We visited Kasteel De Haar with Meetin Amsterdam, after a short stop-over in Utrecht. Buses to the castle go every two hours, which gave us enough time to find a nice spot for lunch. Despite our worries, the weather played along nicely (photo proof below).

The tour guide in the castle was quite... resolute. She started with a list of things we are not allowed to do (breathing was sort of okay, thankfully), and constantly shushed people around. The location, however, is very pictoresque:

The castle also gave me a good excuse to fool around with the camera again. I am mostly happy with the picture composition of the castle shots. However, most pictures turned out to be overexposed. Next time, I will keep an eye on the histograms.

Irina and I visited De Hortus, a botanical garden in Amsterdam. Pictures abound. Here's a selection:

Did you know?

• The Big Apple prefers Apple (and so does Irina)! Every other person you see on the streets or in the subway is wearing the iPod's trademark white ear buds (and if not, then perhaps because they exchanged them for Bose TriPort in-ear headphones which are advertised all over NYC.)
• Otherwise, if you are not carrying a takeaway coffee in one hand and pressing a cell phone against your ear with the other, you are likely a tourist.
• New Yorkers repair their streets with duct tape?! (Photo proof unfortunately lost.)
• New Yorkers generally seem to prefer to have too much, and then some more (example courtesy of Katz's Deli).
• In slightly related news, the number of obese people (and the average age) in New York sharply increases near the Newark Airport (EWR) gate where people are embarking to Fort Lauderdale, FL. In New York City itself I have hardly seen any, and those few looked like tourists.
• Celebrities we ran into: Two NBA players (gosh, I am not a dwarf but BOY ARE THEY TALL!), Charlie Rose, Barbara Walters, Russel Simmons, and some more who looked all important and I had no clue who they were.

Oh and for a relaxing NYC experience, Yours Truly recommends:

• Having a stroll through Central Park, preferably during the early evening on a day with nice weather.
• Playing chess in the Village Chess Shop (Greenwich Village).
• Stumbling upon some of the oddball art galleries and exhibitions in SoHo.
• Eating out at a random place after walking through East Village and Lower East Side.
• Raking a (mini) Karesansui in one of Chinatown's many shops. If you do it with enough determination, be prepared that other customers will be starting a conversation with you... ;)
• Buying tickets for an (off-)Broadway show from tkts (avoid the waiting queues at Times Square by going to the lesser known office in Lower Manhattan), for example I Love You, You're Perfect... Now Change! (which is hilarious!) Remember to check about shows you might like beforehand. The ticket office provides no information at all, just titles.

p.s.: Many thanks to Greta for hosting us in Manhattan despite PLDI deadline pressure!

Some pictures have been rotting way too long on my cell phone. Unfortunately, I forgot almost all details about them. Here goes.

PainStation

An electrifying game console, literally. Volker and I played it at an exhibition in Aachen earlier this year. The whipping was most unpleasant. Remaining thumbs up for most violent game of Pong ever played.

Daithi Rua

Cool Irish music, that time in the John Mullins Irish pub in Maastricht; highly recommended! We had some time to chat with David and company before the gig, and watched him eat enormous amounts of fries, too.

Art and Operating Systems

Is it just me or do others also see a certain similarity to Plan9's Glenda in the following picture? Surely this cannot be coincidence!

I forgot in which exhibition I saw it (August-Macke-Haus, Bonn?). I do remember, however, the blank stares from my company when I tried to explain why I found this picture interesting. Oh well...

Yesterday, the Staff Club of CWI organized the annual Indoor Kart Racing Event at Race Planet Amsterdam.

I have never been to kart-racing before, but it turned out to be great fun! We did two heats. In the second I decided to forget that my vehicle has brakes, and unsurprisingly I did considerably better.

I will definitely attend the next race.