"Scientific research" (part 9 of many)

A picture worth a thousand words, said the poet. A half-a-litter glass of Ottakringer worth zero words, say I. Why speak when we can enjoy a nice Austrian beer?

Ray-tracing Workshop

On Thursday and Friday, 29 and 30 April, I participated in the Ray-Tracing Workshop, organized at TU Vienna by prof. Johannes Böhm. This Workshop had the participation of people from several countries, such as Austria, Japan, France, the US, and, obviously, Canada. Two busy days, with presentations and discussions on how to enhance the use of numerical weather models (the same ones used in weather forecasting) for satellite positioning.

In total, we had 3 presentations, which I co-authored with my student Landon Urquhart and with my former student Felipe Nievinski. By the way, the workshop ended a two-month period that Landon spent at TU Vienna.

10 days in Vienna

On Wednesday, 28 April, we travelled to Vienna, the city of music, old houses and emperial monuments. I came here for a busy 10 days of work, including a Workshop at TU Vienna, the EGU 2010 Meeting and a technical visit. At the same time, we did enjoyed Vienna and surroundings the best way we could.

From TUDelft News

A link to TU Delft website news:

http://www.lr.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=c4194a62-e5ed-4a5e-823f-23d44bf7a8a0&lang=en

BBQ at TU Delft

Tuesday was BBQ day for the MGP group at TU Delft. A very nice set up with lots of food and drinks. The BBQ preamble was a geo-catching exercise, where prizes were available in 6 way points. I claimed none, though, as the numbers in the GPS receiver were all in Dutch. The best prize was to enjoy a pleasant evening in good company. In the picture, with Denise and I, are Sandra and Rebeca.

"Scientific research" (part 8 of many)

This is a double dose, courtesy of my brother-in-law Guilherme and my niece Taís. Belgium beers, the light Brugs Belfort, and the red and bold Leffe. I liked more the red one.

The Beer Temple?

Walking around the narrow streets of Bruges I ran into something that took my breath away (but not my thirst): the beer temple (not 'a' beer temple, 'the' beer temple). In there I could pay my dues to the beer order, I mean, I ordered and purchase a few bottles of holy beer (for a later worship). And, while talking to one of the servants of the temple, I was told that there are almost 200 breweries in Belgium, with over one thousand different label names. Holy barley! I need more funding for a more thorough and lengthy investigation. I wonder if NSERC would be interested on that ;-)

And, still on the Beerlgium issue, I found this t-shirt that describes well the development of homo belgiums.

Bruges

Yesterday, we drove to the old town of Bruges, in the Flemish part of Belgium, to meet with our stranded relatives. They were all supposed to fly to Amsterdam but their plane ended up stopping in Portugal. From there, they drove all the way to Paris and then to Bruges.

Bruges is very similar to Delft, but larger and with much more tourists. It also has thousands of shops selling Belgium chocolate and Belgium beer.

We enjoyed everthing, including a tour through its canals. At the end of the weekend we were exausted but happy for the family reunion.

"Scientific research" (part 7 of many)

The add says: Kwak, a Belgium beer in a unique glass. They are right. The glass is interesting, but its contents is much better, until it becomes empty. When this happens, the uniqueness of the glass loses its purpose.

Now, I have to admit that drinking, I mean, performing a scientific experiment overlooking Bruges' main square is quite something.

Dutch scenes: river in higher ground

It is a well-known fact that a portion of Holland lies below sea level. What I did not know is that there are rivers and canals that run on grounds higher than the surrounding areas. If you look at this picture, in the right-hand side you will see a fence that goes down as it gets further away from the canal. Quite interesting: the canal runs higher. In any other part of the world it would be otherwise. Well, it seems there are things that only happens in Holland.

A visit to ESTEC

Did you know that Canada is part of the European Space Agency? Well, a sort of special guest, looking from afar. Anyway, I visited ESTEC, an ESA office located by the Dutch seashore city whose name remembers me of the volcano in Iceland (therefore, I cannot spell it). A whole day of presentations, quite interesting, topics of projects developed by the European private sector on Galileo, the GPS-like European system. The development of Galileo has been a tremendous boost to the aerospace industry in Europe, with lots of projects been contracted.

The quality of the presentations (not of the subjects) was a little disappointing. Our GGE undergraduates can do a much better job presenting technical stuff. Maybe they should start looking for jobs in Europe!

