Dutch Letters: Escher Museum

The sun arrived in Holland today so we (along with the other 16 million other inhabitants) found something to do outside. Even though the temperatures were only in the 40's, it was too nice of a day to stay inside. We hopped on our bikes and rode down to Den Haag to visit the Escher Museum.

Grant has picked up the Dutch tradition of riding with no hands. It also appears that he's starting his own tradition of riding with his eyes shut.

Lori looking Dutch -- wearing leggings and boots while cycling.

M.C. Escher (1898 - 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who specialized in wood cuts and lithographs of impossible structures...stairways that go both up and down, waterfalls that flow upwards and buildings that could never be built. Although he was not a mathematician, his work is quite mathmatical, with repeating patterns, symmetry and tesselations. For those of you who, like me, didn't know what that word meant...here it is: "Tessellations mean designs featuring animals, birds, etc, which can fill the page, without gaps or over-lapping, to form a pattern that completely fills a space. It's the simplest kind of jigsaw puzzle: all the pieces look alike!" So for two engineers and a 13 year old who knows everything, it was a great museum.

The other interesting thing was that the museum is housed in the former Winter Palace of Queen Emma (1858 - 1934). Three successive Queen's worked here as well....Queens Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix....until 1991.