Fantasporto marketing

Another great marketing by a Portuguese organization. This time it's one of my favorite yearly events, Fantasporto, with a great outdoor:

One has to love the way the "meme" of Facebook like button was transformed into a horror story. The tiles tell us of a mental institution, the severed hand reveals the horrors that took place. The writing in blood warns us of what is to become...

Of course this in only my very own interpretation. Others might find in their minds stories that are so much more interesting than mine.

Fantasporto is a fantasy, horror, fantastic film festival. If you are near Oporto (Porto in it's Portuguese name) do go and check it out.

Read more about Fantasporto at wikipedia.

A walk in Amsterdam

Do you know what is a good way to spend a rather warm afternoon when you live in Amsterdam or close by? To go and walk. See the people, the buildings, the street animation, the season lights and so many other things.

If you can't see the above slideshow then have a look at the corresponding Picassa Web Album: A walk in Amsterdam

I am rather shy when taking photos so you want see any photos of street performances. Also my phone still has the original firmware from HTC that simple sucks and doesn't let me take a photo without announcing it to the entire universe with a annoying noise.

It's also hard to get good pictures in the city. The sky is very bright but the brick colored building are quite dark in comparison. To try and minimize the loss of details I tried either to overexpose the photos (therefore the sky is a simple white blur) or use HDR Camera that takes three photos with different exposure and then combines them to produce one final High Dynamic Range image. Sometimes the results are really good. Other times, special when there are moving objects, you get some strange effects like a pair of body less walking legs.

First ever windsurf session in Netherlands

What a way to spend Saturday. Good food for lunch, and then... then the best afternoon possible: first time windsurfing in Netherlands. Yeah!

The spot was Muiderberg. A really nice spot in Ijmeer, with shallow water everywhere.I guess there must be a channel somewhere for the ships to sail, but everywhere I fell I could just stand.

The preparations:

Getting inside. close to the margin the water is so shallow that some waling is needed to get to slighter deeper waters.

At last starting to sail:

The sun come out sometimes and then it was beautiful.

I found something about the spot, at least with SW wind: there are wind channels. Close to the shore there is almost no wind, then maybe 50 m inside there is the first small wind channel (so 10 m wide). Some distance more and you get another wind channel, stronger and wider. Then when you're getting further away, more inside the sea, the wind becomes more regular and stronger.

At last my toes started to freeze and I decided to call it a day.

Look how far from the shore I am and how shallow it is;

Stoked, happy tiered, and not looking forward to packing...

Some tips:

• find some good warm and comfortable neoprene boots. The suit was super warm and even my hands, without any gloves, were warm. The feet on the other hand were constantly immersed in the 6°C water. The neoprene shoes are thin and old. Water comes inside as it pleases. After one 30 minutes my toes started to hurt. Then they stopped hurting and I decided it was time to leave;
• always check you have everything before leaving the house. I forgot a towel. Could have been something more essential;
• it's stupid to carry all my gear at once. It's heavy and unpractical. Takes the stuff separate and when getting into the spot choose what's needed and take only that;

Naarden

A really nice place to visit, Naarden, is a old fortress city that has kept a feeling of pass centuries alive.

St Vitos Church was closed so I could not have a look inside but I couldn't stop noticing the way the facade was build so that one feels small and insignificant. The very tall and thin fake windows provide you with a perspective that is well played to make the building look a lot taller than it actually is. It does work. When you look up into the facade you have a feeling that the church grew in height, that it's not the same building you saw from far.

To me it looked as if it was about to lift off and head into the sky...

Around the church there was a nice open space surrounded what I'm starting to think of as typical dutch houses. It looks very homely.

The city-hall is a simple but beautiful building and the sunset light were giving it a even more orange tint than usually. I say simple as I remember the Munich's city-hall with its intricate sculpted facade and, the last time I visit Munich, with a dark stain all over the stone, giving it a Gothic feel that was closer to the Emo style than what is comfortable for me.