During lunch, guess what I discovered? The restaurant is run by Sodexo! They are here too. And guess what? The food is good and cheap. I later found that inside ESA offices there are no taxes, what helps to keep the price of food down.

Now, I have an idea. Maybe we should open an ESA office on UNB Campus. We would have good food and no taxes!

TU Delft - Aerospace, with good coffee

My daily routine is as follows. After a delicious breakfast with lots of cheese and chocolate, I bike 15 minutes towards the building of the Aerospace Engineering. If I survive the bicycle traffic (so far, so good) I arrive there. It is a tall building (see picture), one of the tallest on campus. In its third floor it is located the Mathematical Geodesy and Positioning group. In there, there is something that we could start having in our Department back home: good coffee. And it does not require much, just a good European coffee machine. BTW, the coffee is free!

Dutch scenes: bike parking

They are everywhere, in all shapes and forms.

"Scientific Research" (part 6 of many)

Michelle holds a Master's and is getting ready to start her Ph.D. To show her bold inquisitive spirit she joined me in my eternal quest to the highest level of scientific knowledge. We had dinner at my family's favourite little restaurant in Delft (it will be subject of another post). During the event we managed to savour, I mean, to investigate the geodetic contents of Palm, a Belgium red beer. We both approved it. Our findings have been submitted to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences under the co-authorship of Santos and Weirathmueller (2010). We may get a Nobel for that piece of science ...

Good things came out of the volcano

Not everything that happened due to the Volcano Elyja ... ja ... kull was bad. Indeed, the air industry lost a few hundred million dollars, but nothing that can make the EU shake on its foundations. Actually, the level of stranded tourism increase tremendously.

But I believe I got the best part of mother's nature wrath. A pleaseant surprised was reserved to me and my family as Michelle Weirathmueller came to Delft to see us. Michelle is a former UNB student in Geomatics Engineering. She currently resides in sunny California. The company she works for sent her to do some work in France where she became stranded. She ended up finding some time to visit us in Delft. It was really great.

Den Haag

I did not find much to be seen in Den Haag (The Hague). It has a small downtown area with old buildings but the rest vary from more recent to the brand new and modern.

The outskirts of Den Haag look better than its central area.

The picture shows the building of Den Haag Centraal, the train's central station, which is surrounded by very modern buildings.

Volcano Eyjafjallajokull

The name of this volcano is a mouthfull. No wonder it is so angry! Why not changing its name for something more enjoyable, like Mont Blanc?

Well, we became victms of mother nature too. Our sister-in-law was coming to Amsterdam to visit us but she ended up stuck in Portugal. But everything turned out fine!

Now, my expectation is that the skies will be clear for my trip to Vienna, to participate at the EGU. The way things go, it seems the volcano has started to do its usual destructive business with good'old lava, not this uncivilized smoke that disrupts airplanes. Everything is fine now.

"scientific research" (part 5 or several)

Here we go again, going lengths for the sake of science. I did try Hertog Jan, a Dutch beer from the town of Arcen. It is only 5.1%, therefore, very light. But the label is nice, with a king holding a mug. In the spirit of the royalty, I used my glass I bought in Vianden Castle gift shop.

View from my office

I got a nice office at the 3rd floor of the Aerospace Engineering building. Spacious, clean, door lock is automated by a card, with a computer and access to the printer, fax, and even with an account at TU Delft. Thanks, guys!

The wide windows that lets the morning sunshine in have a view showing several roofs. Not the most romantic or picturesque. At the end of the roofs we can see the nuclear power plant of the university. The distance is perfect. If it explodes, it is instant death. :-)

Sodexo? At TU Delft?

What a surprise. The cafeterias at TU Delft are run by nobody else but SODEXO. Look at the picture. And they have the same policy as far as food on campus goes: only they can provide, with the price of their liking.

I ate once at the cafeteria here. Never more. Our UNB sodexo is better, well, less worse.

Traffic jam in Bastogne

After leaving the memorial, our GPS unit, under our observant eyes, took us through Bastogne. It was a sunny Sunday, and everybody seemed to wander through its main street. Incredible to think that just a few decades ago this town was levelled to the ground during the war.

Battle of the Bulge Memorial

The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Battle of the Ardennes, was a major WWII battle for the liberation of Europe. As the allies were pushing hard towards Berlin, the Germans conter-attacked. They crossed the advancing allied lines, creating a bulge. The Germans encountered resistance by the Americans at the town of Bastogne, in Belgium. The Germans asked the Americans to surrender, getting as answer a single word, 'nuts.' They must have taken that as a serious offense because they brought hell to the American troop in Bastogne, which resisted until the American army led by Patton (who else) came kicking butts to the rescue.

