Greetings from Matt and Laura

Sintra, Portugal

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:48:00 +0000

A short train ride outside of Lisbon is Sintra, a beautiful city nestled at the foot of rolling, tree-covered hills. The area, The Cultural Landscape of Sintra, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its many sites and architectural excellence. It also features a subtropical microclimate and is extremely green and lush.

In the city itself, we visited Sintra Palace, built from 1415 onwards and continuously inhabited from the early 15th to late 19th centuries. Significant Islamic artistic influence, most notably tilework, is evident in Sintra Palace and many other buildings in Lisbon and Sintra.

The castles built on the hillsides were the real stars of the show, though. Laura and I rented electric bikes - they require peddling but a motor kicks in to make climbing steep hills easier - and headed to higher ground.

Castelo dos Mouros (Castle of the Moors)
Pena Palace
At the Monastery dos Capuchos
Monserrate Palace
The view from the hill-tops in Sintra was incredible! Sintra unexpectedly vaulted into our list of favorite places we visited in Europe; if you're ever in the area, don't overlook this gem. You can see more of our pictures from Sintra on Flickr!

Lisbon, Portugal

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:20:00 +0000

Now let's rewind to the beginning of June, when Laura and I spent a week in Lisbon, Portugal while I attended an engineering conference at the Instituto Superior Técnico. I include the university's name here simply because it sounds really cool; the picture at left is a completely unrelated building near the Parque das Nações (Nations Park), built for the 1998 World Fair's (or "Expo") in Lisbon.

I don't have a lot to say about Lisbon because frankly, I spent most of my time inside a series of conference rooms. Meanwhile, Laura did quite a bit of exploring and you can see her pictures on Flickr. She walked all over the city, visited an aquarium, took a chair lift ride, etc.

Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
The rooftops of Lisbon
Lisbon is a reasonably safe city, and Laura didn't have any trouble when she was out and about by herself. When we were together, on the other hand, I found myself fending off drug dealers at every turn. If you ever visit Lisbon, don't be surprised if you're approached, even on a busy street in daytime, and indiscreetly asked if you'd like to buy some "hash." Say no, even in a suitably revolted fashion, and they'll assume you're holding out for coke. Then it's time to run away.

While in Portugal we were determined to experience fado, a type of Portuguese music that I would describe as operatic; Wikipedia's adjective of choice is mournful, which is also accurate. We picked a restaurant with fado and enjoyed being serenaded by a procession of men and women of all ages, sometimes with guitar accompaniment. It's a truly unique experience to sit outside a restaurant in Lisbon, eating cod or some such thing while an elderly Portuguese woman croons what may be the world's saddest music from a nearby doorway or balcony.

The afternoon after the conference was over, Laura and I also went to the Lisbon Zoo, which was a lot of fun. We saw the usual giraffes, zebras, hippos, rhinos, monkeys, bears (at right) etc. The coolest animals we saw were the sea lions, though, who put on quite a show at their feeding and then joined a dolphin show to do more tricks. At one point during the show, the trainers actually walked the sea lions into the seating area of the ampitheater, into a row of seats, and then they circled the whole place. Seriously: Laura and I had to move out of the way when a sea lion came barreling through our seats. It was cool.

A bizarre pet cemetery at the Lisbon Zoo; RIP "Gigi"
We were able to get really close to the giraffes

Nationale Park De Hoge Veluwe

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 08:00:00 +0000

After seeing Rotterdam on Laura's last Friday in the NL, we set off the next day for Het Nationale Park De Hoge Veluwe (Hoge Veluwe National Park) near Arnhem. We had been told time and again by Dutch friends that this was a site we needed to see. (By the way: Unless you're Dutch, however you're attempting to pronounce Hoge Veluwe is almost certainly wrong.)

Hoge Veluwe National Park is an interesting assembly of forests, sand dunes, heathland, bicycle paths, and, randomly enough, a high-quality art museum. Despite being in an isolated and unexpected location, the Kröller-Müller Museum, which was formed from the art collection of German-born Helene Kröller-Müller, contains the work of many famous artists including van Gogh, Picasso, Mondrian, Seurat, and Gauguin.

St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge, former home of the Kröller-Müller family.

We spent a day biking around in the park in nice weather. We didn't see any of the deer, boar, mouflon, or other animals that call the park home, unfortunately. Great tits (at right) were nowhere to be seen, either. But we greatly enjoyed the park and its miles of bike trails that snake over rapidly changing and scenic terrain.

