Bonn

Bonn city view

There seemed to be a lot of scope for a title with a cheesy pun but I'll just leave it simple.  It is the last leg of the European conference circuit.  Many who were in Granada are now seeing each other again in Bonn.  However, going from a picturesque city with a 6-day conference of 4,000 to the outskirts of a small town with a 3-day meeting of 300, does have its differences, and mostly in a good way.

The 2-hour train ride from Frankfurt to Bonn along the Rhine River was beautiful.  Something out of a fairy tale with castles, ruins, traditional little towns and vineyards climbing straight up the sides of mountains.  Unfortunately I was seated both on the wrong side and backwards so did not get any photos.  Perhaps on the way back.

Museum Koenig

Our conference is at a facility which is in what could be described as an industrial park.  However, both nights we have had events in town.  The first night our dinner was held in the Museum Koenig which houses a zoological exhibit and also was the new German democracy immediately after WWII since it was one of the few large buildings intact.  The second night the City of Bonn hosted a reception at their renovated City Hall.  A few of us went early, toured the birth home of Beethoven and wandered around the city's walking streets.  

Deutschland Limbo

Granada is done and Bonn has not started yet.  Since there was no easy, inexpensive side trip to take, and with an acquaintance in Frankfurt, I decided to spend the weekend exploring this often overlooked city.  A city probably best known for its frustrating airport transfers - a necessary evil to get to many parts of the world.  But this time, I actually exited the terminal.

"Love" locks on the bridge

Today's tour involved walking all over the city, food street, shopping street, European Central Bank, old opera house, walking bridge, riverfront on both sides, old square taken over by political party campaigning (the election is tomorrow), and lunch consisting of the local specialty called "green sauce", which was hard boiled egg and potato drowning is a creamy herb sauce.  I'll save you the search:  http://germanfood.about.com/od/saucessweetandsavory/r/gruene-sosse.htm

Frankfurt "green sauce" lunch

Carbo-Loading

Catedral de Granada

I am in Granada to attend a nutrition conference.  The subject matters range from straight-up hi-tech clinical dietetics to combating malnutrition in developing countries.  One would think at a food related meeting, they'd get the food right at least.  Logistics, sound systems perhaps no, but food?  That should be easy.  However, after receiving a sandwich in my lunch bag consisting of a thick slab of Spanish omelette in a baguette, I feel justified in a bit of complaining.  Indeed, I've been to diabetes conferences where the newcomer breakfast featured sugar cereals and whole milk.  The RDs were practically slapping each other to get the Total boxes and skim milk cartons.  At another, coffee breaks featured chocolate covered donuts and ice cream bars. But I digress.  At this conference, the coffee breaks come with mini-pastries and fruit and the afternoon coffee comes with mini-cookies and fruit.  The lunch sacks are salad and not one, but two sandwiches, though salad is a loose term.  Sometimes an assortment of seafood and sometimes a pasta salad.  There are very few places to eat nearby and I think they are trying to keep us at the conference center - ergo, we are kept fed and caffeinated on premises.

Tufts alumni & professors

On the plus side, I know many people here - many people from DC.  Colleagues, former grad school classmates and professors and acquaintances from the international nutrition world.  Plus, a friend of mine from DC happened to be traveling nearby and came down to stay with me for a couple days.  We ventured out last night and found a great little hole-in-the-wall eatery off a side street.  Cheap, good, friendly, oh but it turned out the proprietress is Italian.  Ah well.  Spanish cuisine is coyly playing hard-to-get.

Granada

Atop the Alhambra

Lack of time and reliable hotel internet has made it difficult to post.  Plus, spending all day in conference sessions does not for interesting material make.  However, three days in, and I have played hooky a bit, probably less than other attendees, and joined in on some outings.  Despite logistical difficulties, and everyone has their story of innovative and/or sketchy measures to reach the conference, it is an amazing setting.  Plus the city center is quite small and with several thousand at the conference, you are likely to run into people you know.

view from hotel balcony

My hotel is tucked away between two alleys, just wide enough to walk through the outdoor seating of the neighboring restaurants.  It is also short walks to the conference and sights like the Alhambra.  I took a stroll up the steep hill to take in the views, and on my way back passed the head of my organization making his way up to do the same thing.  Last night, 15 of us went to a fixed price dinner and flamenco show.  We spent a 1/2 hour trusting google maps on a ipad to get us through the maze of tiny streets going up the side of a hill.  Researchers...  In the end it was on a main thoroughfare.  I'm not sure how the conference organizers expect people to show up at 8a when it's nearly impossible to go out for dinner and get home before midnight.

Moon over the Alhambra

Last Days

The last few days went in a blur.  Thursday and Friday were the conference days.  It was a very small conference mostly for young researchers to present their studies in agriculture and health.  Unfortunately, on Thursday I lasted through the morning keynote speech and then by way of a grocery store for provisions, stayed in my room for the rest of the day recuperating.  

Friday was more successful.  I nearly had to give my boss' key note address which had been pre-recorded but then lost in the "cloud".  It was found with minutes to spare, and while it probably would have been a good trial by fire for me, it was still a relief.  

I was feeling well enough and so met up with my friend Miho. It was the first sunny day since I arrived so we and half of the city accessed the roof top bar scene.  After that we met up with some of her friends whom I'd gotten to know at her wedding last fall.  Unfortunately, I was still not feeling well so wasn't able to eat much but the company was great.  Saturday morning I am home bound.

Stowaway

Today was our planning meeting for our proposed Agri-Health Academy for early researchers from Africa and Asia.  We'd invited prominent researchers from around the world (aka North and South), to weigh in on the needs, gaps and vision of what this might look like.  I stepped in for my boss to do an opening statement and another colleague took over chairing a session.  This was just as well because this morning I woke up unwell.  Tuesday I had no appetite which is highly unusual and so I should have suspected something was amiss.  Since I can't pin point anything I ate on Monday (poisoned by Rotarians?), it must be a delayed response to something from Kenya.  An unwanted souvenir.  Fortunately I was still functional and managed to stick with the meeting but am spending this rainy London evening in with my crackers and soda water.

  

To London to Visit the Queen

Well not really but I am now here.  To get here I picked the short travel straw and sat next to an 18 month old who tantrumed nearly the whole way.  Fortunately the day only improved from there.  My BnB is in the great little college area of Bloomsbury - very historic with blue plaques noting famous people who have spent time there such as Lenin and Dickens.  

After making sure the hotel where our guests are staying for this week's meetings were in order, I headed to the lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of London.  It was located in a membership club called the English Speaking Union that was all dark wood, marble, sweeping stair case and chandeliers.  They proclaim themselves to be the first and oldest Rotary club in Europe.  The Duke of Edinburgh is an honorary member and I was told there are several ambassadors who are members.  Needless to say I was a bit under dressed and glad that work is reimbursing my meals. The speaker that day was an American executive from Chevron giving a presentation about hydraulic fracturing aka "fracking".  I wasn't disappointed that I had to leave before he was finished.  

Next up was a meeting with the partner running tomorrow's meeting.  I found out the night I left Nairobi that my boss has sciatica so can not sit on an airplane due to severe pain.  We were able to come up with a plausible plan B.  And then this evening I met up with a good friend for dinner.