London and Cambridge

March 3rd I left Boston for UK to attend a course near Cambridge. It was quite a difficult flight. My plane in Boston was delayed due to a snow storm that approached. Thus, I missed my connecting flight in Montreal to London. First, I was supposed to take a flight 24h later... then they flew me to Toronto. Another delay due to snow storm had me in Toronto past midnight. I was given a hotel room, but had to get back to the airport for 6am. Quite rough, but I made it to London in the end, arriving 13h later than planned. Bella, a good friend of Franzi, picked me up in the city center and kindly provided me with a bed at her place. Instead of sightseeing all day I ended up transferring all day... at least we could get Afghan food and some beer to finish the day. Sunday (06.03.) Bella went for sightseeing with me through London. Although it was my 3rd time visiting London, it was the first in about 10 years. It was funny though how much I remembered :) The day started out cloudy, moved to sunny and ended rainy. English weather...
We started our sightseeing trip with breakfast near London Bridge and then walked along the Themse to the Tower Bridge. We crossed Tower Bridge to London Tower and enjoyed the sun there. We then hopped on a bus to Trafalgar Square and went from there past Downing Street to Westminster Abby, Big Ben and the Parliament. It started to rain and we treated our self with Fish&Chips for lunch. A short walk in the rain brought us passed an old timer presentation. Another bus ride brought us to Albert memorial, Albert hall and Kensington Palace. We finished sightseeing in a tea house (I had coffee though) and a good sunset view, even if it was a little cloudy.

Tower Bridge :)

London's skyline

I and Bella in front of the Tower Bridge

Shitty times at Trafalgar Square^^

old timers on the way

geese near Kennsington Palace

sunset view^^

From London I took a train to Whittlesford where I stayed at the Holiday Inn Cambridge-Duxford. My workshop took place at nearby EMBL-EBI campus in Hinxton. The course started Monday morning. The course was quite intense and we only managed to visit Cambridge shortly. Most buildings weren't lit and so taking pictures was difficult. But we had a beer where Watson and Crick announced the discovery of the DNA. And we had a few beers in the evenings though, close to our hotel was the Red Lion pub. On Thursday I flew from London Stansted to Berlin and Franzi picked me up for Leipzig :)