Glow-in-the-dark sea

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

I must have been about 10 years old when we spent the holidays in Bergen near the North Sea (Netherlands). One night my father woke me up: “Get up! Put your shoes on, we’ll go to the beach!”
“Why?” did I ask, still very asleep.
“We are going to watch the light of the sea!”


It had been hot and windless all week. Ideal conditions to see sparkling sea turning the beach into a magical place. The waves radiated a blue light. As you moved through the water, blue light rippled around you. And as you walked over the wet sand, a trail of glowing footsteps slowly died out behind  you. Zeevonk, it’s called in Dutch


The light comes from the alga Noctiluca scintillans, which emits a bluish light when moved. Earlier I told about the herrings in my fridge that gave light – probably also caused by the ingestion of these algae while swimming (see Luminescence).


All these years I hoped to one day see that light of the sea again. And last week I did. Not as exuberant as I remember; actually I would have walked right past it if another visitor hadn’t pointed out the puddle that the low tide had left on the beach. But I was just in time, for that night was the last that the phenomenon could be observed. So I am more than happy now, with some fresh memories.

City of Mozart

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

So I visited his grave in Vienna. That is to say: He was buried here at the St. Marx cemetery, but the exact location is  a guess. Buried in an unmarked grave, according to the rules and habits of that time. Probably his bones were dug up after ten years to give room to other deceased. But it is nice to think that he was laid to rest here, at this memorial.

“Do you think this is it?”
Approaching the Mozart house at Domgasse 5  in Vienna, Austria. But no, the house where Mozart lived is just around the corner. The house is a museum, and you can walk in the rooms where you he and his wife lived from 1784 to 1787. He wrote the world-famous opera “Le Nozze di Figaro” there, and three of the six Haydn Quartets.

Well, this is it then. The Mozart house. Domgasse 5  in Vienna, Austria. Incredible that he has walked in the same streets, through the same door over the same stairs. With a little fantasy you can walk together.

View from his house.
This he saw when looking out of the window, thinking what the violins should play next.

The Stephansdom is just around the corner