Distractions, reflections

David Ing, at large … Sometimes, my mind wanders

2010/04/15-23 Seeheim, Darmstadt, Rhine River, Brussels

I was a volcanic ash refugee for eight days. In the minivan with a group leaving Pernegg en route to the Vienna airport, we received a mobile phone call telling us that flights were being cancelled. When we arrived at the Vienna airport, the UK airports were in the process of closing. Jennifer and I thought that motion towards Manchester was better than just staying in Vienna, so we boarded the first leg to Frankfurt. When we arrived at FRA, we discovered that the UK airspace had completely closed. Then we discovered the EU rule that once a passenger is taken on as a carrier, that airline is responsible for accommodations for the passenger until he or she arrives at the final destination, or negotiates an alternative routing.

This began an unexpected adventure of an extended European tour.  On the first night, the airline sent us on a long taxi ride to Seeheim.  The destination turned out to be the Lufthansa Training and Conference Centre, a wonderful facility that tourists are unlikely to see.

di_20100415-145318-seeheim-lufthansaconf-bedroom.jpg

The coupons for dinner gave us the breadth of choice of continental cuisine from experienced chefs.  After the meal, Jennifer and I walked around as much of the building complex as we could find.  I read that there are bowling alleys at the facility, but we never found them.

di_20100415-150112-seeheim-lufthansaconf-cafeteria.jpg

We might have liked to extend our stay at this facility, but we were told the conference centre was booked full for that evening.  We took a shuttle back to Frankfurt airport.

di_20100416-043157-seeheim-lufthansaconf-pool.jpg

At the airport, the airline then sent us to Darmstadt. This town is the home of the Technische Universität Darmstadt, a research institution with strong ties to German industry.  From just west of the city centre, we walked to Ludwigsplatz.

di_20100416-091804-darmstadt-ludwigplatz.jpg

The city centre, such as Ernst Ludwig Strasse, has only pedestrian traffic going through it.

di_20100416-091909-darmstadt-ernstludwigstrasse.jpg

The Luisenplatz is centered on a fountain, and ringed by buildings with sidewalk cafes.

di_20100416-092820-darmstadt-main-square.jpg

To the north is a park and city hall, with a prominent military statue.  Families were out enjoying the weather.

di_20100416-093538-darmstadt-cityhall-statue.jpg

I had located the Institut für Neue Technische Form on the tourist map.  The doors were locked, but then a curator came down from the second floor to let us in.

di_20100416-093901-darmstadt-institutefornewtechnicalform.jpg

The displays in the institute were strongly related to industrial design.  The exhibition happened to be a celebration of incandescent lighting, since the world is on the move towards compact florescent lights.

di_20100416-095234-darmstadt-institutefornewtechnicalform-bulb-display.jpg

Have been on our feet for a few hours, we paused for a rest on a bench by the fountain in the Herrngarten.

di_20100416-100709-darmstadt-herrengarten-fountain.jpg

Continuing on our walk east, the path through the Technische Universität Darmstadt was only a few blocks across.

di_20100416-102801-tu-darmstadt-north-building.jpg

By Karlplatz, the neighbourhood transitioned to more residential buildings.  We encountered some children playing by the sculptures.

di_20100416-102936-darmstadt-karlplatz-statues.jpg

To the east, we had seen the wedding tower of the Mathildenhohe — Darmstadt Artists’ Colony — from some distance away, and walked uphill through a park to reach it.

di_20100416-104302-darmstadt-park-mathildenhohe.jpg

We were too late in the day to go into the Museum Künstlerkolonie — the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony Museum.

di_20100416-105742-darmstadt-mathildenhohe-museumkunstlerkolonie.jpg

That entry might have allowed us to see the wedding tower.  We had to be satisfied at looking up from the plaza.

di_20100416-104838-darmstadt-mathildenhoheweddingtower.jpg

Opposite the wedding tower, the plaza looked over a bowling garden where many elderly were playing.

di_20100416-105050-darmstadt-mathildenhoheweddingtower-bowling-garden.jpg

Next to the plaza and bowling garden was the Russische Kapelle — the Russian Church.