Rotterdam (At Last)

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:21:00 +0000

On Laura's final weekend in The Netherlands, we stopped for a night in nearby Rotterdam. Although Rotterdam is only a little farther from Delft than The Hague and MUCH closer than Amsterdam, we went nearly a full year without really venturing into the city. (Well, we tried to see the city back in winter, but were confronted with wind so cold that we basically walked out of the train station and right back into it.)

Rotterdam doesn't get the international pub of Amsterdam or The Hague, but it has some bragging points. It's always in competition for "busiest port in the world," though Wikipedia says it is currently second to Shanghai. It's also known as a tremendously young city - sometimes called the youngest in Europe - and is the 2009 European Youth Capital. Also, there's a bit of a rivalry between Rotterdam and Amsterdam that is manifested primarily on the soccer field.

A vast majority of Rotterdam was destroyed in May of 1940 when Germany invaded the Netherlands. Since the war ended, Rotterdam has been the center of a lot of architectural experimentation, which makes it both strikingly modern in some respects and obscenely ugly in others. (The Netherlands is in fact a modern architectural epicenter, and it wasn't long ago that I encountered a whole train car full of US architecture students touring the country.) The part of Rotterdam that all the guidebooks tell you to see is Delfshaven, which is the historical part that looks like every other city in the Netherlands. Now, I like the canal looks of this country a lot, but to those guidebook writers I have to ask, "Why am I going to go to Rotterdam, unique for the fact that it doesn't look like every other Dutch city, to see the part of it that does?" (Delfshaven wasn't one of our stops, though I'm sure it's nice.)

Our visit centered on the waterfront, which we saw by pannenkoek boot - that's "pancake boat," a boat that serves pancakes. The pancakes were mediocre but the view was very nice, with towering, colorful buildings and creative bridges. We set off from next to the Euromast (above right), the tallest structure in Rotterdam. We didn't go inside it, but it offers food and drink, a panoramic view of the city, and various creative ways for visitors to plummet from the tower's apex.

Erasmusbrug ("Erasmus Bridge"), nicknamed "The Swan"
We were particularly excited to stay in the "cube houses" one of the aforementioned architectural experiments that was recently converted into a StayOK hostel. As you can imagine from their shape and unconventional orientation relative to the earth's gravitational field, the rooms are awkward. (That doesn't make staying in one any less cool.)

Cube Houses
Near to the Cube Houses in Oude Haven, we had a nice view of the harbor area while we enjoyed some Heinekens.

Willemsbrug is near to Erasmusbrug and both span the Nieuwe Maas
Witte Huis ("White House"), the tallest "skyscraper" in Europe when it was built in 1898
You can find a few more pictures on Flickr.

Goodbye, Amsterdam

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:55:00 +0000

I can't imagine that there are many cities in the world that can match the personality of Amsterdam. It is an endlessly entertaining place with its unique canal-house looks, frenetic pace, diverse culture, and a population of people who are dedicated to walking their own path in life. It's an awesome city, and speaking from experience, it grows on you every time you emerge from Amsterdam Centraal and look out over the narrow, crooked buildings.

I'm leaving the country in two weeks, so yesterday I went to Amsterdam for the last time. I spent the day enjoying the sunshine, the crowds, and the atmosphere. I went to the Amsterdam History Museum to learn a little more about the history of the city. I walked miles and miles. I watched street performances. I paid €3 at Cannabis College to stand in front of a 5 foot tall cannabis plant just for the novelty of it. I laughed at Darth Vader and the Grimm Reaper and Batman on Dam Square. I walked the streets of the revived Jordaan, the neighborhood that many of the 100,000 Jews killed by the Nazis, including Anne Frank herself, called home. I slipped into an art gallery showcase and admired the urban artwork. I ate an awesome Ethiopean dinner, in which I scooped my food from the plate with Injera bread and drank my Ethiopean beer from a coconut shell.

Yeah, I'm going to miss Amsterdam.

Outside the Jordaan.
A [legal] cannabis plant.

Bratislava, Slovakia

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:50:00 +0000

The 13th and final country on our European adventure turned out to be Slovakia, though only because Vienna and the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, are the two closest European capitals. They're separated by only about 50 miles or around an hour train ride. We couldn't pass up the chance to jump off from Vienna (sometimes called the "Gateway to the East") to go east behind the former iron curtain - always fascinating - another time (previous times being Prague and East Berlin).

