The Netherlands

This is my first blog post since coming to The Netherlands, even though I have been here over a week.  I arrived Thursday, July 25th.  The day started with goodbyes at the South Kensington subway station.  Amy heading west to Heathrow and then on to Detroit, and me to City Airport to head to Amsterdam and then the Netherlands.

Flying from City Airport has allowed me to fly in or out of three major London airports on my trip.  City was pretty small compared with the others.  My plane was a small turbo prop plane for the short flight to Amsterdam.  Schiphol was as I had remembered it.  I was able to buy a plane ticket with the Euros I had in hand, as the train station does not take credit cards without a chip.  I had time to grab a bite to eat before my train.

The airport is a very efficient transportation hub with on-time scheduled rail service throughout the country.  The clerk at the counter gave me a printed itinerary for the trip to Enschede.  Once the train arrived, I boarded the car and sat down.  It was a quiet car with big seats and power for my laptop.  I worked on my talk as we traveled across the country.  The train agents came by to check tickets and at that point we realized I was seating in first class with a second class ticket.  That explained the comfort as I moved into the crowded second class car.  The only empty seat was in the middle facing the rear of the train and across a table from a young woman with piercings in her nose, bull-ring style, and another below her lower lip.  She also had tattoos on the tops of her feet: her right foot (my left) said "Drop" and her left (my right) said "Dead".  I took these as an indication she did not want to talk with anyone on the train.  I looked out the window, and pondered the price of a first class ticket...

Oh, by the way, the train does not actually go as far as Enschede because they are working on the tracks.  The train was met at the nearest station with a bus, which took us into Enschede to the train station.  On the bus, I recognized several people from previous conferences and we walked from there to our hotel together.

"Hotel" is a bit of a stretch, as it is really a dorm room.  On the plus side, it is bigger than our room in Glasgow.  It is on the 15th floor and has a nice balcony overlooking the city.  No air conditioning, but at least I have a fan.  The lobby has wifi as does one of the conference site.  It took me a while to figure out the procedures for each network.

The road between the conference hotel and meeting location in Enschede.

My "hotel".

Enschede at night from my hotel balcony.

Saxion University conference site.

After checking into my room, I took my art piece over to hang it in the gallery.  The art show has about 300 pieces, viewable at http://gallery.bridgesmathart.org/exhibitions/2013-Bridges-Conference.  There were a number of really cool pieces this year.  The town also has several art galleries with pieces from other artists on display.  Those interested in in woodworking should look at works by Roland Gagneux and Bjarne Jespersen.  I saw lots of people I knew and had lots of good conversation.  Since then, the conference has been non-stop.  There were talks in the mornings and afternoons and programmatic events in the evenings.

The parallel talks and art gallery were in a Saxion University building, while the larger plenary talks and events were in the Grote Kirk, the large church in the old town square.  The church has been converted into a reception hall.

Here are some interesting pictures and a few videos:

A fun little video of some Platonic solids made from people.  Also two nice potted plants.
I talked with the artist, Mike Naylor, several times at the conference.

If Escher made a chess board...  The creator, Kevin Lee, visited Albion earlier in the year.

Velcro poleyhedra on weather balloons!

Fun with coffee sticks.

A new world's record was set for a Zometool construction at 104,000 pieces.

July 31, 2013

The last day of the conference was an excursion day, which as very good.  I opted for one of three choices of tours.  We started in Enschede and traveled to a nearby rural community called Twekkolo.  We visited an old farm that has been turned into an artist studio community.  The studio spaces are in renovated barns and the pastures are spaces for horses and large sculptures.

Two large sculptures.

A horse made from bricks.

We then went to a nearby church where we heard from some artists about their work.  The church is used for Sunday services every other week and community events other times.  One had a collaboration with a local fabric company and she made art tents.  There was also a nice musical performance from a couple: he played the violin and she sang.  We had a light lunch in the community room of the church.

The next stop on our tour was to a studio to see a large number of sculptures by Koos Verhoeff.  These sculptures were mostly wood, but a few were made from metal.  The artist makes knotted pieces from linear sections that have been cut at angles so that the pieces join exactly and make closed loops.  These are hard to appreciate with a single photo.

The highlight was a visit to the studio of Rinus Roelofs, a local artist and one of the conference organizers.  He has presented very interesting work every time I have seen him speak.  He has works that span a range of materials and designs.  Check out his website: http://www.rinusroelofs.nl/.

Rinus and one of his designs.

George inspecting some models.

A construction from a single strut type.

Sometimes geometry goes to your head!

Some knots in wood are more challenging than others.

Paul, Doug, Rinus, and Henry discuss the fine points of 3D projections of multidimensional objects.

A fun ball made from laser-cut paper.

A sculpture from Rinus in Enschede.

August 1, 2013

I checked out of my hotel and went to the train station to buy my ticket.  I was able to use the cash machine to get money, so I am feeling good that I will have enough cash for my trip.  Today is a nice day, with sunny blue skies.  It is not too humid and in the high 80s.

My vodaphone experience has come to and end.  It turns out that I am only able to add minutes to the pay-as-you-go plan from the UK, or with a UK credit card.  My phone is back to the US mode.