di_20100416-105448-darmstadt-russianchurch.jpg

The pool at the base of the Russian Church had the soothing sound of running water.

di_20100416-110444-darmstadt-pool-russianchurch-mathildenhohe.jpg

We walked west, downhill, to find buildings of one of the institutes of the Fraunhofer Society — probably the Institute for Applied Research in Visual Computing.  The Fraunhofer name was familiar to me, as a sister institute had invented MP3 audio.

di_20100416-112152-darmstadt-tu-fraunhoferinstitute.jpg

A minute further along, the next building featured a modern architecture that looked like a vessel about to take flight.

di_20100416-112240-darmstadt-tu-fraunhoferinstitute.jpg

At the base of that building, we found skateboarders taking advantage of the slopes and rails.

di_20100416-112804-darmstadt-fraunhoferinstitute-plaza-skaters.jpg

Circling back to the hotel, on our westward walk, the Katholische Innenstadtkirche St. Ludwig — a Catholic Church — was tightly nested in a residential district.

di_20100416-114811-darmstad-stludwig-church.jpg

After a quiet evening in the hotel, Jennifer decided that she was going to get up early in the morning to make her way closer to home.  That Saturday, she went back to the airport a few hours before me.  When I arrived, I found her at the head of the Lufthansa executive check-in queue.  She discovered that she could trade her plane ticket for a train ticket to Brussels, with a reservation for the Eurostar train to London on Tuesday.  I decided to join her in the voyage, since my college roommate Pierre had offered me shelter in his apartment in Brussels until the ash clouds cleared.  During the 3-hour wait for the next available InterCityExpress train to arrive, Jennifer managed to upgrade her Tuesday booking on the Eurostar for a first class Sunday departure.

DI_20100417-065925-FRA-platform-ICE-train.JPG

The ICE train took us on a route up the Rhine River.  We saw barges, reminding us that water travel preceded rail travel.

DI_20100417-074518-Rhine-barge.JPG

We had a great view of castles and vineyards overlooking the Rhine.

DI_20100417-074702-Rhine-castle.JPG

One of the major cities on our path was Koln.  We noticed things fastened onto the railings of the bridge into town, which turned out to be padlocks of love.

DI_20100417-091738-Koln-bridge-locks.JPG

We only stopped at the station for few moments in Koln.  On another trip, the4 city would be worth a visit.

DI_20100417-092022-Koln-statue-tower.JPG

I had been sending SMS text back and forth to Pierre.  By the time we passed through Aachen, we were many hours late.  It turns out that this Rhine river route is not the express track that the ICE normally takes.  The train must have missed an window of opportunity, and was thus relegated to the slower — albeit more scenic — route.

DI_20100417-102859-Aachen-tower.JPG

Pierre picked us up at the Brussels North railway station, and lavished us with refreshments at his apartment.  I’ve been to Brussels a few times before, but Jennifer had not.  Pierre took us to the city centre, and parked under the Place d’Espagne, where there’s a statue of Don Quixote.

di_20100417-124024-brussels-place-d'espagne-don-quixote.jpg

A short walk, and we were at the Grand Place.  The guild halls line the plaza.

di_20100417-124342-brussels-grandplace-guildhalls.jpg

The town hall has the highest tower on the square.

di_20100417-124405-brussels-townhall.jpg

Thinking about dinner, we walked northwest through Grand Place into the small maze of streets.

di_20100417-124416-brussels-grand-place-view-nw.jpg

Pierre led us to a reliable brasserie in the Belgian tradition — Scheltema — and we were lucky to score a table outside, to soak up the atmosphere.

di_20100417-133713-brussels-scheltema-dinner.jpg

By the time we had finished dinner, the sun had set.  Our return walk through the Grand Place was no less scenic, with facades shown off with floodlights.

di_20100417-154225-brussels-grand-place-view-ne.jpg

At the Grasmarkt, some amateur astronomers were also enjoying the evening, giving passersby an opportunity for a view of the sky.

di_20100417-154606-brussels-grasmarkt-telescope.jpg

The next morning, we set out on our day from a different starting point.  Pierre parked near Place du Petit Sablon.  Statues of the Count of Egmont and Count of Horn overlook the park.