Bratislava borders both Austria and Hungary and is split by the Danube, which as you'll recall from the last post was bursting from its shores at the time of our visit. At right you see the Nový Most ("New Bridge") straddling the river, with its famous "UFO" restaurant on top.

Laura and I didn't have any significant plans for Bratislava other than to walk around, get a feel for the place, and take advantage of cheap Eastern European food and drink. (On that note, Slovakia just recently converted to the Euro in January.) We briefly walked up the hill to Bratislava Castle, which provided an excellent view of the city. Below you see the spire of St. Martin's Cathedral.

St. Martin's Cathedral
The view also afforded us a glimpse of the many identical Soviet-era panelák (or panel buildings) on the other side of the Danube. These are pre-fabricated concrete buildings that provide a hideous addition to many city skylines in the former Eastern Bloc. You can find a picture of Slovak panelák on Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, the old parts of Bratislava were very attractive and inviting. Below you see Michael's Gate (at center), built around 1300. The streets were lined with sidewalk cafes and people happily enjoying the sunny weather.

Michael's Gate
We also stumbled by a market for artisans and those hocking tourist swag during out walk through the city (seen below).

Small Market
This statue of a jovial Napoleonic soldier was a favorite of ours. He's like an old chum when you lean over the bench with him, but he's just a creepy Frenchman when he is leaning over your shoulder.

Napoleonic Soldier
You can find more pictures from Bratislava at Flickr.

Melk

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 09:00:00 +0000

During our visit to Vienna, we used the city as a home base to see some other nearby sites. Our first day trip was to nearby Melk, Austria, a sleepy and picturesque town located right on the Danube River (at right) and known for Melk Abbey. Below you see two views of the colorful city, one from a high point and another from street level. Laura and I enjoyed walking the streets of the quiet town and of course happily stopped for a quiet lunch at a sidewalk cafe.

Melk Abbey was quite a site to behold. Although an abbey has been on the spot for many centuries, the structure seen today was built in the early 1700's in Baroque style. Due to recent restoration, the brightly colored abbey gleams, and the ornate stylings occasionally give way to some surprisingly modern interior exhibits involving neon lights and lots of glass.

Melk Abbey

A statue just inside the entrance

Melk Abbey also contained some very nice gardens, through which we took a stroll.

Grounds of Melk Abbey
Melk is an incredibly picturesque town, and we have many more photographs that you can see on Flickr. Wikipedia also has some very nice pictures of the interior of Melk Abbey.

In returning to Vienna, we had planned to take a Danube River boat for part of the trip, but we were startled to discover the entire region was in the midst of some heavy flooding. The Czech Republic saw the worst of it, but even the Danube River in Melk was nearly bursting from its shores. I read that the Albertina Museum in Vienna - where we didn't personally see any obtrusive effects of the heavy rains - even had to relocate some stored paintings from a leaky underground storage area.

The boats in Melk, of course, were not running on that day, so we took the train back to Vienna.

Fietstocht naar het strand (Bike trip to the beach)

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:15:00 +0000

The weather today was absolutely phenomenal: sunny, maybe even 80°F! Naturally, there was no better place to go than nearby Scheveningen Beach in The Hague, especially since today Schollenpop, a free pop music festival, was being held there. Apparently the entire population of the Netherlands had the same idea.

North Scheveningen from De Pier
I didn't really know where the music festival was and figured I would hear it when I arrived, but this was not so. (Hey, it's a big beach.) While looking for it, I was easily sidetracked into exploration. In the past, Laura and I have basically visited the central portion of the beach, but this time I ventured to the north side where everything starts getting glitzy. I walked, for instance, over the top of De Pier, an interesting pier/shopping mall/casino/bungee jumping structure. (Yes, that is a person dangling on the end of that bungee line in the picture at right.)

It naturally turned out that the music festival was on the complete opposite side of the beach from me, and in fact was not even accessible via the beach itself. In a country with tons of waterways, dikes, etc., this situation often happens: you're standing at point A and you can see point B - heck, you might even be able to talk to someone at point B - but you've got to ride a mile to get there. When I finally did arrive, there was decent music, abundant sunshine, and cheap beer. Life was good.

Schollenpop!
After tiring of the beach, I made my way back home (by bike) through The Hague, which is probably the least fun city to ride a bike through in all of the Netherlands because it is really spread-out and has lots of car traffic. This results in bicycles, like cars, having to stop at lights every ten seconds. Luckily, the Hague is a particularly cultured city that features some kind of sculpture or memorial at roughly those same intervals. On the Lange Voorhout (a famous street in town), for instance, I saw some cool sculptures by Mexican artist Javier Marín.