The GPS is right but the GIS is wrong

Leaving Vianden Castle we took the road towards Batogne, in Belgium, to visit the Bastogne Battle Memorial. Our GPS navigator, which we brought with us from Canada, with the most updated map for Europe, took us through a narrow and windy road, covered by a forest and used by crazy bikers and even crazier motor-bikers! Overall enjoyable even though, unlike the motor-bikes, we could not drive fast.

As we were approaching Bastogne, the GPS unit started to indicate a dirty road as the direction to a major landmark! What the heck! Look at the picture and see the road. Now, look to the GPS unit display and you will see the flag indicating the destination. It is not the GPS fault, but an error of the system that manages the positional information. Most likely its databank has this dirty road as paved road. Anyhow, the human interface is still important. LOL.

Vianden Castle

What a beauty! I paid off getting lost in Belgium (see next post).

Vianden Castle was constructed between the 11th and 14th centuries, on the same spot used by a Roman castellum and as a refuge of the Carolingians (Charles Martel, Charlemange and co.). Later, during the 15th century, it was the home of Henry I of Vianden, who started this House that became influential in Europe. Later, it passed on the House of Nassau and to the Principality of Orange (from Holland). In 1820, during the reign of King Willian I of Holland, it was sold piece by piece and fell into a state of ruin. Only in 1977 the Luxembourg government started to restore it, very much like what was done in Louisburg. Thanks goodness they did it. It is much better to visit a real castle then just a pile of rubble. Vianden Castle is today one of the best preserved, largest and most beautiful feudal residences of the romanesque and gothic periods in Europe.

Luxembourg countryside

On Sunday we left Luxembourg returning to Delft. We took a secondary road North towards Vianden Castle. It gave us the chance to admire the countryside of Luxembourg. Very beautiful.

The scenery sometimes reminded us of PEI, with those large, green fields. And remembering PEI, my son remembered our dog, Fluffy. Fluffy, like Kim and Julie, is an authentic PEI-er.

American Cemetery and Patton

The American Cemetery was among the several places we saw in Luxemburg. Visiting a cemetery is not necessarily what I would call tourism, but this is a landmark. And it is very moving, I have to admit. Looking at all those crosses, I started to imagine so many young people crossing the Atlantic to fight, and die, for that very basic Western value: freedom. We owe a lot to those guys. It makes me wonder if we, as a civilization, have not become complacent towards ideologies that favour submission rather than freedom.

The picture shows a small cross, the place where General Patton is burried. Both myself and my son admire Patton. He had no excuses to have his job done. We need more Pattons! My favourite quote from Patton is: "No bastard ever won a war dying for his country. He won by making the other dumb poor bastard die for his country."

A few other quotes from Paton:

"Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more."

"May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't."

“Never let the enemy pick the battle site.”

"Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. "

A view of Luxembourg

There are so many beautiful pictures of Luxembourg that I do not know which one to choose. Well, I picked this one showing a lower part of the city known as the Grunt. Downtown is seen in the background.

We enjoyed such a wonderful day today and we could walk around the city for several hours.

We will have dear memories from here.

Dandelions

They are here too!

"Scientific Research" (part 4 of many)

What don't we do for the sake of science? This time it was Diekirch, another local beer from Luxembourg.

The 800 of Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a tiny little country. It was not like that in the past. Actually, it used to be more than 3 times larger. But then, agreements were signed between 1659 and 1839 in which Luxembourg had to give away pieces of its territory to France, Germany and Belgium. What kind of treaties were those I do not know. Agreements in which one country gives away territory to another is far away from fair. Sounds more like stealing candy from a baby. But, this is History. Even with these agreements and its pledge of neutrality, Luxembourg was still occupied by the Germans twice during the two World Wars.

Today, Luxembourg is part of NATO, with a contingency of 800 soldiers. NATO is lucky, eh?

I believe this tradition of came with World War II. A contingency of Luxembourgers joined the invasion of Normandy in D-Day. Hollywood may want to make a movie about that, maybe calling it The 800 of Luxembourg.

"Scientific Research" (part 3 of many)

My next step in this tiresome investigation led me to try a Bofferding. This was a suggestion by Olivier. A nice suggestion, for a nice local beer (I hope I can find it in Delft).

