AMSTERDAM!
On 11 September at 9:30am, I landed in Schipol (to pronounce it, you need to say “shipple as though you were a cat coughing on a hairball). I sat next to a lovely Dutch girl (tall, blonde, cool pants) who was working on her PhD studying organizational psychology! (Also very relevant for some research we’ve been doing).
Incidentally, when I told her the purpose of my trip, she volunteered (without my asking) that most Dutch people DO have a good awareness of floods. She said whenever the storms come, that all of the people get worried. We shall see if this corresponds with the rest of the country.
I had no troubles in getting to Amsterdam save that buying a train ticket in an electronic kiosk in Schipol cost me 8x what it should have because I couldn’t read Dutch, nor did I take notice of the tiny UK flag indicating English translation. Dangit! Well, it was a nice trainride anyway. (see photo below).
I spent my first night in the Stay Okay hostel near Vondelpark and wandered around the Leidseplein (a popular square) to kill of my jetlag and get some food before taking a nap. I love how all the cafes have outdoor seating facing the square so you can people watch and not get called a stalker.
Incidentally, I sat down, ordered myself a Medium sized beer (they have 3 sizes here!)
At some point I fell asleep at the table but woke up in time for both my beer AND the chef’s arrival at which point I ordered a Broodje (sandwich) with “Old dutch cheese”
I didn’t ask how old.
It took me exactly 5 hours to get over jet-lag and I was fine by the time I woke up. So I ate some food.
Eventually I wandered around the canal-lined streets until I was tired. I looked for evidence of floods. Wondered if people had any idea their engineering works could fail. I began to wonder about how I would fare not knowing anyone for 2-3 months. But as a small world would have it, I had been in Amsterdam 10 hours and run into someone I knew! My former roommates cousin Hanna used to stay at our house sometimes and she was there visiting her mother so we made plans to wander the town the next day since she had been there a month.
Here are results from our adventure across the tiny city:
BIKES! Everywhere. they have special lanes for bikes like we do in the US, but they are everywhere and there seem to be as many (if not more) bikes than cars. They also have loads of bike parking (like the yellow sign lit up below)
Life-size Chess playing
Canals, houseboats, more bikes
We first walked to Dam square to witness the Amsterdam Draaiorgelfestival, or street organ festival.
The one on the right was playing Thriller. It was almost heavenly.
Later on in the day, the street organs had dispersed to various corners at which point, we took this (click below). It’s apparently the norm??
(yes if you listen closely you can hear me laughing)
I bought my first Dutch cell phone from the most boisterous positive Dutch man ever. I have never felt so good about an electronics purchase and I was assured by my friends that dutch salespeople aren't trying to pull a fast one on you like they do in the Verizon store. He kept trying to shoe me away though, but I had more and more questions. you'd think I never had a phone before. Ultimately I made him change my settings to english and I left. Oh and they gave me a free towel.
Then we went to the beautiful new library/bibliotheek. Sometimes modern architecture isn’t all that appealing to me, but this was incredible. Plus you could eat lunch from the top and the inside and the view were phenomenal.
Later on, I made my way back to the overpriced hostel. To its credit, the HOSTEL was aware of it's place on the land... see below the elevation profile which was on the wall in the hostel. Notice all the land below sea... The dijk is on the left, the airport (thats an airplane), then the pink little building is to the right of that. You can see it is just about 2meters below sea-level. The elevation is on the left in meters.
Saturday night I ultimately out with some friends of friends (thank you Josh Jackson for putting us in touch) at a place called Gollem. Yes, like Lord of the Rings, where I spent the evening chatting it up with the Greenpeace International Folks. Who knew they are all our age?
HIGHLIGHTS:
Streetperformers breakdancing and pulling off a 4-man “worm” and a 1 minute headspin (that'll teach me to bring my camera from now one)
Trying to order food at a café but learning, “sorry, no food, our chef didn’t show up today”
Walking across the street into a pack of superheroes… Of course this would happen here.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Streetperformers breakdancing and pulling off a 4-man “worm” and a 1 minute headspin (that'll teach me to bring my camera from now one)
Trying to order food at a café but learning, “sorry, no food, our chef didn’t show up today”
Walking across the street into a pack of superheroes… Of course this would happen here.
See the happy couple below. I particularly like the purse.