It was a nice day in the sunshine. When I got home, I thought I'd end it by picking out a nice dinner at the grocery store. I settled on what I thought from the picture on the package to be a ready-made shrimp stir fry. Unfortunately, when I got it home, I discovered I had bought 400g (that's 0.8 lbs!) of frozen crawfish. Lessons learned:

This (bad karma) is what I get for not putting more effort into learning Dutch
Rivierkreeftjes is Dutch for crawfish.
Don't ever eat 0.8 lbs of crawfish in one sitting again.

Vienna

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:10:00 +0000

For our last sojourn outside The Netherlands, Laura and I visited Wien, Österreich - better known in non-German circles as Vienna, Austria. The name Österreich literally means "Eastern Empire" and like everything we saw there, hearkens back to the days of the Hapsburg family and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As Bill Bryson says in Neither Here Nor There, "No one clings to former glories as the Austrians do..." This is evident in the grandeur that permeates much of the city center, from the palaces to the prominent monuments to national heroes like Mozart. (Another famous Austrian whose name popped up proudly and frequently was, of course, Sigmund Freud.)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

While in Vienna we were pleased to see several palaces. Below you see Laura standing in front of the Belvedere Palace, which houses the Austrian Gallery. We also visited the impressive Hofburg Palace, whose interior we viewed as part of an exhibit centered on the lives of Emperor Franz Joseph (1830-1916) and his wife Empress Elizabeth of Bavaria, or Sisi (1837-1898). Sisi was beautiful, mostly absentee, and was assassinated in Geneva in 1898. Since that time the image of the beautiful and mysterious empress has been romanticized, usually for economic gain. Franz Joseph was still emperor when his heir, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914 and the dominoes of WW I began to fall. He died before seeing Austria's defeat.

Laura in front of Belvedere Palace

The dome of Hofburg Palace

Wien is also a little famous (or infamous) for its wine, which we happily sipped at local heurigen (wine gardens). In the mid-80's Austria found itself at the center of a scandal when it was discovered that many wine producers were using anti-freeze (ethylene glycol) as a wine sweetener. Today, all of that has been cleaned up and we were able to enjoy our wine in a very nice outdoor atmosphere without worry of side effects like nausea and death.

During our exploration of Vienna, we also happened upon the opening weekend of the Music Film Festival at Vienna City Hall Park. The festival features free nightly film and music events for nearly two months (ending August 30th). There is also a tremendously cool "food circus" on location, containing some 20+ different cuisine offerings. Everything was there - Italian, Japanese, Turkish, Indian, Australian, Mexican, just to name a few - and Laura and I had such a hard time deciding that we went back more than once. This was more than a glorified fair atmosphere; the event was decidedly upscale and everything was of extremely high quality, with no paper plates or plastic silverware to be found, for example. Below you see the huge movie screen erected in front of the town hall surrounded by seating for 3000+ people. (The Viennese really know how to do summer entertainment.)

Many of Vienna's best sites are located in and around the Ringstrasse (Ring Road), so in addition to riding the tram around the ring, we also borrowed some of Vienna's city bikes (found at racks throughout the city) to ride it at a more leisurely pace. Below are a few pictures we took. The first is a monument to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a famous German writer. Next you see St. Stephen's Cathedral; the nifty roof was rebuilt in 1952 following WWII fire damage. Finally, one site that I found particularly interesting was the Soviet-built Soviet War Memorial, which honors Red Army soldiers who died in the Vienna Offensive. It is not particularly beloved in Vienna and has many alternate names, most notably "Memorial of the Unknown Rapist."

Soviet War Memorial

Like in a Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:51:00 +0000

On many trips in Holland, I've more than once felt like I was looking at a painting. Saturday was no different in this regard.

Iranian Conflict Viewed from the Netherlands

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Unless you live in a major population center in the United States, I think it is easy to view many world events as isolated and faraway. The conflict in Iran, for instance, may well not touch your life beyond the appearance of headlines on the newscasts that you watch. Iran remains a mysterious and hostile place in the minds of Americans, but much of this dissolves when the people and their government are separated as they have been recently.

