Sunday, May 13, 2001.
We woke up a bit early (around 6am), but fairly well rested. Woke Steve up with a phone call at 8am and headed down for breakfast around 8:30am. After breakfast we packed our bags and checked out of the hotel, at 3pm the bus would arrive to take us to the Golden Tulip hotel in Veldhoven, where the conference center is.
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| This man is waaay too chipper in the morning. | Traveling light means a quick pack job... |
But before the bus arrived, we had time to do some more exploring of Amsterdam. We decided that instead of just walking past the Rijksmuseum, we'd actually go in! The centerpiece of the Rijksmuseum is Rembrandt's Nightwatch, which is set at the end of the great hall.
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| The Nightwatch is framed by the entrance to the room at the end of the Great Hall... | The seats are perfectly placed for viewing Nightwatch, but the tourists are not so perfectly placed... | |
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| The caption of the Nightwatch on the floor in front of the painting. | The painting is HUGE, and the detail amazing... |
There are a number of other photos of the Nightwatch, showing the amazing detail of this masterpiece. While the Nightwatch may be the centerpiece, there is a huge collection of art and religious artifacts in the museum.
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| The room with the Nightwatch in it has a lot of other city guard-type paintings... | Its an amazing thing, looking at furniture that is now considered art... | |
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| Stevie admiring the huge delft flower holder. | The Rijksmuseum is filled with religious artifacts, like this wooden edifice... | |
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| Furniture so amazing, even Steve wants a picture! | The tricky way to take a picture of myself... and Steve. |
There are many more photos taken in the Rijksmuseum, but after several hours, our feet, our schedule and our stomachs told us it was time for lunch before the bus came... so we headed out of the Rijksmuseum and found a little cafe nearby to get something to eat.
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| All the energy I had this morning is gone... | Even if you DID mess up those pictures, we've got them here! |
Finally we headed back to the hotel, met up with the other speakers and conference organizers and loaded up onto the bus for the trip to Veldhoven.
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| Remi harassing Steve (don't worry, he deserved it). | Aboard the bus for Veldhoven, ready to fall asleep... |
The drive from Amsterdam to Veldhoven was uneventful, just open fields, lots of little cars, trees, cows, sheep... zzzzz... (Okay, I admit it, I fell asleep on the bus and didn't take any pictures). The Golden Tulip in Veldhoven is a huge sprawling conference center, lots of nice facilities. Our room was a more typical European hotel room (which means it was small and had two single beds).
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| Yes, those are two single beds, side-by-side... sigh. Very comfy beds, though. | A teeny little desk that I was all excited about because it has a LAN internet connection (that didn't work, sigh). | |
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| The view out the window is distinctly rural. | Lots of birds singing, mosquitoes buzzing... its almost like home! |
After getting unpacked and settled, it was time for the speaker dinner. We bumped into Paul Sheriff and his family just checking in as we headed down to the restaurant - they had driven themselves to Veldhoven, and apparently had a few adventures along the way.
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| The Sheriffs may be late, but they still have time to mug for the camera... | Over thirty speakers, plus spouses, staff, etc means a big speaker dinner... |
Speaker dinners are lots of fun, everyone getting reacquainted, making fun of Steve, etc...
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| I'm so much happier after I've been fed. | Yeah, me too. | |
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| Richard and Joop Pecht (the conference organizer) mug for the camera. | Paul Sheriff (CA) and Steve Forte (NY) both agree that Campbell is bugging them. |
After dinner we retreated outside to the cool of the terrace... it was awful hot in the dining room. Eventually the bugs drove us into the bar.
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| Paul and Anne (Paul's wife) relaxing on the terrace. | Drinking beer in the bar with the geeks! |
Around 10pm, the beer and the jet lag caught up with us, and it was bed time. Needed the rest, the next day was the first day of the Conference to the Max.