di_20100418-031640-brussels-lepetitsablon-egmonthornes.jpg

The Sablon Antique Market was open on Sunday morning, but we weren’t in a shopping mood.

di_20100418-032150-brussels-sablonantiquemarket-irons.jpg

The service at L’église Notre-Dame du Sablon was in session, so not a stop for tourists on Sunday.

di_20100418-031832-brussels-eglisenotredamedusablon,.jpg
We wandered through the Magritte Museum, which included three floors of paintings, sketches and memorabilia from René Magritte.  The galleries were considerably dimmer than the entry, presumably to preserve the condition of the works.

di_20100418-033031-magrittemuseum-atrium.jpg

After a lunch where we sampled steak americain, we put Jennifer on her train to London.  She texted us that evening that she had picked up her car from the Manchester airport, and driven home.  When she went to the office the next day, she discovered that she was practically the only instructor in the school, as many of her colleagues were caught in Asia without a way home through the volcanic ash cloud covering the UK.

Pierre also had to cancel his business travel to Houston, because of similar flight concerns.  I figured that the conditions would clear in about a week — or the airlines would figure out alternatives — so rather than stressing out day to day, I booked a return flight from Frankfurt for Friday.  For four days, Pierre went to the office, and I worked in his apartment, with a good Internet connection.

In the late afternoons, I took some time off to explore his neighbourhood in northern Brussels, Schaerbeek.  The main street this Brussels commune is Chaussée de Haecht, known for its history of immigrants from Turkey.

di_20100418-130620-schaerbeek-chauseedehaecht.jpg

The neighbourhood is a compact urban district of apartments and shops.  Josaphat Park is a major patch of greenery for families to enjoy.

di_20100420-094222-schaerbeek-josaphatpark-path.jpg

The Neptunium pool is nearby, for those prefer swimming.

di_20100419-104920-schaerbeek-neptunium.jpg

I had made train reservations for the Brussels-Frankfurt return, but booking seats would be easier at the station.  The walk to the train station took me by Place Colignon.

di_20100421-043335-schaerbeek-placecolignon.jpg

After passing through a series of residential streets, I came to Place Liedts, where there was a statue of Nasreddin Hoca on a donkey.  Nasreddin is a satirical figure in Turkish culture, and there’s a joke about telling him that he’s riding his donkey backwards.

di_20100421-043923-schaerbeek-placeliedts-statue.jpg

There’s a gate at one end of Rue de Brabant, a popular shopping street.

di_20100421-044243-schaerbeek-ruebrabant-gate.jpg

Once I found the wickets at the Brussels North station, reserving a seat was just a few euros.

di_20100421-045836-bruxellesnord-wickets.jpg

Coming out the other side of the station, there is a cluster of office towers that contrast with the low rise structures on the residential side.

di_20100421-050058-bruxellesnord-station-plaza-view.jpg

My return walk to Pierre’s apartment took me by the Halles de Schaerbeek, formerly a covered market, and now a European Cultural Centre with theatre and live performances.

di_20100421-051846-schaerbeek-rueroyalesaintemarie-hallesdeschaerbeek.jpg

The Église Saint-Servais was a good landmark to ensure that I wouldn’t get lost.

di_20100421-053123-schaerbeek-eglisesaintservais-louisbertrandlean.jpg

Downhill, the gardens in the boulevard at Avenue Louis Bertrand provide a grand view back to the church.

di_20100421-053000-schaerbeek-louis-bertrandlean-view-east.jpg

Early on the Friday morning, Pierre dropped me off at the Brussels North station.  I was only a few minutes on the platform, with the train arriving on time.

di_20100423-002536-bruxellesnord-platform.jpg

The trains running on time meant less than a 3-hour rapid route to Frankfurt airport, as compared to the 5 hours for the journey by the Rhine River.

di_20100423-003728-brussels-tracks-southeast.jpg

When I arrived at the Frankfurt airport, it turned out that my flight booking — involving a connection — was invalid.  The agent put me on standby for the direct flight to Toronto, and I was lucky enough to be boarded.  In the terminal of Frankfurt airport, there were remnants of the temporary accommodations given to stranded passengers, although it seemed as the emergency had mostly passed.

di_20100423-061854-fra-cots.jpg

My philosophy is not to get stressed out with travel reroutings.  I was fortunate to be well accommodated by EU travel regulations, and then through the kindness of a friend.