The peoples' protests for freedom in Iran, when viewed through the prism of the populous and internationally-flavored Randstad area of the Netherlands, have proven inescapable and highly intriguing for me. There have been frequent demonstrations close by, including in Delft. Here, I see the struggle far from its origin, but still "up-close" in a way, including: the ongoing difficulty for Iranian expats to reconcile their national pride with the grave injustices that they see done to their countrymen; their yearning for freedom and desire to support its cause while cautiously clinging to the ideal of a safe and prosperous life in Iran even under the current regime; and of course the contention between religious moderation and Islamic fundamentalism, which is at the core of conflicts far beyond just those within the Islamic Republic itself.

Yesterday in Amsterdam there was another such demonstration. There is nothing particularly exceptional about this one (which I happened upon through CNN's iReport), but it does show that there are still large numbers of Iranian expats attempting to do the work for their countrymen here - in a free country - where their voices will not be silenced.

The Maeslant Barrier

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 09:15:00 +0000

The main point of my bike trip yesterday was to see some components of the Deltawerken (Delta Works), a massive public works project designed to prevent flooding in the Netherlands. It was conceived after the great flood of 1953, in which massive property damage was done and more than eighteen hundred people were killed.

The ongoing battle between the Dutch and the sea is well documented. Some 27% of the land in the Netherlands is below sea level, including Delft. Much of this is polderland, meaning it has actually been reclaimed from the sea. In 1986, for instance, the province of Flevoland was established where previously only sea had been. You may have heard: God created the world, but the Dutch created Holland.

Compare the two maps of the Netherlands below; the first is a current map, and the other is what the Netherlands would look like without protection from the sea.

The Nieuwe Waterweg (New Waterway) connects the Europoort of Rotterdam - the second busiest port in the world after the Port of Shanghai - with the sea. Meanwhile, Rotterdam and the surrounding area must be protected from flooding. Dike reinforcements along the Nieuwe Waterweg were the original plan for protecting Rotterdam, but these were costly, slow, and in the 70's elicited protests from people who didn't want dikes in urban areas. So instead, in the 80's the idea of a moving storm surge barrier grew legs. In 1997, the Maeslantkering (Maeslant Barrier) was finally commissioned. You can see it below.

View Maeslant Barrier in a larger map

The Maeslant Barrier is a most impressive structure. When open as pictured above (which is 99% of the time since major storm surges happen only once every decade or so), the barrier sits in dry docks on both side of the shore. To close the barrier, the docks are flooded and the barrier itself floats. Each part of the barrier pivots closed around two massive (10 m in diameter) ball joints, the biggest in the world. (You can see it closed here.) Once the two sides of the barrier have met at the middle, compartments within them are flooded and the barrier sinks to the bed of the waterway, sealing it off. To reopen, the compartments are pumped dry and then the two barrier segments are pivoted back into their docking areas. (I learned all this from a very cool scale model at the Keringhuis, a museum located at the foot of the barrier.)

Finally, here are some pictures, which aren't very good because you have to be in a helicopter to have a prayer at getting this thing in frame...

Ball joint about which one side of the barrier pivots.

A look at the Maeslant Barrier down the Nieuwe Waterweg.

Fietstocht naar de Hoek van Holland

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:01:00 +0000

Tired of being cooped up in front of my computer all the time, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather today and bike down to het Hoek van Holland (the Hook of Holland). It was a very nice ride that involved considerable improvisational skills since I promptly lost my map after arriving at the destination. Along the way I saw the usual farmland, cows, and windmills, but also got to see some key parts of the Delta Project, the massive public works that keep the Netherlands dry. More on that in the next post. For now, simply enjoy all 42 miles of my route (complete with some commentary) below. (The start/end is at the far right and the initial route was to the southwest.)

View Hoek van Holland Bike Trip in a larger map

Goodbye Copenhagen

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:45:00 +0000

The last thing Laura and I did while in Copenhagen was to visit the local hippie commune, Christiania. It was founded in 1971, and we had heard it was a venerable example of community togetherness and free-spirited living worthy of a sightseeing stroll. It turned out, however, to be perhaps the nastiest, seediest piece of earth I have ever strolled across, which is amazing given the fact that Copenhagen is an otherwise exceedingly clean and beautiful city. It was absolutely covered in garbage and seemed to have nothing to offer but the sale of chintzy drug paraphernalia. (Soft drugs were "tolerated" there until 2004, at which time the government started cracking down...probably because the place is a train wreck.) As a result, we have no pictures. You're not missing anything.

