I am currently in Aalborg for a 5-day stay, doing a fracture mechanics course at Aalborg University. I arrived at the hotel “Comwell Det Hvide Hus” late in the evening Sunday, after a very long train ride. Everything was dark when I walked through the park from the station to the hotel, and at this time it seemed like an uncomfortable and creepy place. But when I woke up in the morning and looked out the window, I couldn’t complain.
And when I walked through the park to the station, the place which had seemed a bit creepy was looking very nice.
I had skipped breakfast to sleep a bit longer, so I grabbed a doughnut and a latte at the station, and took the bus off to the university. It was a nice start of the day!
The course started out introducing some fracture mechanics basics in the first three hours, and I think the lectures were very high quality. In the afternoon, we did exercises and later we had a poster session, where all the PhD students could discuss each other’s work. Of course this was accompanied by pizza and some beer, but I went back to the hotel fairly early, as me and my colleague had to go through some work.
The next day (today) I was lucky that my colleague was going to the university by car, so I could catch a ride. Again today, the lectures were of very high quality, and I learned a lot. We also did some experiments ripping some stuff apart, and measuring how hard we had to rip it (applied bending moment vs the crack opening).
Tonight I am going down-town to catch some dinner with some other guys, so I will see something else than the hotel and the university. I think we have to walk for around 15 minutes, so I really hope that it will not rain. Looking out the window, I don’t feel too sure. I guess I should have brought an umbrella ^^