[Start a large-image lightbox screen show over this blog post (in a supported browser)]

[See the album of 16 Seeheim webphotos (with a slideshow option)]

[See the album of 44 Darmstadt-Ludgwigplatz webphotos (with a slideshow option)]

[See the album of 108 Dammstadt-TU-WeddingTower webphotos (with a slideshow option)]

[See the album of 23 FRA-Rhine-Koln webphotos (with a slideshow option)]

[See the album of 26 Brussels-GrandPlace webphotos (with a slideshow option)]

[See the album of 30 LePetitSablon-Magritte webphotos (with a slideshow option)]

[See the album of 66 Schaerbeek webphotos (with a slideshow option)]

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • RSS on Coevolving

  • RSS on Media Queue

    • What to Do When It’s Too Late | David L. Hawk | 2024
      David L. Hawk (American management theorist, architect, and systems scientist) has been hosting a weekly television show broadcast on Bold Brave Tv from the New York area on Wednesdays 6pm ET, remotely from his home in Iowa. Live, callers can join…Read more ›
    • 2021/06/17 Keekok Lee | Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 2
      Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
    • 2021/06/16 Keekok Lee | Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1
      The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
    • 2021/02/02 To Understand This Era, You Need to Think in Systems | Zeynep Tufekci with Ezra Klein | New York Times
      In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…Read more ›
    • 2019/04/09 Art as a discipline of inquiry | Tim Ingold (web video)
      In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…Read more ›
    • 2019/10/16 | “Bubbles, Golden Ages, and Tech Revolutions” | Carlota Perez
      How might our society show value for the long term, over the short term? Could we think about taxation over time, asks @carlotaprzperez in an interview: 92% for 1 day; 80% within 1 month; 50%-60% tax for 1 year; zero tax for 10 years.Read more ›
  • RSS on Ing Brief

    • Introduction, “Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2”, edited by F. E. Emery (1981)
      The selection of readings in the “Introduction” to Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2, Penguin (1981), edited by Fred E. Emery, reflects a turn from 1969 when a general systems theory was more fully entertained, towards an urgency towards changes in the world that were present in 1981. Systems thinking was again emphasized in contrast […]
    • Introduction, “Systems Thinking: Selected Readings”, edited by F. E. Emery (1969)
      In reviewing the original introduction for Systems Thinking: Selected Readings in the 1969 Penguin paperback, there’s a few threads that I only recognize, many years later. The tables of contents (disambiguating various editions) were previously listed as 1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings. — begin paste — Introduction In the selection of papers for this […]
    • Concerns with the way systems thinking is used in evaluation | Michael C. Jackson, OBE | 2023-02-27
      In a recording of the debate between Michael Quinn Patton and Michael C. Jackson on “Systems Concepts in Evaluation”, Patton referenced four concepts published in the “Principles for effective use of systems thinking in evaluation” (2018) by the Systems in Evaluation Topical Interest Group (SETIG) of the American Evaluation Society. The four concepts are: (i) […]
    • Quality Criteria for Action Research | Herr, Anderson (2015)
      How might the quality of an action research initiative be evaluated? — begin paste — We have linked our five validity criteria (outcome, process, democratic, catalytic, and dialogic) to the goals of action research. Most traditions of action research agree on the following goals: (a) the generation of new knowledge, (b) the achievement of action-oriented […]
    • Western Union and the canton of Ticino, Switzerland
      After 90 minutes on phone and online chat with WesternUnion, the existence of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland is denied, so I can’t send money from Canada. TicinoTurismo should be unhappy. The IT developers at Western Union should be dissatisfied that customer support agents aren’t sending them legitimate bug reports I initially tried the […]
    • Aesthetics | Encyclopaedia Britannica | 15 edition
      Stephen C. Pepper was a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, on the entry for Aesthetics.
  • Meta

  • Translate

  • Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
    Theme modified from DevDmBootstrap4 by Danny Machal