The pictures we do have are some aerial photos of Copenhagen I took from the winding tower of the Vor Frelsers Kirke ("Yet Another Church", at right) that is located right outside Christiania in the Christianshavn neighborhood of town. The difference between the two neighborhoods is like night and day. In the aerial photo below, you can't see Christiania's filth because it is buried beneath the trees.

Here you see a nice city skyline, including the Marble Church at upper right.

Finally, you can see the waterfront of Christianshavn pretty well in this one.

Laura and I enjoyed Copenhagen very much. As I wrote in the first post, it was a very regal- and proud-looking city. I also feel that the public transportation in Copenhagen, particularly to the suburbs, is unmatched in its style and comfort compared to anywhere else we've been in Europe. It was a nice visit!

Carlsberg Brewery

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:00:00 +0000

As you may know, Carlsberg is "Probably the Best Beer in the World." The original Carlsberg Brewery - Probably the Best Brewery in the World - is in Copenhagen, so how could we not go check it out?

The Carlsberg complex in Copenhagen is very big. Here's one mammoth gate...

...and here's another. This is the famous elephant gate, whose inspiration comes from a similarly hard-working elephant at Minerva Square in Rome. This elephant is one of four carved from granite. One of the elephants features a swastika, which was a symbol of good luck until the Nazis adopted it. Carlsberg used the swastika symbol in its advertising until that time and then wisely retired it - except where carved in granite, anyway. You can see that Laura and I wisely chose a non-swastika baring elephant for this picture.

We took the brewery tour, which of course they say is Probably the Best Brewery Tour in the World, though it was considerably less flashy than the Guinness or Heineken versions. One fact I found very interesting is that Carlsberg does a huge percentage of its business in the UK - probably more even than in Denmark. This meshes nicely with our observation in London that Carlsberg was everywhere.

At the end of the tour, we happily redeemed our tickets for free beers; you see Laura enjoying her beer below.

Other City Sightseeing and Changing of the Guard

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:45:00 +0000

Laura and I spent a weekend seeing the sights in Copenhagen. Here is a recap of the best things we saw.

We visited Rosenborg Castle, the home of the most famous of Danish sovereigns, King Christian IV. He ruled from 1588 to 1648 and is remembered for his reform-mindedness. In addition to the beautifully appointed rooms in the interior, Rosenborg Castle also houses the crown jewels. At right you see King Christian IV's crown, which was splendid indeed. Below is Rosenborg Castle itself.

We also enjoyed walking the waterfront in Copenhagen. Here you see one of many ships from the harbor. The Danish flag flew proudly over all of them.

Not far from the waterfront is Frederik's Church, also known as The Marble Church (Marmorkirken in Danish). Having visited more churches in Europe than I care to count, they all tend to run together. However, this church was a welcomed change of pace with its imposing but tasteful marble interior. The words you see written on the church are Danish for "The Lord's Word is Eternal."

Not far from the church stands Amalienborg Palace (the royal residence in Copenhagen), where each day at noon there is the changing of the Royal Guard. When we visited London back in December, we missed their version because it was too cold and crowded; we found the Danish version much more agreeable.

Finally, Laura and I also spent an evening at Tivoli Gardens, the Danish amusement park right in the heart of Copenhagen. According to Wikipedia, it opened in 1843 and is thus the second oldest amusement park in the world (after another Danish amusement park). Tivoli has a nice atmosphere, and in fact a lot of people pay reduced entree fees just to walk around and enjoy the gardens and eating establishments.

We of course couldn't completely pass up the rides, which were predominantly of the state-fair-throw-up variety. Here we are about to shoot off on one of their roller coasters.

The Many Statues of Copenhagen

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Copenhagen is a very attractive city, not least of which because of its ample ornamentation. There are statues and fountains everywhere that depict everything from fictional characters to national heroes to Greek gods to animals to Bible stars. You'll see below just a small sampling of all the fantastic statuary in the city. (Apparently Laura and I weren't the only ones to notice this feature of Copenhagen - check out a more complete Copenhagen statue gallery on Wikipedia.)

There is a star among the many statues in Copenhagen, though. Perched atop a rock in Copenhagen harbor outside the park Langelinie sits the famous bronze depiction of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid.

Hans Christian Andersen was Danish, and the fairy tale was published in 1837, but it was not until the story attracted the interest of Carl Jacobsen (of Carlsberg Brewery fame) that the statue was commissioned. It was completed in 1913 by Edvard Eriksen. It's a nice piece of artwork, though you might be surprised that the statue is very small - just over 4 ft.

