2010 in travel

As predicted, blogging has taken a backseat to just about everything going on here in Heidelberg, which is a lot. Before going into that, I will give a brief tour of all the places away from Heidelberg I visited in 2010.

June - Paris

Just three hours and change by train, Paris is a nice destination for a weekend away. My former supervisor spent the summer in Paris for his sabbatical, so I dropped in for a long weekend of "work" and tourism. 

It was a beautiful June weekend with perfect walking weather, which in my opinion is the best way to spend your time in Paris.  

July - Strasbourg

My lovely sister, Amanda, visited in July, and we took a quick day trip to Strasbourg, France, if only to get a whiff of decent beef and other culinary delights that are somehow verboten in Germany.

We somehow managed to pick the hottest day of the year to make this journey, so our day was spent strolling from shady spot to shady spot, with frequent stops for refreshment.  At this time the World Cup was really ramping up, and this was the day of Germany's quarter final, in which they shellacked Argentina 4-0. Though it would have been fun to to watch this match in Germany (the last match they would win in the World Cup), I have to admit it was a relief to have a peaceful atmosphere after a month of vuvuzela sounding down the streets of Heidelberg.

Copenhagen

Toward the end of July, Paul and I headed north for some relief from our un-airconditioned existence in Germany. We decided on Copenhagen because neither of us had been, and we both had always wanted to visit. I think we both assumed that it would be a major city, but Copenhagen has a small town feel (the city has a population of 500,000, 2 million including the surrounding area). Everywhere we went, we constantly overshot our destinations from our map; it took around 30 minutes to walk from end to end. This is not to say that there wasn't a ton to do in the city, and the atmosphere could not be beat. 

Our Favorite cafe. Glowing doll-heads as 

chandeliers. Yes. 

I think that photo captures the nightlife vibe in Copenhagen. Quirky, laid back, and good fun. Tip: drink imported beer.

August - St. Andrews, Scotland

In early August, I headed to Hawaii for an observing run (amazingly, I have no pictures to show you because time constraints allowed for no leisure time on the Big Island this time), then home for the most important holiday of the year, my birthday.  Following my big American trip (and almost a month away from my boyfriend!), I flew up to Edinburgh to see Paul and visit St. Andrews, his alma mater.  Due to harddrive failure, I've lost my original copies of the pictures from St. Andrews, but luckily, I posted them to flickr before that happened.  It was just lovely there.

September - Göteborg, Sweden

Conference season kicked off in Göteborg (or Gothenburg), Sweden with Herschel and the Formation of Stars and Planetary Systems.  A large group of people from my institute attended this conference. The participants were meant to stay at this all-inclusive "spa" getaway conference venue, which was beautiful, but horrifically over-priced.

The view from conference hotel. Not bad.

Instead, the MPIA attendees stayed in downtown Göteborg on a permanently-docked boat called the Barken Viking. Highly recommended.  The rooms were refurbished sleeping quarters for passengers, much more comfortable than I expected. Here it is in the background of our group photo.

The city is not what I'd call exciting. It's a student town (term starts in October probably), so I could see it livening up with some youth injected. Still, we were able to eat well. If I could eat shellfish, I probably would have eaten even better. 

Paris (again)

I headed once again to the land of foie gras for a weekend getaway with Paul, who had a conference the following week. The great thing about Paris is that there is never a shortage of new things to see and do. This time, I saw the Centre Pompmidou for the first time. Before the art, the view from the top level (3 stories is tall for Paris):

Not a bad way to start, huh?

I have a soft spot for modern art. I even saw babies on spikes. 

We also climbed up the Sacre Coeur.

... and we went to the Louvre, which Paul had never seen. 

November - Berlin

In need of another getaway, Paul and I ventured northward once again for the weekend. I selected this time in particular because a musical group we both like, Afrocubism, was stopping there on their rather sparse tour of Europe. As this was the very last weekend in November, all the Christmas markets were in full swing, so we enjoyed our fair share of glühwein and sausages. The pictures from this trip also fell victim to hard drive failure, but check out the selection I posted on flickr for a taste. (It was cold.)

Ok, that's it. I didn't promise content, just a tour! I hope 2011 holds some travels to warmer destinations (Italy tops that wish list) and more timely blog posting. Happy new year!