Blog Numero Dos-The Hortus Botanicus

Hello!
While the Royal Delft Blue Porcelain factory and the walking tour of Delft were pretty awesome, I would have to say that the Hortus Botanicus was my favorite site of the past few days.  My Dad is a logger and skidder and he has to know the types of trees that are good for firewood, building with, etc.  He's told me a lot about the North American trees like pine, ash, oak, etc. but it was nice to hear about the other various trees around the world.  I had never seen a yew tree before, but I knew that they were used to build bows.  I didn't know that they were really poisonous to us, cows, horses, and I thought that it was great that our tour guide included that nugget of information.  I also loved the butterfly house.  There were several types of different butterflies and they were all very beautiful.  Its amazing how the greenhouses that the gardens have that contain these butterflies and varying types of plants are adapted to suit each of the climates that they come from.  All in all it was a great experience.

Cheers!

Blog Post #2: Hortus Botanicus

From the last couple of days, I really enjoyed the Hortus Botanicus. Asker was a very knowledgable guide and mentioned a slew of interesting stories behind the plant species and the plants themselves at the garden themselves. Him explaining these details and stories really emphasized what Tieman talked about at the Boorhavve Museuem-- that the stories behind museum artifacts are as important or more than the artifacts themselves. Social context is what allows history to live on in the present. Plants are also a way of preserving history. The living fossil is an obvious example of this. Additionally, I thought that the Botanical Garden offered a fresh site-- different from the typical museum experience. Especially in Amsterdam, going to a garden was a nice escape from the city pace. My favorite plant story was about the trees growing sideways. It was a whimsical story that proved even smart, educated people can make silly mistakes when trying to solve a problem-- and in doing so, can cause another problem. This is an important lesson to remember in engineering and in other fields as well.

The Churches

Out of the last couple of days, I had the best time at the new church and climbing that tower. It is so amazing how that building was constructed hundreds of years ago and how beautiful it still is today. To me, it is amazing that we all stood exactly where Simon Stevin stood and performed his studies on gravity and falling objects. That church holds so much knowledge and it is incredible. The floor of the other church is also really neat with all of the tombstone type tiles--and to just think about what great scholars lay right beneath our feet is so amazing and also a little creepy. I also think the contrast between Leeuwenhoek's and Vermeer's burial markers is interesting, as well. Some of those markers/tombstones are so ornate and some really aren't. All in all, that church is a magnificent piece of arcitecture. 

Utrecht University Museum - Utrecht

Dear blog,

I enjoyed going to the Utrecht university museum. We were able to go through their cabinet of curiosity and see some very interesting things that you wouldn't normally see in museums. Our tour guide showed us some cool artifacts as well as multiple skeletons of people that had different bone and growth disorders. I also enjoyed going through their garden behind the museum and seeing the different types of plants they had on display. It was a nice museum that had a wide array of items ranging from technological devices, bones, gardens, and several other unique specimens. Overall I enjoyed my experience at the museum and would happily go back for another tour.

Jake Wetsch

Hello fellow travelers,
I enjoyed the botanical gardens Amsterdam. I thought our tour guild even though he was a little quiet was very funny in his presentation. It was kind of interesting to see plants from different places around the world. Everything from a redwood from the United States and a living fossil from Australia. I think what made this destination fun though was the tour guide, with his knowledge and personal stories of bad coworkers named Bob. My favorite plant was the thicker shorter palm trees in the first green house we went into because of how old and slow they grow.

Until next time fellow travelers

Blog Post #2- Walking Tour of Delft

Travelers,

 During our time in Delft, I felt as though I was walking through time. Seeing the place where Vermeer and Leeuwenhoek lived most of their lives was truly extraordinary. I visualized what the town square most have been like during the 1600's. The different clothing, shops and maybe a few livestock. Despite the sites of Vermeer being completely gone or rebuilt, the city was well preserved. It was somewhat upsetting to see Leeuwenhoek's home as a dentristy. I feel that it deserved to be a site to visit like the Anne Frank House, so his life and work could be celebrated. I would have loved to walk into the home of a biological and optic pioneer. However, walking the same streets was just as fulfilling. In addition, as said in the Eye of the Beholder,  Vermeer and Leeuwenhoek lived within a three minute walk of eachother. I thought perhaps the author was exaggerating, but clearly she was not. Therefore, to conclude that Vermeer and Leeuwenhoek were not even aquaintances is an unlogical conclusion. While living in a small area for many years, you are likely to run into just about everyone in that space. Although this does not prove a friendship, it is a plausable fact that Vermeer and Leeuwenhoek must have met at some point in time. If this would have had an affect on the quality of their work, or was a historical significance, I cannot say. 

Sincerely,

A.W

Blog Post #2

Hello again fellow students and travelers!
These past couple of days we've witnessed quite a bit of history. On one of those days we traveled to Delft, in which we toured the Porcelain factory as well as key landmarks throughout the city. The Porcelain factory was cool, but I would have to say I was most influenced by the landmarks. It was really cool to go from reading about Leeuwenhoek and Vermeer to seeing where they lived as well as getting a greater glimpse of what their lives were like. (And our guide was awesome as I'm sure we can all agree.) Of course we could only imagine what their houses looked like since one was a vacant clothing store and the other was removed to create a fire lane, but we can at least put some of the pieces from Eye of the Beholder together by walking the same sidewalks as two great men once did. Now I really do know they lived only a short distance apart from seeing it with my own eyes and walking the distance with my own feet. In such a small world I have to believe the two men knew each other and became great friends. Another part of the walking tour was the church where Vermeer was buried, or so it says. A few of us actually noticed he may not be buried under the small rectangle anymore, but perhaps under the more detailed slab or maybe somewhere else entirely. We may never know where his body lies, but at least we have his microscopes and his wisdom.
That's all for now! Until next time... B