Alas, after 2 days in Amsterdam, I came here. Delft is a medieval city with narrow brick canal-lined streets. All below sea-level. There’s an old church (Olde Kerk) and a new church, Niewe Kerk, neither of which I have visited yet, except for drinking a beer in front of them. By myself. I am that shady character.
Canal next to the Olde Kerk.
I came here because the Technical University Delft is where the flood protection and engineering is happening so I have a number of meetings and field trips planned for the research. I am trying to maintain a professional look, but we shall see what happens when I bring my bear out to place on the storm surge barrier for pictures.
This is how close all the cars were parked to the canals. Thats my shoe.
I’m staying at the Soul-Inn... it’s a funky little place, where initially I felt like I paid too much but then I realized that actually, the Dutch just make excellent use of every square inch! So my room is probably 7’ x 7’ but I have a 10 ‘ spiral staircase to my bed which is above everything!
This photo really speaks for itself if you have seen the movie, "Meet the parents"
"Straat" is Dutch word for Street. :)
PLANNERS you’ll like this:
On my first night I went running and came upon people gathered around a canal in which 4 canal boats were filled with a choir and symphony musicians. It echoed beautifully throughout the streets. A whole bunch was being said in Dutch, but after I conceded I could not understand, I asked the gentleman to my left what was going on.
Apparently after a 5-10 year struggle, the City of Delft had decided to place the Railway (which currently divides the city as in so many cities), underground to reconnect the city. This music festival on the boats, on a canal lined with lumieres was a celebration of the start of the project! Kinda puts our ribbon-cutting-hard-hat-wearing-shovel-ceremonies to shame. There is still opposition but it is going to happen nonetheless.
Okay let's get to the point-- what do you think REALLY goes on here?
I had my first official research meeting yesterday with a researcher/phD student at the university. I will wait to post more comprehensive thoughts on the Dutch Flood protection system until further discussions. But initially here are some major take home messages:
-The Dutch made flood protection a priority because keeping the Netherlands dry and safe (60% of the country is below sea-level) was a level of National interest first and foremost, before economics.
-The key event triggering this policy change was the great floods of 1953 on the North Sea in which more than 1800 people died (similar to Katrina in that right).
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_flood_of_1953
-Dutch decide their level of protection (for example, do they protect it for the mini floods, the largest storms, or what? The more protection you have, the more money it costs, right?) based on economic optimization. So they factor in what is at risk throughout the country, see how much VALUE is at risk, and they determine the level of protection based on that.
-RISK= probability of flooding x consequences
-Thus, the most valuable areas (behind which they have the most financially to lose) receive the highest protection. There are parts of the country which have 10,000-year protection, and parts which have 1,250-year protection. Some are even aiming for 100,000-year protection
-For comparison, the United States standard is only 100-year protection.
-For clarification: 100-year protection does NOT mean land is protected for 100 years. It means there is a 1/100 chance of a flood that size to occur any given year. Over the live of a 30-year mortgage, this is actually a 26% chance of a large flood.
- There is no insurance program in the Netherlands the way there is in the US ( we have the National Flood Insurance Program)
- When I asked why not, the response I got was, “because no one can afford to take on that risk”…
NOTES:
-I had maybe the best coffee of my life just yesterday at a café. I don’t know how or why, it just was. Mmmm
-I went running along the canals yesterday and on my way back through, got cheered on by a bench full of Dutch college students. I love that people are sarcastic everywhere.
-In an effort to increase my Dutch vocabulary, I have been reading dutch newspapers. I’m thinking I can fool those around me that I really know what is going on. I do my best from the pictures. But from yesterdays news, Obama loves Prince William and Europeans love Soccer (Voetbal). I’ll be fluent in a week.
-Lastly, please know that Michigan’s win over Notre Dame on Saturday, as well as a buckeye loss to USC, did NOT go unnoticed from the Low Country. What a great way to start a fellowship!
-Bear made the trip well for those of you concerned.
- Bears take a little longer to recover from jetlag due to a change in body chemistry which results from 6 months of hibernation .
- In Dutch, his name would be Beer. He is pleased with this translation. Me and beer will go have some beers (biers). Oh, beer thinks he is SOOOO funny!
- Beer sends his best. And he says, GO BLUE!!
