Antwerp getting close.. who'll be there?

[softwarepearls_com]

Devoxx (ex JavaPolis) is just 3 weeks away. I wonder if any cljp
regulars will attend? Apparently groups can self-organize via the
Devoxx site to arrange lunch/evening get togethers.. any interest?

(disclaimer: I have no links to the organizers)

 

[Roedy Green]

Devoxx (ex JavaPolis) is just 3 weeks away. I wonder if any cljp
regulars will attend? Apparently groups can self-organize via the
Devoxx site to arrange lunch/evening get togethers.. any interest?

The problem with such a conference is the temptation to play tourist
would be overwhelming. In Canada, anything over 80 years is a heritage
building. Over there 1600 is commonplace.

It is such a clean beautiful country, with all kinds of modern green
technology to delight as well. Sometimes it feels like being on the
set of some futuristic movie. I had an all too short trip there in
2000, and I still think about it almost every day.

--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
http://mindprod.com
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

 

[Tom Anderson]

The problem with such a conference is the temptation to play tourist
would be overwhelming. In Canada, anything over 80 years is a heritage
building. Over there 1600 is commonplace.

Not so much in Antwerp, due to the combined efforts of the RAF and the
Luftwaffe (each in the pay of the English and German tourism agencies,
respectively).

Even outside Antwerp, and even in less-bombed parts of Europe, buildings
dating from the fifth century are fairly rare. You've got the products of
the classical civilisations, often far more than 1600 years old, but the
fifth century is smack bang in the middle of the Dark Ages, being the
twilight of the Roman empire (in the west, generally reckoned to end in
476), and well before the dawn of the proper middle ages around 1000.
There wasn't a lot of building of anything much going on. For copious and
substantial buildings from that period, the areas that came under Muslim
rule in the middle east would be a better bet!

tom

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

Not so much in Antwerp, due to the combined efforts of the RAF and the
Luftwaffe (each in the pay of the English and German tourism agencies,
respectively).

Even outside Antwerp, and even in less-bombed parts of Europe, buildings
dating from the fifth century are fairly rare. You've got the products
of the classical civilisations, often far more than 1600 years old, but
the fifth century is smack bang in the middle of the Dark Ages, being
the twilight of the Roman empire (in the west, generally reckoned to end
in 476), and well before the dawn of the proper middle ages around 1000.
There wasn't a lot of building of anything much going on. For copious
and substantial buildings from that period, the areas that came under
Muslim rule in the middle east would be a better bet!

Maybe he meant from 1600 and not 1600 years old.

Arne

 

[Tom Anderson]

Maybe he meant from 1600 and not 1600 years old.

Good point.

tom

 

[Roedy Green]

Good point.

yes. That is what I meant. Britain was similar. They had Roman ruins
as well which just blew me away, and of course Stonehenge. I was
leading a workshop at the time, but happily my hosts took me to see
all manner of interesting things.

The Europeans have such an odd combination of the very old and the
very modern.

Just the olfactory experience of walking down a Belgian street is
heavenly.

The cities are designed for people, not cars. This ultra modernity
comes from cities being laid out long before the car was invented.

I felt a bit like a visitor from some primitive planet visiting one
that had a 100,000 year jump on mine. My land of strip malls is so
tawdry and tedious in comparison. We in Canada have spectacular
natural settings and work ceaselessly to despoil them.

Anyone who hasn't been to Europe, I would say, SOMEHOW wangle a trip.
Being there is a totally different experience from reading about it or
seeing videos. If you go on a conference, pad your time as much as you
can get away with.

If you live in one place, and don't travel, you fall into the trap of
thinking that is the only way to do things.

"I am glad to have smelt a Chinese crowd, and a Sicilian village,
though I cannot pretend my pleasure was very great at the moment."
~ Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness
--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
http://mindprod.com
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.