former colony of the Netherlands. It is very common to find Indonesian restaurants elsewhere in the country. The only time I had the chance to eat the tasteful Indonesian food, I did so accompanied by Tiger beer, from Singapore. As the add says, a "world-acclaimed beer for its quality and excellence."

Fencing

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While in Delft, Thales had the chance to improve his fencing skills by joining a local fencing club Prometheus. It is always good to see how others do, different or not, and learn new things.

TU Delft library

TU Delft has old buildings and modern buildings too. The one in the picture is the Main Library. It is indeed built inside a mound. When you enter you feel like you were in Middle Earth, in Hobbittown. Inside the conic concrete tower are tables where the students usually study for their exams.

"Scientific Research" (part 24, 25, 26 or many)

Another very popular brand name in Holland is Grolsch, a Dutch beer. The brewery was founded in 1615. It is older than UNB!


Jupiler is a very popular Belgium beer in both Holland and Belgium. Not surprising. Very enjoyable and more to the light side.


A stronger and tastier triple-style ale from Belgium is Kastel, with its 11% content of alcohol. It is like drinking wine. Creamy, thick and warm.

Lunch

It seems that Summer is here at last. We enjoyed a very nice afternoon in an outside table at the Beestenmarkt (which I call as the Cow Square because there is the statue of a cow in its middle). With us in the picture are Sandra and Hans.

Time is running out

Well, after nearly 3 months my time in Delft is running out. It has been a great time and folks at TU Delft have helped in every possible way.

Before I came to Delft a friend of mine said that she thought there are only little geniuses at TU Delft, among all those Gaussian functions, expectations and derivatives. Well, I guess she is right. They are little geniuses all right. Top notch in the global class.

And I loved it!

In this picture, from left to right, are Sandra, Hans, myself and Christian.

Waterloo Battle Reenactement

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815 and involved the French army led by Napoleon, against the allied armies led by Wellington and Blucher. It was fought in Waterloo, Belgium (not Ontario). It marked the end of Napoleonic era in Europe. Every year, at the site of the battle, thousands of volunteers re-enact the battle right where it was fought. And an audience of other thousands watch it.

This year, we were among the audience. We arrived in the eve of the reenactment sleeping in the town of Wavre (the same where the Prussians under Field Marshal Blucher were stationed before the battle). On Sunday we drove to the battlefield, located by the Lion's Mound (first picture) inside Waterloo's historical site. The traffic jam was huge and started several kilometres before in the highway. We were lucky that the GPS made a mistake and led us through one of its shortcuts. This time, it worked quite conveniently.

The other pictures show a few moments of the re-enactment. The second shows musket exchange between the French and the British troops. The third picture shows troops in motion. The fourth shows the defensive squares the British formed when under attack by the French cavalry. And, finally, a pile of dead French soldiers.

The whole show took 3 hours and the weather was not the best, cloudy and cold. At the end, though, the sun shone. We then had lunch and drove back to Delft, two hours drive.

Brussels, Atomium and Mini-Europe

Brussels central square, Grand Place (as called in French) or Grote Markt (in Dutch) is certainly the most beautiful of all central squares we saw among all cities we visited. Everywhere you look you see a magnificently beautiful building.

The first picture shows the Guildhouses, known as L'Etoile. In the corner there is a statue that people like to pass their hands on as sign of good luck. Funny to see the tourists doing that.



The second picture shows the Moison du Roi (King's House) or Broodhuis (Breadhouse), built by the Duke of Brabantse circa 1530.



Other interesting things in Brussels are the Atomium, a huge structure looking like an atom built for an international fair back in the 1950's and Mini-Europe, with replicas of several landmark buildings of the countries that form the European Union.

Dutch Scenes: locks, dams and storm surge barriers

We listen all the time that portions of Holland are below sea level and the Dutch throughout their history have learned to deal with water and managed to create "new land." I thought that this was something of the past and that the issue was settled. What I learned is that this is still an issue and that the Dutch has continued to use all their creativity and ingenuity to deal with the problem. A permanent barrier, was built in the North in the 1930's, the Afsluitdijk (enclosure dam), part of the project called the Zuiderzee Works. This barrier turned the dangerous Zuiderzee (Sea Zuider), a shallow bay of the North Sea in the Northeast of Holland (North of Amsterdam), into the calm Lake IJsselmeer, allowing the creation of 1650 km² of new fertile land.

Later on, as a consequence of the great flood of 1953, a series of storm surge barriers were built in the South, in what is known as the Delta Works (constructions ended in 1997). To prevent the destruction of the fishing industry, these storm surges barriers are movable. For example, there is the De Oosterscheldekering, which looks like a long bridge, allowing therefore the water to flow, but that can be closed if necessary.

The Zuiderzee Works and the Delta Works are considered among the seven wonders of the modern world.

We visited the most amazing of the Delta Works, the Maeslantkering Stormvloedkreing (Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier), in Hoek van Holland. There is an information center, het Keringhuis, located right beside it. This is a massive barrier that closes if a storm surge higher than 3 m approaches in order to protect the port of Rotterdam, the busiest in the world.

I made a short movie out of the model in the information center that shows how the barrier closes if a storm surges approaches: watch it here.

The first picture shows the real thing; the second just a model.

More information about the Maestlant Storm Surge Barrier can be found at het Keringhuis website.

Dutch Scenes: cows

When I was young, back in Brazil, people with a strong athletic performance was said to have the health of a Dutch cow. It was also common for farmers to put effort to have Dutch Holstein cows due to their high production of milk and also because they are adapted to feed on grass.

Cows can be seen everywhere in Holland.

The picture shows Holstein cows grazing in Zuid (South) Holland, close to Rotterdam. It is interesting that there are some mock cows in the grazing area. In the picture, we can see the back of one of them. I do not know what their usage is. Scarecrow?

Belgium Royal Observatory

I had the chance to visit the Royal Observatory of Belgium, in Brussels. The Observatory is located in a very nice neighbourhood in Brussels. There, I met with Pascale Defraingne and Carine Bruyninx. Good discussions with top notch researchers.

The streets after the first World Cup game

Holland's first game in the World Cup was against Denmark. Holland won. After the game we went to the streets to see how the celebrations were taking place. Lots of people dressing orange, in any way imaginable, the pubs overflowing with people, and more police on the streets than we have ever saw before.

Scheveningen, Den Haag

In another cloudy and windy Sunday we visited the beach resort of Scheveningen, a district of The Hague. The tram took us all the way from Delft to there, a 45 minutes ride. We walked around the seashore and stepped in the cold waters of the North Sea. In spite of the weather, there were lots and lots of people visiting the place. There are several bars and restaurants along the seashore, some with suggestive names, like Copacabana. There is a long pier which has at its end a Casino and a tower where the most courageous can practice bungee jump.


We ended up our day dinning at a Brazilian restaurant, with an anthentic rodizio, being that the meat were all from elsewhere but Holland.

Dutch scenes: Saturday market

Like many cities in Holland, Delft has also its Saturday market. And, I have to admit, it is slightly larger than Fredericton's. Besides fruits and (obviously) cheese, there you will find fish, flowers (including tulips, lots of them), meat, handicraft (including Delft Blue), antiques, old books, vinyl long players, old coins from everywhere, clothes, suitcases, ..., and street musicians performing, some using music machines. Quite nice to stroll around and invest some Euros into the local economy.