A recap

Back home again in Chicago!

Photos from the last week are (hopefully) forthcoming. Rest assured, I did see some Alps.

So, 7 weeks in Europe, and what have I got to show for it?

• 4 countries
• 17 cities
• 12 museums/exhibits (see below)
• countless churches, winding streets, pretzels, and spatzle (think mac & cheese)
  

Museums:

• Stadtgalerie, Stuttgart (art museum)
• Musical Instrument museum, Stuttgart
• Apothecary museum, Heidelberg
• Richard Wagner museum, Lucerne
• Picasso museum, Lucerne
• Rosengart Collection museum, Lucerne (more art)
• Peter Paul Rubens House, Antwerp (16th century belgian panter)
• Platnin-Moretus museum, Antwerp (book printing from the 15th century

Castles and other Sights

• Hohenzollern Castle, Hechingen
  
• Meersburg Castle, Meersburg
• Adoration of the Lamb, massive 15th century Flemish alterpiece
• Coudenburg, Brussels, buried street and chapel remnants from the 16th century

Whew! It's good to be home. Time to pack my bags for Thanksgiving!

Konstanz - early adventures

Adventures since yesterday:

• 9 hours on 6 different trains to get to Konstanz early, in avoidance of the train strike
• I am one of two guests in a 178-bed hostel
• It snowed today. Big time. Near blizzard there for a moment. Since the ground is warm enough here, it didn't stick though. A few inches were on the ground slightly further north in S Germany.

more soon!

Belgium! and, German train strikes :(

Hello from Belgium!

I have been here since Saturday afternoon, and just haven't been able to upload photos due to a limitation on use of bandwidth at my friend Ryan's apartment. Coming soon! I visited Brussels, Ghent, and Antwerp so far.

I haven't written much about the German rail strikes that have been going on since my trip began - for the first time in 15 years, the union is demanding an increase in pay and because they can't reach an agreement, they have been going on strike repeatedly since late summer. So far I was only affected by it in Berlin, when I had to take a bus rather than a train to get around the city.

Until now, that is. The union is on strike again for 48 hours - exactly when I was intending to leave Belgium and go back to Germany, and at first with uncertain ongoing implications - which would affect my ability to get my flight back to the US. After a few hours of anxious weighing of a bunch of imperfect and highly uncertain options, it looks like the only impact will be that I have to leave Belgium half a day early, and I'll still get to (hopefully) see the German alps.

More soon!

Tubingen Team

Last night I went out for dinner with the staff of the Tubingen office to celebrate my last day. Such a nice group:

Gesa, Ivo, and Christina

(Germans are nothing but serious, right?)

I have received an offer from the company I was partnering with to work with them back in the US! There's nothing official on the table yet- not even location - so there's much to discuss, and hopefully many more options to consider once I'm back as well.

Next week: Belgium for 4 days and then German Alps again (I'm giving them one more chance to materialize, otherwise I'm going to claim they are a sham).

Beginning of the end!

It's hard to believe that I'm already at a point where I am experiencing some things for the last time here in Tubingen. This weekend was my last full weekend, and likely last opportunity for exploration; it gets dark around 5p now.

However, with my last week of work also looming, I can't spend quite all my time frolicking, so I'm trying to balance project work with recreation - for one last time (in germany anyway. Isn't this balance a lifelong struggle?).

It's a good thing I suppose - as time has worn on, my feet have become less and less forgiving after long walks, and I can only expect a few hours at a time out of them these days.

Highlights from the weekend:

• Friday, I went out with some coworkers to celebrate my arrival in Tubingen (only a few weeks too late), and stumbled across some breakdancers on the way home.
  

• Saturday, I walked over to the hills just west of Tubingen, hoping for a sunset walk in the forest. My map led me a bit astray, however, and I ended up just following one of the extensive bike trails around the base of the hills. I've been seeing more unfamiliar birds since I got back from traveling - maybe migration season? The prize find for the weekend (a couple more available with the other photos):

• Sunday, I walked up to the Bebenhausen, an old monastery town. Beautiful day, gorgeous little place, nestled in the hills - for once I felt quite happy to just loiter at a cafe or a bench. Problem was, there were none. So I walked the 5km back to Tubingen and loitered there instead.

Photos from the weekend

My last week of work begins tomorrow, and then I'm off to some other (as of yet undetermined) mini-adventure before flying back to the US on Nov 19.

Back home again...

I got back from the London conference yesterday evening, after a delayed flight (and general poor planning on my part) forced me to cancel my Frankfurt meeting... Incidentally, Halloween seems to barely exist in Germany - I saw not a single costume or decoration yesterday. Today, All Saint's Day, however is a public holiday, and everything operates on Sunday hours (which means everything's closed)

So, 9 more days of the German-side of the project (ALREADY?), and they'll be pretty packed! I am presenting a draft of my final results next week, and still have about 10 interviews and articles to research, so I'll be working as though I was back in grad school.

The London conference was in a very charming castle - here are a few photos. The trip to London was relatively uneventful, not including the unexpectedly expensive train ticket because I was falsely relying on the ability to jump on just about any train you like without concern for how booked it might be. It was great to see Darcie and Bhaji (the cat that I started this whole journey with) too.

Myron and I spent a day in Tubingen before he left... some photos of our cheese-bread-and-figs picnic and more.

The whirlwind continues - UPDATE!

Since my last post, Myron and I have visited these cities:

• Stuttgart
• Heidelberg
• Nuremberg
• Lucerne

Whew!

Trip details coming soon.

Myron heads back to Chicago on Sunday, and I'm off to London again for a conference and side trip to Frankfurt for another meeting. Life returns to normal (that is, the Germany-adjusted 'normal') after Halloween.


UPDATE!

So, what on earth did we do in all those cities? Well, here're some highlights:

• ART: Picasso, Paul Klee, Impressionism, and more
• MUSIC: Two instrument museums and the former home of composer Richard Wagner
• NATURE: A spontaneous hike along the wanderweb in the Gutschwald forest of Switzerland
• CULTURE: German restaurants and cafes, wandering the streets
• HISTORY: Churches, architecture, bridges, and more!