After nearly 100 years of sitting atop that rock, I guess the Little Mermaid is getting bored - she's on her way to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai soon.

A Walk in Copenhagen

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:00:00 +0000

If I could pick a single word to describe Copenhagen (København in Danish), I would say "regal." It is a beautiful and proud city, with Danish flags flying everywhere, more statues than I could count, and very clean and proud architectural design.

On the day of my arrival in Denmark, I ventured with a fellow classmate from Lyngby (the site of DTU) to Copenhagen to have a look around. We had little time, so this first trip primarily involved walking the Strøget, a famous street that is supposedly the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe. Below is a picture from a square at its end, Kongens Nytorv.

There was an exhibit on the Strøget that caught my attention (and Laura's too when she arrived for the weekend) entitled Signspotting, which featured reproductions of the world's weirdest signage. This included signs with double entendres, irony, and tons of poor translations. Some of our pictures are below, but you can see many more at Signspotting.com.

With rain clouds bearing down on the city, I ended my walk with a free tour at the Danish Resistance Museum, which was really excellent. The tour detailed the Danish government's official "collaboration" (as it was called) with the Germans, which was a means of protecting the people; they essentially provided just enough support to the Germans to remain mostly autonomous during German occupation. Slowly, of course, things deteriorated, martial law was enacted, and a significant resistance movement was born, mostly involving sabotage of railways, ships, and other infrastructure important to the occupying forces.

There's a saying that Denmark is like The Netherlands ... but with two more months of winter. The similarities are there for sure: bikes are used as a primary mode of transportation, there's a similar international flavor to the country, infrastructure is similar, etc. Based on the weekend weather in June - high 50's to low 60's with buckets of rain - I think the second part of the statement is accurate as well.

Beyond Lisbon...Denmark!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:20:00 +0000

While I was attending the engineering conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Laura did most of the sightseeing. She'll be writing about that as soon as she gets everything settled in Gainesville.

In the meantime, I'm going to skip ahead another week. After returning from Lisbon, I was back in Delft for a day before heading on Tuesday, June 9th to Denmark Technical University (DTU) in the greater Copenhagen area for a graduate course. The course stretched over the weekend, at which time Laura joined me for some sightseeing in Copenhagen.

But before showing our pictures from the wonderful city of Copenhagen, the topic of the course I took - topology optimization - is sufficiently cool and accessible that I'm going to tell you what it is.

In the design of structures, a common goal is to produce a structure that will carry a given load without material failure or excessive deflection. You might have some kind of design domain (the light blue/purple area below) and know where you want to connect the structure to something else (the green triangles) and where the load will be (the red arrow). A solid block (like the light blue/purple) might suffice, but that's heavy and wasteful. So the question a designer needs to answer is, "Where should the holes go?"

Well, the TopOpt group at DTU, to put it simply, is the world's leading authority on how to use computer algorithms to figure out where the holes should go. In the animation below, you can actually see the algorithm progressively remove material until the final best (or optimal) part is produced! If you missed the animation, click on the image and you can watch it again. (If you're using Firefox, you may then need to hold 'Shift' while clicking the 'Refresh' button.)

The TopOpt Group at DTU offers some very nice web tools (which I used to produce the pictures above), so you can try it for yourself. It was a real pleasure to learn about this topic from all of the very nice people at DTU!

The Eternal Moonwalk

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:34:00 +0000

This has only a marginal connection with the topics of our blog, but it's too cool not to post. Go visit the Michael Jackson Eternal Moonwalk, where you can see videos of people from all over the world doing [mostly terrible] moonwalks.

There are tons from the Netherlands: just search for Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft, Utrecht, Eindhoven, or any of the other big cities. My personal Netherlands favorite is the bike moonwalk (#910) in front of the I amsterdam sign on the Museumplein in Amsterdam. Don't forget to add sound effects with the SDFJKL keys!

Ultimate Frisbee Nederland Stijl

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:55:00 +0000

I'm an avid Ultimate Frisbee player, and since arriving here in the Netherlands have been playing regularly with the TU Delft team, Force Elektro. On Tuesday, the Netherlands radio station FunX came and did a feature on the team and the sport of Ultimate Frisbee. The video is below (in Dutch). Enjoy!

Arrivederci Italia! Olá Portugal

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:01:00 +0000

Between Capri, Mt. Vesuvius, and Pompeii, our last days in Italy were awesome. It's a beautiful country with friendly people, incredible history, lots of sunshine, and - of course - gelato on every corner. (It's not just anywhere in the world you can get, for instance, ricotta pear or balsamic ice cream flavors...)