Until next time.
Canal next to the Olde Kerk.
I came here because the Technical University Delft is where the flood protection and engineering is happening so I have a number of meetings and field trips planned for the research. I am trying to maintain a professional look, but we shall see what happens when I bring my bear out to place on the storm surge barrier for pictures.
This is how close all the cars were parked to the canals. Thats my shoe.
I think this bicycle has been here a long time. And that the water has not mixed for quite sometime. That is duckweed, not green carpet.
Canals. You can tell the water levels are very controlled because if you see how close those door "Steps" are to the water, there is not much room for fluctuation. In talking with people, I don't think this area has flooded for quite some time.
I’m staying at the Soul-Inn... it’s a funky little place, where initially I felt like I paid too much but then I realized that actually, the Dutch just make excellent use of every square inch! So my room is probably 7’ x 7’ but I have a 10 ‘ spiral staircase to my bed which is above everything!
This photo really speaks for itself if you have seen the movie, "Meet the parents"
"Straat" is Dutch word for Street. :)
PLANNERS you’ll like this:
On my first night I went running and came upon people gathered around a canal in which 4 canal boats were filled with a choir and symphony musicians. It echoed beautifully throughout the streets. A whole bunch was being said in Dutch, but after I conceded I could not understand, I asked the gentleman to my left what was going on.
Apparently after a 5-10 year struggle, the City of Delft had decided to place the Railway (which currently divides the city as in so many cities), underground to reconnect the city. This music festival on the boats, on a canal lined with lumieres was a celebration of the start of the project! Kinda puts our ribbon-cutting-hard-hat-wearing-shovel-ceremonies to shame. There is still opposition but it is going to happen nonetheless.
Okay let's get to the point-- what do you think REALLY goes on here?
I had my first official research meeting yesterday with a researcher/phD student at the university. I will wait to post more comprehensive thoughts on the Dutch Flood protection system until further discussions. But initially here are some major take home messages:
-The Dutch made flood protection a priority because keeping the Netherlands dry and safe (60% of the country is below sea-level) was a level of National interest first and foremost, before economics.
-The key event triggering this policy change was the great floods of 1953 on the North Sea in which more than 1800 people died (similar to Katrina in that right).
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_flood_of_1953
-Dutch decide their level of protection (for example, do they protect it for the mini floods, the largest storms, or what? The more protection you have, the more money it costs, right?) based on economic optimization. So they factor in what is at risk throughout the country, see how much VALUE is at risk, and they determine the level of protection based on that.
-RISK= probability of flooding x consequences
-Thus, the most valuable areas (behind which they have the most financially to lose) receive the highest protection. There are parts of the country which have 10,000-year protection, and parts which have 1,250-year protection. Some are even aiming for 100,000-year protection
-For comparison, the United States standard is only 100-year protection.
-For clarification: 100-year protection does NOT mean land is protected for 100 years. It means there is a 1/100 chance of a flood that size to occur any given year. Over the live of a 30-year mortgage, this is actually a 26% chance of a large flood.
- There is no insurance program in the Netherlands the way there is in the US ( we have the National Flood Insurance Program)
- When I asked why not, the response I got was, “because no one can afford to take on that risk”…
NOTES:
-I had maybe the best coffee of my life just yesterday at a café. I don’t know how or why, it just was. Mmmm
-I went running along the canals yesterday and on my way back through, got cheered on by a bench full of Dutch college students. I love that people are sarcastic everywhere.
-In an effort to increase my Dutch vocabulary, I have been reading dutch newspapers. I’m thinking I can fool those around me that I really know what is going on. I do my best from the pictures. But from yesterdays news, Obama loves Prince William and Europeans love Soccer (Voetbal). I’ll be fluent in a week.
-Lastly, please know that Michigan’s win over Notre Dame on Saturday, as well as a buckeye loss to USC, did NOT go unnoticed from the Low Country. What a great way to start a fellowship!
-Bear made the trip well for those of you concerned.
- Bears take a little longer to recover from jetlag due to a change in body chemistry which results from 6 months of hibernation .
- In Dutch, his name would be Beer. He is pleased with this translation. Me and beer will go have some beers (biers). Oh, beer thinks he is SOOOO funny!
- Beer sends his best. And he says, GO BLUE!!
Until next time.
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