Being in Spain for the first time, attending the EIBIR winter school, I decided to explore Barcelona a little before flying back to The Netherlands. One day is way too short, but I had to be back in Holland to welcome my girlfriend coming from Norway. One day is short, but still I have been able to see some of the typical touristic attractions Barcelona has to offer. Click on the read more link to see some photo’s, and hopefully I’m going back to Spain with my girlfriend in the summer.
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I’ve been to the EIBIR Winter School that took place from January 17 – 22, 2010 in Viladrau, Spain to learn a lot about biomedical imaging research focused on the two leading causes of death worldwide: cardiovascular and oncologic diseases. During the five days, there were a lot of intense lectures hosted in the Hostal de la Gloria, Viladrau. To break the week, we also had a very nice excursion: a walk through the forest with a guide that took us to the house of one of the most famous bandits: Serrallonga. After the heavy week of studying, we finished our stay in Viladrau and went up into the Turo de l’Home ( ‘mountain man’ in Castilian), which is the highest mountain in the Montseny massif with a height of 1712 meters.
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I went to Norway to experience my first Norwegian Christmas with my girlfriend. The hectic Christmas shopping spree is about the same as here. Also decorating a Christmas tree is common here. But on the country side there are some other special tradions, like drinking special Christmas beer “Juleøl”; traditional pork dishes as “ribbe” are made; an enormous amount of small cakes (rosettes, christmas cookies, etc), and “julekake”, a Christmas bread filled with raisins. Keeping the fireplace burning. On Christmas Eve we have put a bowl of porridge in the barn for the “nisse”, a mythical creature that protects the farm. Also mounting the “julenek” on poles for the birds (a stalk of oats, corn) is a tradition that takes place on Christmas Eve. And on the first Christmas day it’s quite common to not sit at home, but go outside skiing which I did too with my new skies I got from my parents in law.
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On the 19th August 2009, me and my girlfriend got engaged in Norway! To celebrate it we had a nice dinner with my girlfriend’s parents at Tautra Island at Frosta. The next day we had a beautiful trip to Røros, an old mining town in the east of Norway not far from the Swedish border. It has lots of beautiful wooden houses, cozy shops, a nice atmosphere, and a museum about Røros coppermine. The place we stayed at was called Erzscheidergården where every room is uniquely decorated. I can recommend it to everyone. Continue reading

Visiting Norway again, to have my first real sheep gathering experience. With a large flock of sheep spread out over the mountains, we went out and search for them. Armed with border collies, we gather the sheep and push them to the large flock and move them back to the cottage. First day was a very rainy day, difficult to see anything moving, but we were able to gather more sheep than expected. The second day was much better weather – and was a lot more nice to walk. We captured a lot of sheep. The next day it would rain again, and all the gathered sheep so far (around 200) were moved down to the parking lot and sorted out to their respective owners. All in all it was a great experience. Continue reading

Back again from an exciting 3 weeks vacation to Norway, with my first real mountain trip experience. And if that wasn’t enough, me and my girlfriend made a nice road trip from Verdal to Lofoten, one of Norway’s most beautiful areas. And aside I’ve been to the Vømmølfestival, a festivity that has some similarities with Limburg’s carnaval.

See here for the photo’s

See here for the travel report from day to day.

After my exciting visit to beautiful Norway, my girlfriend came to visit me in Germany and meet my parents, my sister, relatives and friends for the first time and got to experience my home country, The Netherlands. It was wonderful and we spent a lot of time alone and with my family, the two weeks were over before we knew it. Thankfully, in 3 weeks I will be in Norway again to visit my girlfriend and her family again!

See here for the photo’s  (updated again)

For the third time I went to the SPIE Medical Imaging conference, being held this year in Orlando, Florida. The meeting was from 6-12 February 2009 at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista. It is one of my favourite conferences, as it has an overall informal character, which enables one to network and share ideas among colleagues in the field. This year I’ve presented my work at a different session than usually, in the Image Perception, Observer Performance and Technology Assessment session. It was a very sunny week, and we had also opportunities to relax and enjoy the nice weather and food.
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