Hamburg and Pickled Herring.

So, Hamburg was certainly an interesting city. Though we found it to be far more popular with German tourists than with those from other countries, it had an amazing harbor and a really long, interesting history. Sadly, the ballet was sold out and cold rain fell most of the trip, but we found a way to do some good exploring. The art museum was very nice, there were some decent small coffee/pastry shops, the bus tour we took to get out of the rain was a bit shady but oriented us nicely in the city, the harbor impressive on our boat tour, the churches not under construction were beautiful, the old harbor city had a great feel and happened to be hosting the Stand Up Paddling World Cup, the Brahms museum though small was pleasant, plus the Hamburg history museum had some fantastic model ships. In addition, I was brave enough to try a filet of pickled Herring, practiced my German a bit, and had a very nice dinner Saturday night with some interesting modern German cuisine. Amber tried to learn stick at a car museum and greatly diminished the Hamburg hot chocolate supply. Hopefully the pictures will fill in some of the gaps in the story.

Amber learning to master Formula One racing provided I can always be at this angle moving the gear shift.

The thrill of the open road ... inside a car museum in Hamburg.

The Church of St. Nicolai was bombed during the war and now serves as a monument to all who lost their lives in the conflict.

Me in the old Harbor City part of town.

The canal without me...we've got to find Doc Brown!

Some of the participants in the Jever SUP Cup, or Stand Up Paddling Cup. During an endurance race one competitor rowed to the edge, borrowed a lounge chair and a beer from a spectator, then finished the race in a far more luxurious fashion.

Walking through the crowds and food stands at the SUP Cup with all the Hamburg construction in the background. Part of the Harbor City area is being rebuilt, and the project is one of the largest construction undertaking in Germany.

Amber at the Brahms Museum Plaza in front of a Clarinet store.

The Brahms museum. Though it is a small house and his birthplace had been destroyed in the war, they had many interesting things including concert announcements of his from the day with many other prominent musicians such as the Schumanns who lived in Bonn late in life.

Amber not wanting her picture taken in the dirty train station near the Hamburg "Festival of Love" that was happening that weekend. In case you wonder what a festival of love is like, imagine a number of middle-aged, drunk Germans in bell bottoms and you pretty much have it.

Several shots of the skyline as seen from the tower at St. Michael's Cathedral.

Me looking more devil may care than intended in front of the tower.

Amber and the tower at St. Michael's.

The old harbor city in the background. A fire started here in 1842 that burned pretty much the entire city.

One of the restored ships serves as a floating museum of sorts.

St. Michael's Tower from the river.

A ship being repaired in dry dock.

Bridge over the River Elbe.

The tugboats from a different angle.

The crazy star wars looking trucks that zip back and forth around the harbor delivering and picking up containers.

The large cranes for loading and unloading containers.

A tugboat close-up.

A long line of tugboats!

An interesting building shaped like a ship near Altona.

Amber pretending she is sitting on a glamorous yacht.

Prepared for launch.

A Surprise Visit.

So, a couple weeks ago I randomly found out my friend C would be making a surprise visit to Bonn. He is a pilot for the Navy and some Portuguese Admiral needed to be in the area, so Amber and I showed him around a bit, ate dinner with him in Cologne and forced him to sleep on our futon even though he is much too tall for it and the government would have bought him a hotel room. In any case, it was a really nice visit, good to catch up and at least since I am an expatriate this year I got to save the government some money.

C with the infamous futon.

A Brief Update Before I Am Off to Berlin.

So, the trip to Hamburg last weekend was nice and work has been rather busy the last two weeks, but this morning we leave to meet an old friend in Berlin. Personally, I have been wanting to visit this city for pretty much the whole year and am rather excited to finally be going. Soon, I will post pictures and posts from both trips, but for now if you have time and like physics, check out the link

http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/

which is a series of lectures by Richard Feynman. I learned of them from Terry Tao's blog and am quite enamored with them.

The Next Two Weeks.

So, besides having a visitor, trying to get a lot of work done, and Amber arriving, we are also going on two trips to Hamburg and Berlin. I am not sure how much I will get to write during that time, but hopefully updates will come every so often. Anyway, it will be a busy period but hopefully somewhat productive both personally and professionally.

The Birthday Girl.

So, Mindy turns 4 today. Perhaps it makes me an idiot that I know her birthday, but I miss my dog and wish I had been able to be there for her over the last two years. The sad truth is that I have missed a large part of her life and will see less puppy left in her when I finally get to live with her again. Anyway, I hope she does something enjoyable, gets a few nice new toys and eats well today, but also I simply hope she along with everyone else I love out there with whom I get precious little time know I am thinking of them often and wishing I could be there for more of the little changes and realizations that come together to make up a lifetime.

Happy 4th of July.

So, here I am on the morning of the 4th of July in Germany. It is nice to have a friend here from the states who will grab a burger with me later this afternoon, but all in all it is somewhat lonely. Though I am not really that wild about fire works, I always love the relaxed nature of everyone on this national summer holiday. Since July is a big month of birthdays in my family, usually we would all be together and start with an early trip to the lake, come home to cook some of my grandfather's recently caught fish with corn, potatoes and watermelon, then spend the afternoon surrounded by family and friends at our pool.

Last year I was in New York and walked with friends to the East River for their son's first fire works show. His response was pretty priceless as he was truly in awe and of course I treasure all the moments I had with them during my first year in New York, but still I miss my family on this day. It is all in all one of my favorite holidays for some reason. Perhaps because it represents the peak of summer when a lot of long summer nights seem ahead of me and usually the stresses of a semester are pretty far behind me.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July and enjoys time spent in the sun with a large collection of family and/or friends.

I May Be a Wizard.

So, I have been carrying my umbrella (not as nice as my first one but of decent quality) with me everywhere I go because the weather forecast has been calling for rain. Mostly, each day it has simply been oppressively sunny and humid without the hint of a storm. The temperatures were not terribly high, but the air felt incredibly thick and heavy. In hopes of avoiding some ridicule, I left the umbrella behind when we went to lunch. While grabbing a quick coffee afterward, the atmosphere finally let go of the vast amounts of moisture it had been unstably hoarding for over a week and a beautiful, powerful thunderstorm began raining down huge drops of water and hail. Since my guest was speaking in 20 minutes, we all had to run back to the math building. As soon as my hand touched the umbrella to walk him to the seminar room in a different part of campus, the rain stopped.

I mean, I am not saying I am Thor or anything like that, but maybe a distant, distant cousin. The other possibility is that perhaps my umbrella is magic, but in any case I think I can control the weather.

This is a much more remarkable skill in my mind than the last magical talent I acquired ... causing every stoplight in Norman to turn red as I approached. I really spent two years without a green light in that city, so eventually I found every street that only had stop signs or could optimize my route to hit the fewest stoplights over a given distance.

Stopping or preventing the rain seems much better since perhaps it will snag me an invite to a few summer picnics this year. Of course, I will be made fun of for having an umbrella on a beautiful, sunny, summer afternoon.