The last photo I took was from a bronze statue of some saint or important cleric (which church it was I don't really know). It was a ominous figure. A thin beak like nose hanged on a dry face, a face with a expression of mild interest but disregard, and the hands raised at chest height and held apart, as if to hold our own necks and take us into a world of quick asphyxiation.

A really didn't like that statue...

Guys are windsurfing! yeah

Yesterday, Saturday 24th, I went to Muiderberg to check the veracity of some information I got in the beginning of Autumn that the water from the Ijmeer is pumped out into the North Sea and the water level drop something like one meter. Well.. as far as I can tell the water level is even higher than when I saw it last. So unless something will change in the next months of winter I guess that information was just bogus.

Surprise! There are people windsurfing in the Ijmeer now! Three windsurfers actually. That means that I'll be joining them really soon. Oh yeah! That made me very very happy. I miss being in the water.

So today, December 25th, will be the first day that I go and windsurf in Netherlands. Not in the North Sea but in the Ijmeer. To go in the North Sea I must convince some more people to join in. It's safer that way.

Windguru forecast looks not that bad. Some wind (around 17 knots) with gust (up to 26 knots) and about 9°C for air temperature. I guess the water is going to be more or less at the same temperature as the air, as it's a very shallow place. Yesterday we actually saw one of the windsurfers fall and simple stand with water by his waist.

Nine decrees is never the less a bit on the getting cold side of comfortable so I'll take my 6mm wetsuit with a hood. I look like a seal when I'm wearing it but it's really warm. I still don't have neoprene gloves but I'm guessing that today it'll be alright - it's not that cold and if the rest of the body is warm the hands also be warm.

My favorite car in Netherlands until now (apart from mine):

Small and filled with goodies. The driver almost has no space left for himself. Notice the stripes used to hold the board to the roof. It's great!

Tuesday Market

Going to the market here the Weesp is a nice experience. Lot's of goodies, really nice vegetables with a lower price, different smells (can't say I like the fishy ones) and when you're lucky you get a bit of blue sky.

Of course that being in Netherlands blue sky is just something that happens between two showers.. and when you're caught off guard anything will do the trick to keep your head out of the rain.

Dutch seaside: Zandvoort

Today, and at last, we went and have a look into the Dutch seaside. No all of it, obviously, but the beach at Zandvoort.

The weather was nice enough. Some clouds, even some threat of showers, with the thermometer showing 2 as it's favorite number.

So we took off early in the morning (around 10:00) and the trip from Wesp to Zandvoort took around forty minutes. By the way, Dutch motorways are great. Not only is the tarmac in great condition as they seam to be properly design to let the traffic flow as fast as possible, minimizing congestion.

When we arrived to the seaside there was a breeze that was probably making the wind child being felt. In the water some surfers and some kiters enjoyed the conditions that, to me, didn't look like much - wind was onshore at about 15 knots and the waves looked all broken - mostly foam floating everywhere. Anyway: being inside is always better than being outside looking at those inside enjoying themselves. Maybe next time I'll bring my gear and try to navigate the north sea...

I enjoyed the public art offerings available at Zandvoort, I even made a new friend. I call him Mr. Shorty.

The sand sculptures were also nice. I wonder what do they use to keep the its cohesion for so long..

The spot looked like a really nice place, although I would bet than in Summer lots of Dutch think the same, crowding the roads, bars, restaurants and beach. Today at least it was nice to go for a walk there, feel the cold wind and the sun fighting for see which one was felt the most. I can easily imagine myself setting my sail from that beach if the wind is a bit stronger on more sideshore. The waves weren't bit (0.5m to 1m high I would guess) but they were enough to make it trickier to get out while fighting to go upwind.

As usually when there are kites flying there are kites falling. The white and red kite rider lost control and the onshore wind pushed the kite flying upside down until it was over the road. I could not see the kiter by then but with a lurch the kite returned to it's normal position, gain power and come down with increasing speed. That might have done some harm to a bystander and I do hope the kiter is fine and will learn to use the chicken loop soon.

