Visit to Germany: hiking the Elbe Sandstone Mountains

After my arrival in Germany, Franzi had a surprise party for me on Friday. Many friends came over for drinks and chats :) The next morning (12.03.) we went for a hiking trip to the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. We started in Königstein hiking its fortress. Unfortunately, it was really cloudy and a bit cold. That's not bad for hiking in general, but disturbed the great views. We hiked up to the fortress, walked around the fortress to enjoy the views and then found a nice path near the castle for good castle views. We then drove to Bad Schandau where we stayed at Pension Waldhäusl. As there was a private party ongoing, we went into the city center and had dinner at a cosy restaurant there. The next morning (13.03.) we drove to Beuthenfall where we started a 6h hiking trip.  Oberer Affensteinweg - Idagrotte - Fremdenweg - Reitsteig - Wurzelweg - Elbleitenweg - Zeughausweg. Quite a trip with great views despite the clouds. A great place for hiking! On the way home we stopped in Pirna city center for dinner in a greece restaurant. Back in Leipzig, we continued looking for a new apartment in Leipzig and I visited my parents. On Friday (18.03.) I went to Hamburg to meet the Joachim Herz Foundation that provides me with an additional fellowship. We cooked dinner together and had some drinks. The next day we gave short talks on our research and visited the Bernhard-Notch-Institute in Hamburg city. I used the rest of the day for some sightseeing in Hamburg, but the weather was cold and misty. The next morning I flew from Hamburg to Frankfurt to continue to Boston. But my flight was overbooked. I took a train to Leipzig to see my wife again and flew the next morning (21.03.) from Frankfurt back to Boston.

On our way up to Fortress Königstein

Cloudy view from the fortress...

still a good view despite the mist

I'll take down anyone driving on the river... perhaps^^

spring slowly arrives

Fortress Königstein

Königstein town in front of the fortress

Beuthenfall

Oberer Affensteinweg... hiking is fun :)

quite a way up the mountains...

gorgeous, even when misty

at the edge of the mountains... quite a few hundred meters above ground

rest time = sandwich time

simply beautiful

our way back down :)

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 :)