You know you've arrived in the Netherlands, when the sign words are so long, that they have to use the WHOLE space to fit the word. What does this word mean? I am not sure, but it has something to do with parking: that I do KNOW.
Epilogue:
Nice Dutch people wrote to me and said: "NIEUWETIJDENNIEUWEKANSEN
is not one word, but four words:
nieuwe tijden nieuwe kansen, meaning: new times, new chances.
It's a Dutch expression. We use it to comfort someone who is depressed
when he made
a wrong choice in his life."
Beautiful wind mills are all over the country side. The wheels inside actually spins really REALLY fast!
Spring was in the air when I arrived. Flowers were blooming, and much happiness was in the air.
The Dutch are an amazing group of people. They have made the land that they have work for them. Waterworks is their specialty, obviously, but I didn't realize the extent of their resourcefulness. This dyke closes off the inner sea with the outer sea, and is some 60 miles long, with each rock supposedly imported from Norway! Reminded me of the Great Wall. One to keep people out, this one to keep water out. Same idea, different output.
I had many responsibility in the next few days: giving a full-day tutorial on visual perception and then giving a paper talk on the Information Scent project. There was much joy after I finished all these responsibilities. I didn't end up seeing very much of the Hague becaues I was so busy, but supposedly it had the best Indonesian restaurants.
A great feature of this year's CHI conference was that it had a bar right inside of this conference center!
is a dear friend of my father. I visited him in Leiden, and he told me many stories of the good old days. I had fond memories of him visiting our family in Tamsui, Taiwan. I snapped this quick portrait of him with a big smiley expression.
A beautiful city of canals and people. The weather was perfect.
Many people (especially young women) seem to have decided that the bicycle is the best form of transportation. So all day long, you see these big tall blonde Dutch whizzing by you on the sidewalk. You'd almost swear that you don't mind being hit by one of them.
were just beautiful. Some of the house boats look very well equipped. This seemed like a good way to live. I wonder how cold the boats get in the winter, and if they had good heaters...
These Tibetian musicians were playing some wonderful instruments in the Rilks museum passage. I thought the man's expression was quite engaging.
are everywhere. Old BMW motorcycles are one of my favorite old bikes to look at. This was one of the intriguing ones. Lots of Vespa scooters as well.
are popping up in Europe everywhere, and they are very cute, and can fit into just about any parking space. Two seaters with very little trunk space. I want one....
are everywhere in Amsterdam, I thought (Paris has even more, but that's in next week's journal.) The views from the canal boats are definitely recommended.
Real estate is so high here in the bay area, I drooled over many many apartments in the Jaardan area of Amsterdam. This one had three large floor to ceiling windows with great furnishing inside. Let's just pretend that I live here. (Ahem... this is agent 0001, I've found a base in Amsterdam).