she spots the blazes

she spots the blazes
Originally uploaded by topoisomerase

a nice walk in the woods

a nice walk in the woods
Originally uploaded by topoisomerase

looks like rain. maybe we will luck out?

a birthday in Berlin

Guten Nacht! well, it's night for us, anyhow. if you didn't know, today is my (ugh) 35th birthday and i enjoyed celebrating it in Berlin with Lorri. we decided to rent bikes this morning even though we knew it was going to be very hot (which it certainly was). i'm glad we did as we were able to see so much of this very large city quite easily. of course there is much to see in Berlin given the 750+ year history of this city. as you would expect many of the tourist points of interest concern the years leading up to and including WWII. while such things are very far from light hearted typical vacation fare, one would certainly be remiss to avoid taking them in while in this area. one such site we visited is the recently opened Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europa (The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe). While the field of concrete slabs does plenty to set you to thinking about the horrors of what the memorial represents, the underground museum exhibits are much more thought provoking. I can't readily go into more detail here but it was certainly a very moving experience.
















anyone who knows me well is well aware that i like to document vacations through lots of pictures, and that generally includes shots of us taken at arm's length in front of "important things". there's lots in that category to choose from in Berlin but here's one example - the Brandenberg Gate, one of the most well known symbols of the city. ok, the gate is a little blurry but otherwise it isn't bad. in any case it should look ok at the shrunken picture size that i use to lessen the pain for those of you that are still on dialup!
















of course we saw much during our day but i think i'll quit here for now. Auf Wiedersehen for now and we'll "talk" to you again soon!

PS - should you ever need one, Lorri does a nice job as a bike tour guide. i don't think you'll mistake her for Magellan but otherwise i wholeheartedly recommend her for the job. :)

on to Dresden...oh wait, Berlin!

yep, it's been a busy few days since the last update. this one will be reasonably brief just like the last. we're exhausted and in need of something more than the 4 to 6 hrs sleep we've been getting of late. :)

anyhow, on with the story...yesterday afternoon I finished up my work at the Leipzig MPI and we took a train to Dresden. I have tons of great pictures from the walking tour that our friends Jarod and Anna narrated for us but you won't see any of those here. nor will you see any from the MPI Dresden summer part nor the pub crawl that ensued that night - but we have them, don't worry. however, i will mention that today we took a train ride to the town of Königstein, like Dresden and Leipzig, also in Saxony. there we took a short hike up to the Königstein Fortress. suffice it to say it was a great side trip. thanks again to Jarod and Anna for a great time and for being such gracious hosts!
















this evening we took another train ride (it's how you roll in Europe) to the city of Berlin. now it's time to crash. our hotel is a few hundred feet from Checkpoint Charlie so as you can imagine, there's lots of interesting historical sites nearby. we look forward to the next two days of exploration before we head home on tuesday!

a quick post after a long day

we'll surely write more later but how's this for now? we are both pretty tired and it's late.




















this is a picture that Lorri took of the famous Thomaskirche (St. Thomas' Church) in Leipzig. today she was able to take in some of the Bachfest going on right now in town. this church is most famous for the fact that J.S. Bach was once the cantor here and was later interred at this site (after the original church where he was buried was destroyed).

after a long night/day, we're here

hey all, just a quick update on our travels. we had a 90 minute delay yesterday evening at JFK (thunderstorms in the area) but otherwise our flight went off without a hitch. we arrived at Berlin-Tegel airport at around 11 AM (Germany) and took a local bus to the central train station in Berlin.















after a very pleasant ride on the high speed train we arrived in Leipzig, where I'll be working for a few days with my colleague from 454. after a brief meeting with our collaborators we all headed over to a local Biergarten to have a snack and a few beers. after that we watched half of the Italy-France soccer/football match in an outdoor "pub" of sorts and then decided to call it a night.

of course we have many more pictures and details to provide later but for now it's time to call it a night. we'll keep you posted!

we made it to the airport

we made it to the airport
Originally uploaded by topoisomerase

therefore it is time for a pint, right? one hour until boarding.

off to Deutschland!

off to Deutschland!
Originally uploaded by topoisomerase

Lorri and I are on the train on our way to the airport. I have some work in Germany and then we'll have a few extra days to relax. Arwyn is on vacation too - in CT with her very generous grandparents (thanks guys!). we will try to send updates as we can. see you all soon! Auf Wiedersehn!

sandy and eric's big day

sandy and eric's big day
Originally uploaded by topoisomerase

well, the morning of the big day, anyhow :) this is the view from the lobby of the Holiday Inn. it's pretty quiet here at 630 AM which is fine with me. time to catch up on email and read the paper.