Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Germania

I mentioned a few posts ago that I had been asked to travel to Germany for work -- well, I have returned from said trip, and let me tell you, it was fantastic. Though I was in various meetings during most daylight hours and had little free time for sight-seeing (or, ahem, yarn shopping), it was amazing just to be there, to meet the people and eat the food, and rush to work on the train with the locals. The aforementioned lack of free time unfortunately resulted in few and unremarkable photos, mostly taken out the windows of various forms of transportation. Though there is also little knitting to show from the trip, I thought I'd post some of the less unremarkable ones for anyone who might be interested. :)


On the way, a couple hours away from our destination, the sun rose over Greenland.


Bonn is the birthplace of Beethoven.


I passed this church in Bonn several times but, embarrassingly, do not remember its name.


A Rainy Day Sock, knit on the plane. To avoid freaking out the people of Bonn, I took my modeled FO shot in my hotel window, rather than in public.


I did get to sightsee in Köln briefly -- behind me is their utterly beautiful and massive cathedral (Kölner Dom). (I am actually wearing Snow White in this photo, under my jacket, with sleeves rolled up.)


There were tons of castles to be seen along the Rhine during my train ride from Bonn to Stuttgart.


From the top of Stuttgart's Hauptbahnhof (main train station).


My friend/colleague took me to see her friend's band play. The bar was a tiny, apartment-like spot above a falafel joint. It was über hip.


The guy on the far left used this giant piece of tungsten for his doctoral thesis back in the day (something about plasma windtunnels....?). The guy on the far right (the Big Boss of the program I work on) had refused to leave until he saw it, exclaiming several times that it must be the biggest piece of tungsten in Europe. Testosterone levels were high as each colleague of mine took turns trying to lift it. As you might imagine, this sort of thing is completely lost on me, however I did find their boyish excitement over a hunk of metal absolutely hilarious. (Also note that being a huge dork is requisite to working at NASA. We're all like this in some form or another...)


Back home again...

10 comments:

sheepish one said...

okay, so i didn't know you are actually an employee at NASA. that is awesome, and not just "awesome, dude" awesome, but here's-me-sitting-in-awe, awesome!!

i love all of your shots and commentary from germany. and those rainy day socks knock my socks off. i don't know what it is about orange socks that always makes me giddy...

Anonymous said...

Yes! those are some awesome pictures and the sock looks great! =D

Margo said...

I'm so glad you back! I missed reading your blog while you were gone (I knew you were gone, yet I couldn't stop myself from checking to see if you had post anyway;P) So happy to hear that you enjoyed your conferences- and I'm extremely jealous that you have such beautiful knit work to show for travel time (thanks NASA!) By the way, your photos are breath-taking! Welcome home :)

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness I had no idea you were in germany! what an amazing trip and it looked like you had a lot of fun - even if you were busy.

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

Very cool. Thanks for sharing your experience. It's also nice to know that NASA has such bright and multi-talented individuals working for them! Love the sock. Never can have too many.

Anonymous said...

I loved your pictures. I waved at you as Kevin and I passed through Frankfurt airport on Friday.
love,
Jo

kaetrn said...

your airplane pics are actually very cool, better than the ones i usually take! glad you had fun in germany...and love the sock too!

Teresa said...

Those are some beautiful photos! I'm glad you were able to have some good times (if only sandwiched between meetings).
BTW, that sock is awesome! I really love the colour.
Personally, I find any and all "dork" factors (in my own bizarro black-hole-world-is-backwards-and-upsidedown-way)
to raise the coolness of an individual.
Work at NASA = so cool :)

(also, great aerial pics.)

the Lady said...

You work for freaking NASA? Damn.

Nice pictures, Germany looks quite beautiful through your lens.

yarnlot said...

Nice pictures!
And although I am from Belgium, I was able to locate the church in Bonn:
http://www.bonner-muenster.de/basilika/index_engl.htm