In preparation for my trip to Delft, I looked at my hotel reservation.  It turns out that I somehow started my reservation tomorrow, rather than today.  I was hopeful the hotel would have a room for me or that I could bunk with another conference participant.  Sadly, the hotel was booked fot the evening.  However, they were kind enough to give me directions to a few others and the first one I stopped at had a room.  It has free wifi in my room, which is also nice.  It is in the central city, located near a canal.  The streets are restricted to bike and walkers unless you have a permit, which makes it quiet.

Laundry was my next agenda item for the day.  My hotel does not have self-service laundry and it was too late to send anything out.  No worries, I'll just walk to one I said.  He found one a few blocks away.  I walked there with suitcase in tow, feeling a little weird, as the only walking I have done in Delft is pulling a suitcase.  At least I was able to remove all but dirty clothes and I am not wearing my backpack.  I am grateful that there is some shade.

I found the Wasserette (laundry).  Too bad they are on holiday the next few days!!  I saw a little hotel nearby and asked them for help.  The woman at the desk said they send their customers to the place that is closed.  She aid I could use the computer to search for one, which I found.  It was about 1 mile from there.  As it was now approaching 4 pm, I decided to walk there at a quick pace.  However, when I got there it was closed.  Argh!

So I retrace my steps, with a little deviation for variety, back to my hotel.  My bathroom has only a shower, but my dirty clothes are in a big plastic bag that will double as a laundry tub.  As my clothes soak, it gives me a chance to catch up on some email and blogging.  Just as I get settled t use the internet, I lose connectivity.  The hotel clerk say "that happens, try again in the morning."  Easy for her to say, as I need to check out fairly early.

Have a coke and a smile.  Coke has a promotion here to share a coke with friends.
Many bottles have names of people with whom you can potentially share a coke.
Here's to you, Dad!

August 2, 2013

I ate breakfast at the hotel, then headed to the conference via my new hotel to dump my bags.  They said I was a little early to check in at 8:30.  I told them that I was even earlier yesterday.

The walk to the conference was about a mile, so I headed there at a quick pace.  It was nice in town, with not too many people out just yet.  Got registered and settled in for some interesting morning talks.  The first was about symmetry in particle physics from Gerard 't Hooft, winner of the Nobel prize in Physics in 1999.
The second was about discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN.  Following afternoon talks I checked into my hotel room.  I also bought some Belgian cherries from a local fruit market that were very good.

There was an art exhibition on that opened this evening with a little reception.  Following that I went to a late dinner with other conference participants.  After returning to my room I worked on email, facebook, and blogging.

August 3, 2013

The Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam is having an exhibit Escher Meets Islamic Art and I had been thinking about going to see it.  Last night, after looking at the conference schedule, I decided today would be a good day to go.  I ate a light breakfast at the hotel and headed for the train station to catch the 10:05 train.  I got there in plenty of time to catch a packed train.  I finally got a seat a few stops from Delft.  I sat across from 2 guys talking about Amsterdam that said only two things (repeatedly) I recognized: "Starbucks" and "Gay Pride Parade".   Otherwise it was a pleasant enough ride.

Getting off the train was a bit crazy with all the people, but I made out of the station to be greeted with a worker handing out a Gay Pride key ring.  He said there was a parade at 2 pm (it was now 11:15 am) and told me which tram to take and where to board.  I found my tram and bought a ticket to the museum.  The weather was great for being outside for a change.

The museum was fairly interesting.  In addition to the Escher exhibition, they had collections from around the world where there was a Dutch influence.  The collection consisted of art and artifacts from cultures in regions outside of The Netherlands.  The Escher exhibit had a number of Islamic art pieces in addition to his works.  There were some Escher pieces I don't recall seeing before.

About halfway through the museum I ran into George Hart, which is interesting because last year I ran into him at the museum in Philadelphia before the conference!  We had a nice lunch together at the museum cafe and then went on our separate ways.  After lunch I continued through the rest of the museum.

A coffin from Africa.

Rejected for position of mall Santa.

Day of the Dead shrine.

A Day of the Dead mask.

Thinking of people who work at history museums!

I decided it was time to head back, so I hopped on the tram back to the train station.  By this time the crowds for the parade had swelled and the tram was making little progress, so I decided to join the people watching the parade.  This was no ordinary parade.  Because Amsterdam has many canals, the parade was held on the water rather than streets.  It was quite the party atmosphere.  There were a number of people walking around with festive outfits.  I took photos of just a few.  I walked through the red-light district on the way back to the train station.  Sorry, no pictures here; you can do a Google image search if you are so inclined.  I got back to Delft in time for some early evening conference events.

Crowds at the parade.

Flags!

Perhaps more blur would have been better...

Rainbow!

Three guys with light-up gladiator skirts.

A rainbow unicorn headpiece.

Confetti!

A boatload of exuberant sailors.

After finishing at the conference, I grabbed a few things at the market for dinner and some laundry soap.   I had a light dinner in my room while I did bath tub laundry.  The hotel has good internet and I have been able to get a good connection in my room without too much trouble.