OK, it took a long time, but now I know pictures are not allowed to exceed the 1024x768 format. So, some pictures about paper reading and dining. Unfortunately I had to miss the last part. As to the importance of Eindhoven / Nuenen, I thought 150 years ago Eindhoven was a farmer village with a market, whereas Nuenen was a little bit more fashionable, with even a painter.

The pictures need to be approved by somebody across the pond who has yet to wake up, but Picasa is always a good alternate. As to the next PW, I was thinking Saturday, August 4 to give Marion a chance to be there, even though many people will still be on vacation at that time.

Henk: I have also uploaded some pictures and I don't see them yet. I have tried twice, third time lucky?
Marion: It seems like we would be able to chat at the powwow in The Hague. Anyway if you ever come to Amsterdam and feel like a coffee with me (I am more a tea person) we could also do that.

@ Marijke: thanks for taking the initiative, I will try to be there at either Scheveningen or Den Haag. We are hoping to take a short holiday (anyone know that word?) in July, so August would be better for me, but I will try to fit in with your plans. Keep us posted.

@ Henk: not quite sure what you meant by '150 years ago' and 'was more important...'. 150 years ago all Nuenen had was Vincent van Gogh, now it has Interlex Language Services. I should be careful though, the village kicked Vincent out after 2 years... I may end up in Arles, wouldn't that be a hardship!

Talking about Eindhoven, well the only things I know is that 150 years ago Nuenen was more important than Eindhoven. In about 1890 however, Eindhoven saw the light and started bulbing. Now it\'s the fifth city of The Netherlands and famous for electronics, trucks and technical university, among others. And yes, in 1944 everybody somehow thought it was an important junction on the road Antwerpen-Berlin, so everybody was bombing it. Incidently I found a great collection of pictures:
http://members.chello.nl/~p.vandewal/bevrijding01.htm

Marion, many thanks for organizing this and willing to extend it for the purposes of me and other people who have to travel a long distance. Now it really was worth the travel efforts, although my lecture was very ill prepared and I couldn\'t use my beamer. Actuallu it turned more or less into an op-en discussion about (history of) languages.

Third time lucky
I feel sorry for missing the most relaxing part at the end, but I had to go at 8 pm. Joining Herman and Titia in the ramble coalition, I incidentally boarded the train to Rotterdam and didn\'t arrive home before 3 am.

Thank you Albert for all the info. It's nice to meet a Dutchman who still feels proud about his country and defends it at all costs. It is also nice to know that not all Dutch are from Amsterdam (it seemed so to me when I was living in Seville, I never met a Dutch who wasn't from Amsterdam).
Anyway it has been fun reading the chain of reactions about my question whether there was something interesting in Eindhoven.
Don't you people hate to write in this small box?

Thank you for your positive comments. It has never happened to me before that I blush with every other email I get! It was a pleasure to organise this powwow and I'm glad everything worked out so well. Sorry for the people who had troubles getting home – Titia, what a pity about your car.

@ Elena: Nigel and Albert have probably said most of what there is to say about Eindhoven (well, don't forget Philips and PSV, of course, but I'm not entirely sure the proximity to Nuenen is such an important factor...). I'm afraid it's not as interesting a city as Amsterdam – but still very nice. Too bad we didn't manage to chat for longer. I'll let you know if I'm in Amsterdam one day, it would be nice to meet for a coffee. By the way, the picture of the bill was Henk's initiative, kudos to him.

@ Marijke: A powwow in Den Haag or Scheveningen sounds great. I love the beach, but would also like to see Den Haag, so I'd be happy with either location. I'll be in the Netherlands again from 17 July to 9 August and will certainly try to come if your powwow is during that time.

I hope to see you all again soon.

Marion

OK, Albert - you put me in my place!
Eindhoven is certainly very convenient. It has all the facilities you could want, plus good transport links (but don't say that to Herman). But does that make it a 'nice' place?
The biggest problem is that before WW2 there was nothing here except a few small factories where a certain gentleman made light bulbs. And most of what was here was flattened by (I am embarrassed to say) the British air force on their way somewhere else....
So nothing much in Eindhoven is very old.
It is also the home of a technical university, so its student population is nothing like as creative as of Leiden, Maastricht etc.
Convenient it is, attractive it is not - at least in my eyes. Give me Den Bosch any day...
But it's years since I went into The Trafalgar and the food looked excellent. I may give Eindhoven another chance....

to: Elena
As a proud Rotterdammer I can definitely say something nice about Eindhoven: the pedestrian only inner city is a brilliant stroke of urban planning, where shopping and other fun activities can thrive unhindered by car traffic. With this renovated precinct a certain authentic atmosphere has been restored, which also includes a magnificent and modern shopping mall "Heuvel Galerie". I am sure that locals know even more interesting aspects of Eindhoven.

I also really enjoyed this powwow, it was very nice and everything was perfectly well organised! Thank you very much Marion !

succeeded, of course (shame..)

