WCTCNetherlands_Exchange: Monday, May 18, 2015 Noorderpoort College

Monday, May 18, 2015

We left on bikes, (through bike rush hour) for the college at 8:15 AM and were there within 10 minutes. You have to display courage and confidence when riding bikes as they are everywhere and going all directions. Jaap has given me good directions on who has the right-away and the painted signs on the roads, so all has been good. It is also good to follow someone who really knows what they are doing, so you don't cause a crash.

We had a tour of Jaap's building, then lunch with the Executive Cabinet, and then a walking tour with a guide of downtown Groningen. The city was really a gathering place in 500 AD, but officially started as a city in 1040 AD. Some really cool buildings from the 1700, some history of what was destroyed by the Nazi's when they occupied and then were thrown out by the Canadians. We also went into one of the University buildings. Then a quick drink, home for tea, then to the grocery store, dinner, and bed.

Here are a handful of the 100s of pictures I took yesterday:

This is Jaap's office in the administrative building. All the buildings for the college shut down for the summer except this one. But not all staff are required to come in or check in. But most will check email through out the summer.

Coffee and tea is provided through individual serving machines.

This is the cafeteria for the building. There are around 100 people in the building.

This is Rob the president, Minke the international coordinator, and Wim, the vice-president at Noorderpoort. About 1,400 employees and 15,000 students. This was at our lunch with them.

We rode our bikes downtown and under the library is a free place to store your bike. A double-decker storage system is required.

And there is a bike repair shop in the facility.

You can barely see the ramps on the sides of the stairs, to walk your bike up or down. And the stairs are not very steep.

This was our tour guide Pauline! And yes, we have a film crew following us around as Nooderpoort wants to make a movie of the visit.

You cannot see, but this building says 1703.

This is the Martini Tower, which we will climb another day when the visibility is better. You cannot see, but the buildings to the right and left of the tower were destroyed during the liberation from the Nazi's by the Canadians and have all been replaced with modern ones. The building with the sign that starts (Hooghou...) is built on the place that had been taken over by the Nazi's and used as a jail and interrogation place, so had many bad feelings about it. Even after the building was down, no one wanted to build there. Finally, years later, as student union said they would. This is right across from the city hall on the MAIN square of the city, so the student union would never be able to afford that kind of property today.

Very cool bench from the old, old, city hall.

The exchange group on the bench: Alicia, Karen (with a hard a, like 'car'), MDW, Daniel, Will, and Marty. Karen is from Estonia and the rest of us are from the US.