England: Durham and London

/ London, England/
England: Durham and London

At the end of June, I visited one of the lands of which I am a citizen, namely The United Kingdom. I was invited by the University of Durham to give a presentation and discuss some physics, to which I added a weekend visit to London. I had visited the U.K. once before, but I had never visited London. I did visit Durham, but the weather was miserable and I remembered only that the river was a horseshoe and there was a big cathedral. It was also the first time in approximately a year that I would venture to an English speaking country, which was always going to be an interesting experience.

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Germany: Mainz and The Black Forest

/ The Black Forest, Germany/
Germany: Mainz and The Black Forest

As part of my work, I found myself in Germany for 2 weeks in the lovely township of Mainz, which is just outside Frankfurt am main, and situated on the Rhien. I took the opportunity to visit the neighbouring city of Wiesbaden, which is situated on the opposite side of the Rhine. Both cities are really nice, but I was quite taken by the cathedral in Wiesbaden. The river was also quite a sight to behold due to the heavy spring rains which lead to so-called “century” flooding (the severe floods which are said to occur once every hundred years) for the second time in 8 years. All bank-side infrastructure was underwater, further upstream the floodgates had been opened, wiping out crops and farmland just to try to prevent flooding of the cities. The volume of water in the river was is hard to comprehend; I am used to “big” rivers, but when the main artery of Europe is swelling, you know there is going to be trouble.

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