You are right, Nigel, maybe I should have shouted... but the first minutes in my 'dead' car I was busy trying to start and phoning my parents, and then I figured you would probably have left already, so I waited for my father to come to help. I tried once -some time ago- to start while others were pushing the car, and it did not work then... I suppose we would not have succeded. The attempt to start with starting cables connected to the battery in my father's car did not work either, it did not provide enough power. I think I would have had to wait for the Wegenwacht anyway, but I would certainly have enjoyed waiting together - had I known you were still there..
I will probably come by train to Scheveningen/Den Haag. ;)
Best,
Titia

Both the inner city and Scheveningen sound good to me. I have wonderful memories of the previous powwow in Scheveningen and walking along the beach.. but the inner city is also interesting. The later the better for me, I might still be in France on holidays in July..

After noticing a small typing error 'later July', which I cannot seem to edit, I am using this opportunity to let you know that there are parking garages closeby in The Hague and Scheveningen, the restaurant is in walking distance (2 tramstops) is from CS. I will explain you all about Dutch politics, the statues and buildings we will come across and will walk the distance to see what is feasible and how long it takes before settling in at Garuda.

I can't really add anything that hasn't already been said......Kudos to Marion for organising a powwow outside of her country of residence! Great initiative and I had a super time - the Pub was excellent, perfect service, great food and all for a decent price (an increasing rarity in Holland these days unfortunately, on all three counts!). Marijke, I really like your ideas on a powwow in Den Haag/S'ingen - both ideas sound great to me! Though I must say I've never really done a tour in the 'inner city', so that appeals more if I have to choose......
Great to see/meet everyone and hope to see you all again before too long! Thanks again Marion, the perfect hostess!!!
Allison

After this successful PW in Eindhoven, thanks to Marion, I am proposing to hold one in The Hague or Scheveningen on a weekend in later July, early August. I hate to give too many choices, but right now we are, of course, flexible. Because the weather is often hot and muggy during that time of the year, I am proposing either the beach at Scheveningen, which is just a tram ride away from Central Station, or if you positively want to go to The Hague, we can elect do that. There is a great Indonesian Retaurant, Garuda, where we could reserve a whole floor to ourselves, preceded by a historical walk in old The Hague with Paranorama Mesdag and the Parliament Buildings. Any takers? Please let me know your preferences in the next week before advertising it on ProZ.

Hi Marion,

Can I add my thanks to the torrent of praise that is already coming in today... that must be a sure sign of an enjoyable day/evening. I'm only sorry that I couldn't stay longer to enjoy it even more and maybe meet some of the people at the other end of the table...

Some reactions: Herman - you have now discovered the truth about living south of the rivers, they make it very easy to get IN to Brabant, but very difficult to get OUT - because so few people want to...

Titia - why didn't you shout louder! We parted company at Heeze station and it took me some time to swim to the other side (the tunnel was flooded) so I could have pushed while you steered (or better still, you pushed while I steered).

Elena - you want to know what is nice about Eindhoven... Well apart from being very close to Nuenen, Ryanair can fly you out of Eindhoven very cheaply to much nicer places.....

Looking forward to the next one....

Thank you, Marion, for a lovely dinner. Very well organized (I am impressed with the picture of the bill!!). I have uploaded a few low quality pictures. It was my first time in Eindhoven, i wonder, can anyone out there tell me something nice about the city?

Hi all,

Just as Herman said: it was a very good powwow in all aspects. Thanks to all - and especially to Marion and Henk - for a great afternoon!

Herman, you were not the only one with bad luck afterwards: When I came back at my car, it appeared that I had forgotten to turn off the lights - the alarm had not worked - so the battery was empty and I had to wait for the Wegenwacht to help me start the car.. in the end I stayed with my parents for the night and returned home on Sunday morning, which was not so bad after all!

Best wishes to all, hope to see many of you at the next powwow!
Titia

Sorry you had such a long drive home, Herman – and what’s more, sorry for always misspelling your name as “Hermann”! I corrected the group picture immediately, it’s now also available on picasa. So is our bill from Trafalgar, by the way. You might have already seen it when looking at the photos. If not, here is the direct link to it: http://tinyurl.com/2cpqzv

I will write the powwow report soon, but first I have to meet a few deadlines…

Enjoy the start of the work week,
Marion

Hi all,
This was a very good powwow thanks to all participants.
And especially thanks to Marion: well-organised, good venues and good food! War schön Dich mal wieder zu sehen.

And what's life without unexpected surprises? Due to A2 roadworks we had a 70 km detour on our way back home, so now we know all about the province of Brabant by night. Dropped Marijke and Bob at the car park at 2:00am and got home at 2:15am

See you!
Herman

Marion, thank you very much for organizing this powow in Eindhoven. It was great to meet you and all of the other international colleagues!

Also, thank you for posting the fotos online. I've already downloaded my favorites, as I guess a lot of us will do.

I hope to see you again, maybe in Eindhoven.

Best regards,

Mariëtte

Hello everyone,

Thanks again for coming to the powwow yesterday. I had a really good time and hope you also enjoyed it as much as I did.
I've uploaded a few pictures to this powwow page, but there is still room for more, so please feel free to add some of your own as well. You can view the rest of my photos here: http://picasaweb.google.at/MarionLurf/EindhovenPowwow

See you at the next powwow!
Marion