Quarter of the Holiday Weekends

Up until last weekend, we have had a grand total of 0 holiday weekends.

I'm starting to think the Netherlands is trying to compensate for that hell-ish-ness. 

So far we've had Kings Day (the weekend of the last blog post, 3 days), Liberation Day (this weekend, 4 days. This one celebrates the defeat of Germany during WWII, or so I've been told. Once again, I haven't bothered to follow up on it), and finally Ascension Day and Whit Monday (next weekend (aka birthday weekend), 5 days).

So in other words, I basically don't have classes on Mondays.

Which is cute, because if I'm not off traveling, I'm doing school. Actually, that's pretty much true regardless of the day of the week. This quarter involves a lot of time-intensive classes. And Matlab.

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Upon discovery of this new long weekend, Ev and I decided to get out of town and go somewhere new. For a change of pace, we opted to take a train to a cheap destination. So we ended up in Köln (aka Cologne), Germany. 

Köln is about 4 hours by train from Rotterdam and famous for a massive, ornate cathedral that dominates the center of town. My mind was blown by the details of the cathedral, and even more so by the elaborate lattice-work that makes up the towers. I've never seen anything like it. It's pretty incredible seeing sunlight streaming through the church towers.

The details of the stonework are mind blowing. Every surface of the cathedral has ornate, stunning carvings. It's hard to believe that this was constructed in the 1200's (well, I think it was finished in the 1700's, but that's because it kept being added to).

The stained glass is amazing. And, unsurprisingly, hard to get a good picture of.

After a very brief discussion, Ev and I decided that the Inca's have nothing on the stonework in Europe during the same time period. Although this is probably due to the availability of tools and a more developed, centralized economy (plus, you know, large sums of money or its equivalent). 

Saturday was spent walking along the Rhine. There is a lovely trail along the river that made us wish we had our running shoes. We meandered upstream for about 4 hours, marveling at the speed of the current and the sweet little stream barbs installed as erosion control measures.

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Engineering aside

Stream barbs are pretty cool.

Essentially, stream barbs are trapezoidal protrusions into a river channel at an upstream angle, usually constructed of big rock (rip rap) or some other hard material not prone to erosion. This introduces flow interruption and a hydraulic jump that causes eddies and sediment deposition on the leeward side of the barb. This results in slower flow along the section of bank and thus reduces erosion.

This is a major over-simplification, but works for the basic concept.

As I said, stream barbs are cool.

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And then we heard about the chocolate museum. And because we are basically children had have no self control, we went there.

In my defense, it was actually a museum (a much better call than the Nemo Science Center we went to in Amsterdam which was targeted at people 20 years younger), and had exhibits on the growing and exportation of cocoa beans, how they are processed, the steps for actually making chocolate, and packaging/marketing over the years. I have to give them props for placing a big emphasis on the conditions of the people who farm cocoa and the discussion and explanation of the various 'free trade' labels. My conclusion is, in short, buy free trade chocolate because it decreases the human-exploitation in chocolate production. 

They had a greenhouse simulating the ecosystem where cocoa trees grow. It was insanely hot and humid. Which is, I suppose, pretty accurate. 

And what chocolate museum would be complete without a chocolate fountain? That's right, NONE OF THEM! Just fyi, it was delicious. 

There was also some very cool exhibits about the evolution of the chocolate molds and how they are used.

Unsurprisingly, we walked out of the museum really wanting chocolate. Luckily, there is a chocolate cafe right next to the exit. It's almost like they know about people like me.

Again, and I really must emphasize this, I have the self control of a small child.

chocolate raspberry cake. It. Was. Awesome.

And then we went into the museum gift shop and proceeded to buy chocolate. 

As someone who really enjoys delicious chocolatey goodness, I've noticed a few things while living in Europe. Namely, each country seems to have a preferred type of chocolate. The easiest examples are the truffles. The chocolates we got in Lyon (France) were very rich, dark, and sometimes slightly creamy. Fruit flavors were infused or mixed in to the filling, which was primarily chocolate rather than a cream or fruit gel-y thing. The truffles from Köln were much more intensely fruity, with the predominant flavor often the fruit rather than the chocolate. Which was still pretty amazing. The German chocolate also seems to have a smoother texture, but I'll need to do more taste-tests to verify this. 

I like chocolate. Obviously.

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I should probably get back to work/school. This quarter's classes are all pretty interesting. In fact, they're the classes I've been looking forward to all year. Coupled Processes in the Subsurface (apparently the hardest class in the program), Soil Dynamics, Soil Structure Interaction, and Embankments and Geosynthetics.

Have I mentioned I have a grand total of no actual free time? The holiday weekend trips are probably not a good idea. 

Not like that's going to stop me.

Next weekend we go to Paris and I become another year older. Maybe we'll do something romantic. Or, more likely, slightly inappropriate.