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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dutch Scenes: bike thrown into the canal

A more common thing to happen is to see bikes, instead of cars, thrown into canals. I was even told, jokingly, that the most economical way to "purchase" a bike is to look for them inside the canals. Well, I finally saw one. Actually, my wife saw the whole affair. A person, angry for whatever reason, simply threw his bike into the canal just in front of our house. We can just see the wheels out of the water in the picture.

A hideout in Delft

Locus Publicus is like the geodetic datum of Delft. Indeed, there are lots of stories that connect geodesy, TU Delft and the pub, all surrounded by mystery.

Locus Publicus offers a very large selection of Belgium and Dutch beer.

Dutch scenes: taxi boats

Yes, that is a taxi!

Dutch scenes: There is life in the canals

Dutch canals are really a trade mark of Holland. They are used for regulating the water level. They are used for transporting goods. They are used for recreation. They are good for "resting our eyes". They are simply beautiful!

Besides all that, the canals also sustain lots of life. Denise has been monitoring with particular interest a few young coot families, the way they prepare their nests, the way they take care of the eggs and their young, and the way the male keeps scaring away other ducks which get close to the nest.

A short movie showing them preparing a nest can be seen here. The upper picture shows a coot mother with a young cootling. The lower picture shows father coot running after other ducks, which can also be seen in these short movies here and here.

On the down side is the garbage. The canals are not as clean as we would like to see, specially in the large cities (particularly in Amsterdam). Humans are to blame. We saw some people throwing empty soft drink cans into them. Shameful.

Dutch scenes: cheese

The Netherlands is definetly a cheese nation. No wonder there are cities named after cheese (or is it the other way around?) like Edam, Gouda (pronouce 'houda'). Besides the Dutch cheese, called here as kass, we also find any other possible kind of cheese, including my favourite, brie. For those who think that brie is a French cheese, think again. Brie was first made in Middle Earth, in the village of 'Bree', and sold at the Inn of the Prancing Pony (you will understand this pun if you read or watched The Lord of the Rings).

A list of Dutch cheese: Boeren Leidenkaas, Delft Blauw, Dutch Mimolette (Commissiekaas), Edam, Friesekaas, Friesian, Gouda, Kernhem, Leerdammer, Leyden, Maasdam, Smoked Gouda, ... Do you want to complete the list?

Birthday(s) celebration(s)

Today is my birthday (gifts are welcome). Yesterday, we gathered in a Pub, "The Flemish", located in the "Cow Square". It was a triple celebration: the birthday of Sandra, Christian and mine, all within a month from each other. It was a very pleasant evening with the presence of several members of the MGP group.