We on the other hand just went to one of the beach bars and enjoyed some hot beverages: a hot chocolate and a capucino.

The bar was really comfortable without being too cozy. A fire helped to provide a nice and relaxing atmosphere. A nice place where to go and enjoy a afternoon.

Then it was time to head back and get lunch ready. On the way back I noticed that there was the beginning of a traffic jam on the way to Zandvoort. I guess Dutch people are just like Portuguese and enjoy staying in bed on Sundays mornings...

First Netherland winter bicycle ride

Today the sun decided to show up during a couple of hours. It was a weather that could not be wasted so we took our bicycles for a ride.

Even with the sun shining it was chilly. Not actually cold, just not very warm (around 4°C). Some polar clothes and sailing jackets to cut the wind were more than enough to keep us warm (maybe even too much actually).

Some showers also showed up so the sailing jacked were a good thing to have with us.

The previous time I was here in Muiden I was told that the water would be pumped out into the sea during winter time, so I wasn't expecting to see so much water there. It it keeps like this I'm going to have really close to home a wonderful flat water playground for my freestyle practice.

One of the things that I am loving in Netherlands is the close relation the people have with water. I understand that its a natural requirement to survive here but the dutch show a real passion for the sea and naval stuff. I can relate to that.

Look at that barque. She looks wonderful. I took some more photos of her (here and here, the latter without effects).

I can imagine this with the full rig set, sailing out into the Ijmeer, Markermeer, Ijsselmeer and so on. What a nice trip it would be. By the look of the barque you can say that she has a owner that really cares for her and keeps her fit.

This talking about trip remind me of the Stad Amsterdam, a tall ship that provides charter services, meaning that one can go on board and participate on a tall ship life during a voyage. That is definitely something I will have to try some day.

Road trip Condeixa (PT) to Weesp (NL): done

That's it. It's done.

I almost have no pictures from the trip. I was focused on driving and most of the trip was under rather bad light (cloudy night). Sun rise was when approaching Paris from Bordeaux direction. Paris was a nightmare (four hours to do some 20 kilometers), mostly because french people can't drive but also can't design roads (I'll write more about this on a latter post).

It was nevertheless a nice trip. Good music and some audio books made time fly. The car, despite being 11 years old, almost 250 thousand kilometers and carrying a ton of stuff behaved wonderfully. There is something so simple about just driving, going with the flow of traffic, letting your thoughts wonder. It's a nice experience. Hopefully I'll drive around a bit more (while we're still free to do so).

Even Paris was interesting, despite the exasperation that it causes while driving. I could see the Eiffel tower, the Notre Dame Cathedral and some other tall landmarks. It's wasn't a complete lost of time.

Uahu! This house in Weesp is from 1951 and it looks more cozy and comfortable than lots of the new houses being built in Portugal (where it seams size is more important than comfort).

I would really like to see the inside of this houses. The glass windows are a invitation to have a look but I feel that that would not be well received (no peeking inside peoples houses).

Anyway, after half a day rest I must get back to working on the assignments. When that is done, and only then, will I have time to go and explore this place. It seams that it's famous for it's chocolate and beer. I love both.

Getting ready

At last I have a bag for my windsurf board. Also today the winter tires should be mounted on my car. These were two of the things that are out of my own personal control that made me delay my departure.

As it is I shall soon start the biggest car drive I have ever done. More than two thousands kilometers to get to my new home. What an adventure.

There are still some tasks to be done before starting the ignition such as:

• prepare the route, with some annotations of places to rest;
• pack everything inside the car;
• buy backup parts for the car (light bulbs, tire repair, etc);
• buy supplies for the trip.

The bag is a simple gray bag, Mytic Boarding (warning: Flash sites), 5 cm wider that what was needed for my board but it was impossible to get the correct dimensions in short notice.

For tires I went with the Pirelli Winter Snow Control II. At 75% of the price of the Michellin Alpine tires it was an obvious choice.