A long break for me, pandemic-enforced, but just got to see Amsterdam again, and all the wonderful people in and around it. A photo collection to commemorate this short but lovely trip.
I ran into a Red Brigade of Extinction Rebellion before I'd even left Schiphol. They were taking part in a multi-airport protest to "krimp de luchtvaart": flying is indeed a disaster for the environment, and despite United's smarmy claims about sustainability, we won't see climate-neutral air traffic before, say, global mean temperature hits 2+. Not the first time I've been confronted with the fact that I'm part of the problem and of the solution both.
The MX3D bridge was installed last July, and while I've viewed the data it generates, I've never seen the bridge in place. What better time than on my first Saturday night in town? The Red Light District is as crowded as ever, and the bridge is bearing the burden without difficulty.
COVID has infected most of my friends in Amsterdam at one point or another, but overwork and stress are more serious diseases, even in the relatively enlightened (thank you unions!) work culture of the Netherlands. To combat that, and to address my jet lag, Michiel, Remco, and I went to the countryside for some sauna time.
My main purpose in traveling to the Netherlands was to attend the annual (in theory) bridge conference, this time held in the bar next to the bridge. Shown above, the day 1 team. Shortly after this we blocked the bridge to do some data collection while it was nice and warm. This puzzled the tourists, irritated the residents, and caused a policeman to give us a stern talking-to.
Lucky timing let me catch an evening auction at De Zwaan, with Babette behind the gavel and AJ behind the screens. Particularly fortuitous: I saw them auction an immaculate piece of advertising enamel for @EUR180.000.
As always, the Netherlands delivers scenes and lighting that speak to the Rembrandt within us all.
Hello Lilian! You want to go hot tubbing on top of a hotel I'm not staying at? Do we have a reservation or even a key to the elevator? No? How is this going to work? And yet it just does.
The bridge has been printed and ready for a couple of years now, so MX3D's robots have moved on to new challenges. Shown here the M1, a complete solution for those wishing to do metal 3D printing at scale.
It would not have occurred to me to go to Amsterdam for ramen, but Kikujiro is working in a new restaurant that not even his family had yet tried. So glad we did: I've never had better.
An Amsterdam newspaper had the brilliant, if warped, idea of photographing the employees of small businesses on a Monday morning. De Zwaan's had their turn. I would love to have some of these on the side of my fridge.
Babette stole Cisca's reading glasses and so did I. In fact, I'm wearing them now while typing. Very Euro I'm sure my Zoom colleagues will note, and quite right, too.
Nina is jarig so of course we had a BBQ at Ons Buiten. Frank is still using the BBQ tools we left him, but has upgraded his BBQwear.
I didn't ask, but I expect some of these people haven't seen each other since the last time we had a BBQ at Ons Buiten.
Mees had the nerve to complain the chips were plain. That did not stop Toon, nor did Daantje.
The birthday girl and there, behind her, helping wash the dishes remotely, is Cisca. Nina spent most of the BBQ trying to convince me to go to Cisca's birthday party, but me, I like to live in the moment.
The RAI, looking quite flash.
I've a million more, but the Internet is only so big, and besides, I went on to Brussels, which deserves a few shots of its own. Enjoy!
