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 :)

Boston: winter, plenty beer and a short home visit

Back in Boston without Franzi was sad, dark and cold. Winter was there and snow hit Boston from time to time. By far not as much as when I arrived last year, but still some snow. Not only do I dislike the cold, but also the darkness. The view from our weekly Friday 5pm beer hour offered no more sunlight.

snow flakes can be massive in Boston

5pm nightly view on Boston from our weekly Friday beer hour

Harvard Medical Campus main complex surrounded by snow

I had quite some fun nights though with Patrick, Tim, Christina, Abby, Adam and more. After one beer hour we visited a college ice hockey game: Boston College vs. Boston University. Also, my colleagues in the lab had a belated birthday cake for me. The great number of birthdays in our lab made us having quite some ice cream cakes these days^^

college ice hockey: Boston College vs. Boston University

yummy^^

February 2nd, I surprised Franzi by visiting her in Germany. I got some good deal on tickets with the low cost airline WOW Air flying via Reykjavik, Iceland. I had to tell her about my visit 4 days before, otherwise she might not have been around. After we found out at my birthday that she was pregnant, I didn't want to miss the first ultrasound. I arrived Tuesday, ultrasound was Wednesday, Saturday we visited my family and revealed the pregnancy before we went for a carneval party Saturday night. On Sunday I already flew back to Boston telling my boss here about Franzi and me expecting.

our little baby, 10.5 weeks old :)

sunrise at Leipzig airport on my way back to Boston

In Boston, Abby had her farewell party and we visited the Fire and Ice restaurant. Quite a treat and funny style to get your food^^ A week later (February 20th), I visited the European Conference at Harvard Kennedy School. It was great to see Manuel Barroso (former EU commission president), David O'Sullivan (EU ambassador to the US), Douglas Alexander (former Europe Minister in UK), and many more brilliant speakers. The views from the roofs of Harvard Kennedy School were nice too and the evening offered some spectacular sunset.

Fire and Ice restaurand

Sunset from BU bridge

Sunset in Brookline

The next day I visited Disney on Ice with Patrick, Christina, Christian and Romy. That was quite some fun^^

Disney on Ice in TD Garden