Day Three - Waginegen & Amsterdam

Day three started at 7am as I needed to catch a bus into the Haupbanhof (main train station) and take a train in to The Netherlands and meet with an expert in Participatory GIS (PGIS). I got to the closest DuetschBahn Trian station and then caught the city express train to Ede-Waginigen. From there I took a quick bus over to the CTA location where Giacomo Rambaldi (the PGIS exspert) worked. I arrived about 20 minutes early so I looked around and found a small river that was the home of two swans and their many ugly ducklings. I spent my extra time taking photos of them and although is was raining pretty steadily I had my MEC raincoat which preformed admirably, and I had my camera poking out of a rainproof sac. Finally though the time for my meeting rolled around and I left the swans to enjoy the weather alone.

Stepping out of the rain I talked with the friendly receptionist who rang up to Mr. Rambaldi for me. We met, shook hands and went up to his office to chat about PGIS. The meeting started with an explenation of the work that I was to complete for the NGO in Ethiopia and how I would be using PGIS techniques. We talked at length about the ethics of PGIS too, examining the issues surrounding ownership of information and understanding who the benefactors of digitizing spatial information are. After our meeting we had lunch and I contiued on my way to meet Alex in Amsterdam.

Taking the train into the main station in Amsterdam was easy enough, and I met Alex right in the middle of the station. We walked around the city for a few hours, taking in the extreme nature of the place and enjoying some really good fries and mayo. The buildings were old and tall, with many that had foundation that made them pitched at a few degrees. The people in Amsterdam, at least while I was there, were almost entirely tourists. It was a bit like New York City that way actually. Altogether, I found the city to be a bit disappointing, and although I'm glad I can say that I have seen it I do not need to return. I think that maybe if I were able to stay outside of the tourist zones of the city I would have enjoyed it better, but it was a bit too bizarre for me.

Catching a train later that day back to Münster where we had an early night booking a hotel and organizing the trains that would take us to Berlin the following day.