Winter School

Late in posting once again!

Winter School was the first week in February.  It was basically an orientation program just for the CoMEM crew, which could've been great but was actually not very well organized.  Most of the people we talked to were caught off guard by questions we considered obvious things we'd ask.  However, we went on a really cool field trip to the Port of Rotterdam Extension (Masvlakte II) and the Maeslantkering (it's a storm-surge barrier).

Masvlakte II is the larges land reclamation project in the world.  They're dredging up sand from over 35,000 years ago and depositing it along the coast to extend the port.  They actually dredged up mamoth bones when collecting material for construction.  We drove out to the end of the thing (in a tractor!) and stood on a huge man-made beach in the snow, which is still crazy to me.

At Masvlakte II site with snow

Intense Dutch "How to wash your hands" poster in the bathroom at
one of the Visitors' Centers we visited.

We also went to Maeslantkering, which I've wanted to see for a long time.  It's like 2 big arches that swing together to close the waterway connecting the North Sea to Rotterdam.  It's closed during high storm events to keep the Port of Rotterdam from flooding.  Each gate structure is longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall.

Me with a model of the gates 

Me with one of the REAL gates!