By the way, locals from Luxembourg can be called a Lëtzebuerger (in the own language), a Luxembourgeois (in French) or Luxembourgers (in English). Could not figure out how it is in German.

University of Luxembourg

On Friday I had the privilege to visit two colleagues at the University of Luxembourg: Olivier Francis and Tonie vamDam. It has been two years since I last saw Olivier and it was the first time I met Tonie. Lots of technical discussions. And a good time.

Travelling to Luxembourg

Closer to the weekend we travelled to Luxembourg, where I visited two colleagues at the university. We rented a car and travelled a distance equivalent to Fredericton-Halifax. The difference is that we covered 3 countries. It was supposed to be a 3.5 hour-long trip, but we got 2 hours traffic jam going through the outskirts of Rotterdam.

On our way, we did not see any of the traditional wind mills. We saw, though, several of the newer type, like the ones shown.

Canals of Delft

Canals are like a trademark of Delft. They are everywhere. They provide a very specific flavour to an already picturesque place. I captured this picture in a gorgeous day. We can see (just barely) the head of a duck swimming in the canal. The leaves are starting to spring.

"Scientific Research" (part 2 of many)

Research sometimes makes you feel good, sometimes makes you feel nothing. The object of my research this time was Bitburger, a nice German beer, which I am glad I drank only once.

Dutch scenes: bikes

I do not know what came first, the Dutch or the bike, but the fact is that both are everywhere, being that there are a little bit more bikes than Dutch. It is said that the first gift a new-born gets is a baby bike. Like in Canada, where every new-born gets a Toronto Mapple Leafs T-shirt, to be discarded later when the baby gets its first signs of intelligence. :-)

I also bought a bike. But unlike the locals, I wear a helmet. It serves more than a protective gear. It also indicates that I am a visitor, which allows me to get a polite treatment from the other bikers. That comes in handy. They bike very aggressively and very fast, and everywhere even in the middle of people. When they see me (actually, my helmet) they act in a more corteous way. The pedestrians, on the other hand, seem to ignore me. Darn, I have to keep diverting to avoid hitting them.

I am still curious to know what is done when friends go out to a pub. How do they choose a designated driver?

The photo shows the parking lot by Delft's train station.

The house we are renting

I haven't shown the house where we live yet. Here it goes. A typical Delft house in which its ground floor is a commerce. The upper levels are dwellings. Ours has two floors.

View from the apartment

We finally rented an apartment in Delft. Very central and easy to find. Just look for a Dutch-looking house near a canal.

You can enjoy our view with this short movie here.

The picture shows the view from my son's bedroom window, in which we can see the tower of the Nieuw Kerk (New Church) and the two towers of the Church Maria van Jessekerke.

Dutch scenes: bread with chocolate

It is usual for locals to eat bread with chocolate. It reminds me of what is done back in Canada, bread with peanut butter. The difference is that bread with chocolate tastes really good!

Hotel de Emauspoort

Our first house in Delft was the Hotel de Emauspoort. I am referring to it as house because that is how I felt. It is a family-run hotel with the flavour of a bead and breakfast. They are all very nice and helpful, and the breakfast is really great!

We stayed 4 days there, until we moved to the apartment we rented.

"Scientific Research" (part 1 of many)

Obviously that I came to the Netherlands with a few scientific objectives in mind, research, write some code, write a few papers, you know, the usual fun activities. But, behold, my secret scientific interest, a kind of second agenda that can easily pass as the first one: to try as many different beers as possible. I started that with Wieckse, a light beer with a sweet taste.

Oude Delft

Yesterday, the Monday after Easter, likewise in Canada, was holiday. We had a relaxing day walking around Oude (Old) Delft. Indeed, a very nice and picturesque place. We visited the "New Church." Built in the 14th century, that is not what I would call "new" but that is how it was called back then, since it replaced the old church. From the top of the New Church, one has a nice panoramic view of Delft, with the old houses (looking exactly the way we imagine Dutch houses to be) and the cannals, everywhere.

Arrived!

Denise, Thales and I arrived well in Amsterdam yesterday. The flight was ok, but we felt more beaten than when flying to Brazil: we did not have much sleep time crossing the Atlantic. Sandra picked us up at the airport (thanks, Sandra!) and brought us to Delft. Now, we are struggling to adapt to the new time zone and to the Spring-like weather.

Where are the tulips?