Last day in Delft

This is my last post from Delft.  Tomorrow morning I head to Amsterdam Schiphol airport for my flight home.  I have a direct flight, but it is still along time to spend in a metal can.  I am hoping it will be a large plane like my flight here with two aisles.

The plenary talk today was from Carlo Sequin, a computer scientist from California, who is on the Bridges organization committee.  His talk was on regular tessellation of high genus surfaces (those with holes, such as a bagel).  It was very good.  My talk was in the afternoon and prompted lots of interesting discussion.  There was a farewell gathering afterwards.

Overall it was an interesting conference.  Some talks were good.  There were many people with poor English skills, so it was hard to talk with them.  The conference was not all that organized.  Yesterday there was a business meeting that did not operate by Robert's rules, which was pretty chaotic at times.  Although another participant said it was more organized than in previous years.  Wow!

I had some baklava at a little Turkish restaurant as an afternoon snack.  On the way out, I asked to the guy if he was Turkish and he said yes.  I told him my daughter was going to be living in Turkey for a year and he asked where.  "Antep?!?  You know Antep?  My town is just 30 miles from Antep."  He was pretty excited by it all.  It was a bit like the militants in Romancing the Stone discovering they were speaking to Joan Wilder.  He said I should stay for coffee and talk more, but I wanted to see some other things.  Sadly, they had nothing on Shatila.

In the evening I walked around Delft looking for a few more spots which Escher featured in his print series of Delft.  Clearly the trees have grown and it is now summer, so vegetation blocks some of the buildings.

A street in Delft

The new church.

The eastern port (Oostport).  It was built around 1400.  

A pedestrian/bike tunnel goes through the part with the towers. 

During this trip, I made 11 hotel changes.  I traveled by car, plane, bus, taxi, train, subway, tram, and by foot (including elevators, escalators, and moving walkways).  Somehow I did not take a boat or ride a bike.  I took just over 2000 photos on this trip.  Maybe I will take a few yet tomorrow.

I am looking forward to being home and seeing everyone.  Classes start August 26th, which is just over two weeks away!  Now I need to organize my suitcase and toss everything I don't need.