Escher and more

Today was the official conference excursion day.  The plan was to meet at the Escher museum in The Hague and then visit the Gemeentemuseum.  This involved traveling by tram from Delft, which was relatively easy.  One can purchase a one-way pass, but not from drivers on the tram.  One can only but a one-way ticket from the driver.  I got to the tram station and rode with another conference participant, a German cryptographer.  We found the museum without any trouble, and beat the rest of the crowd by about 45 minutes.  That was OK because the museum was not open when we arrived.  There was a flea market in the square, so I took a stroll around the stalls; most were selling antiques.

The museum was as fun as I remember it.  Lots of cool works by Escher.  There were also some pieces of Islamic art, similar to what was in the Tropenmuseum.

Me attempting to imitate Escher.

Delft Town Hall by Escher and me.

I decided it would be fun to walk to the Gemeetemuseum (people's museum).  I was a really nice day and I thought it would be fun to walk along the streets Amy and I walked two years ago.  I saw many familiar sites and shops.  Just outside of the Escher museum there was an exhibition of Russian contemporary artists.  One piece that caught my eye shows a man busting through a map of the world.

I had a quick bite at the Gemeetemuseum cafe and then went to see the collections.  Lots of modern art and some really cool new works by contemporary artists.  After that I walked to the tram stop to head back to Delft.

The conference organized a public engagement event in the town square.  It was already in full swing when I got back, so I talked with the presenters and worked on some fun stuff.  I made a dodecahedron out of beads.  There are some interesting technicalities when doing such a construction.

Town square with some activity tables in the foreground and the New Church in the background.

Afterwards I had dinner at an Indian restaurant.  I ordered the chicken vindaloo, which was listed as very hot (spicy).  The waiter asked me if that is really what I wanted, and I reassured him that hot was exactly what I wanted.  How hot could it be?  Pretty hot, it turns out.  It was pretty good.  A took a few pictures on the way back to the hotel.

A street along a canal in Delft.

Another view along the canal.

Another canal.

Yet another canal.

Delft is a pretty charming little town, but I decided the light was too poor to take any more pictures, so I called it a night.