On the morning of May 31st, though, it was time to depart. But we didn't head back to Delft just yet. A presentation I had been accepted to give at an engineering conference took us next to Lisbon, Portugal for a week. Olá Portugal!

Vesuvius and Pompeii

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:40:00 +0000

On our very last day in Italy, Laura and I did something that's going to sound particularly bad-ass - we climbed an active volcano. Below you see Mt. Vesuvius hovering menacingly over the greater Naples area.

Yes, we walked the rocky slopes of an active volcano, and looked down into its steaming caldera from the very top - how many people can say that? In the picture of Laura below, you can see a steam released from a vent inside the caldera.

Mt. Vesuvius has erupted many times in its history (most recently in 1944), but the most famous eruption is undoubtedly that of 79 AD when it buried the nearby Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pompeii was buried under 30-60 feet of volcanic ash. A view like the below probably looks pretty good until the ground starts shaking, the sky turns black, and fiery debri starts raining down, huh? After the eruption, Pompeii was forgotten for more than 1500 years before rediscovery, and then serious excavations commenced almost 150 years later still in 1748.

The violent eruption stopped Pompeii dead in its tracks, resulting in a ruined city that was literally frozen in time. Many residents were buried alive beneath the volcanic ash and rock, which left behind hollow spaces after the bodies decomposed. Some clever archaeologists made casts of the spaces during excavation, and now tourists can actually see the contorted poses of horrified Pompeiians preserved forever in plaster. But that's not all: Roman homes, "fast food" joints, and even the local brothel were all preserved very well, all things considered.

The most astounding part about Pompeii was seeing the standard of living enjoyed by the Romans (specifically the middle-class Pompeiians) nearly two millennia ago; it was almost like walking into an episode of the Flintstones, where everything is similar to what we enjoy today but decidely lower-tech. They had running water, large homes, excellent roads, interior decorations, etc. For instance, inside the House of the Tragic Poet is the famous Cave Canem (Beware of Dog) mosaic/entry mat...

... or the statue of the Dancing Faun in Pompei's largest home:

We also found the Roman brothel extremely entertaining, both for its intact menu of services and the makeup of the individual rooms - complete with solid stone bed (below). Some of the artifacts dug up in Pompeii, in fact, still make archaeologists blush to this day.

Pompeii is one of Italy's most visited sites, and we certainly can see why. It was incredible to walk the streets of such a well-preserved testament of Roman life. (More pictures are on Flickr.)

The Island of Capri

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Maybe the best part of our whole Italy trip was the boat ride we took from Sorrento to Capri, a resort island that stretches all the way back to Roman times.

Our hosts, the guys from Capitanoago, provided an awesome experience. Our first stop was to do some sightseeing in the town of Capri. The town itself had the usual Italian hillside charm, with the colorful buildings, wild vines, and walking paths winding into the hills.

We didn't doddle in town, instead riding straight up the mountainside for some awesome views and a pleasant walk back down.

But the town and the views were far from the highlight of the trip: no, that title goes to the plethora of rocky outcroppings, caves, and grottos that we got to see while boating around the island perimeter. A photo can't possibly do justice to how fantastic Capri is when seen from the water, with its natural arches and towering cliffs jutting menacingly from the blue-green sea.

Here's the view from an enormous cave we stopped to explore.

Tucked at the very bottom of a typically rocky spot on the island perimeter is a nondescript hole just big enough for a row boat. Get inside the Grotta Azzurra (Blue Grotto), though, and the light shines beneath the surface of the water, making it the most vividly blue color you can imagine. It was an absolutely stunning natural sight.

More pictures are on Flickr.

The Amalfi Coast

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:30:00 +0000

For our first trip from our home base near Sorrento, we boarded a bus for a roller coaster ride along the mountainous coastal roads to Amalfi. It was a white-knuckled joy ride that involved stunning views and hairpin turns that were always announced with a gentle "beep-beep" to let other cars know we were coming...since the road was just barely two cars wide in the most generous areas. We also saw Positano and Atrani, and each town was similar.

I don't have a lot specifically to say about any of these towns other than that they were beautiful and warm and provided us with the best of Italy's gravel beaches for a day in the sun.

Oh...and the fruit stands had the biggest freaking lemons ever.

More pictures on Flickr.