Im Deutschland

Another trip!


My journey begins in Munich, where I am visit our old friends Uli, Karin, and Anja, here seen at a restaurant overlooking the river Isar.

It is HOT here.
Tomorrow I head down to Trento, Italy, where I will be teaching at a summer school at the European Centre for Theoretical Studies, the ECT* (click on the link that says Nuclear TALENT School...)
Donna will arrive a week later, again in Munich.

Home

The journey was uneventful, except that I always seem to get seated behind the guy who not only puts his seat full back the entire time, but also seems to spend the entire 11 hours pushing and straining at the seat back trying to make it go back even further. 

Otherwise, it was fine!

Twenty-three Hours in London

The most convenient flight itinerary home was a 23 hour layover in London. This way we get a direct flight home to San Diego.

Being just short of a full day, what do you do? We decided on another West End play, this time a revival of a little known play "The Physicists" by Friederich Durrenmatt. Don't worry, I never heard of him either.  The play is a critique of physicists' complicity in developing the atomic bomb and other military weapons, inserted into a farce about an insane asylum.

When the play focussed on farce, it was great fun (although just a teensy bit misogynistic as several plot points involve (a) strangling pretty, sympathetic female nurses and (b) the unsympathetic characters of un-pretty women).  As social critique, it is interesting mostly because of the incoherent argument.  I overheard one man behind me "explaining" how the play critiqued physicist's development of the bomb. The problem was, the actual lines in the play didn't support his thesis. Instead both this man--and the play, itself--took as some starting axiom that physicists were morally insane. 

I was disappointed, not by this particular point of view, but by the fact that this thesis was merely assumed rather than explored. This made the social critique not only shallow but also incoherent.  This was brought home as later, back in our hotel room, we caught a bit of Monty Python.  At their best, Monty Python could make razor-sharp social critiques in just a few words, also in the context of farce.

We'll catch eucharist at St. Martins-in-the-Field this morning (the main services at St. Pauls or at Westminster are too late in the morning for us to catch our flight); our flight out is 3 pm and we arrive back in San Diego roughly 6 pm.  That'll be about 4 am our body clock time, so we'll be wrung out.

But it's been a good trip.  We're very happy.

Overnight in London, Again

In the morning we visited Sofia's Museum of Archaeology. Now we are back in London for one night (it's a more comfortable itinerary this way--tomorrow we have a direct flight back to San Diego) and will go to a play, "The Physicists," in the West End. Probably services somewhere in the morning.

More Views

... of Sofia.

For example, this statue of Sofia (wisdom) personified--the owl, familiar of Athena, is the key.


















There are many old churches, mostly orthodox (but also an old mosque and an old synagogue) throughout Sofia, the most famous of which is probably the Alexander Nevsky cathedral:















There are also tree-lined boulevards, linden trees much like Berlin, and outdoor markets. A lovely city.

The View From our Hotel...

....in downtown Sofia. In the outskirts of the city there are many large, ugly concrete apartment buildings, not too unlike those you see in Mexico City or Kathmandu (just to name two places we've been recently) but downtown is significantly more charming, not too different in spirit from Paris or Milano or Muenchen. We did go out strolling last evening, before having a pizza dinner--some things are universal, apparently--and returning to our hotel. It's been an exhausting, though very good, week.

















What you can't see from our hotel is the pedestrian arcade two blocks away with lots of shops and restaurants, as well as the large parks and public spaces.

Introducing....

Elisei, age 7, and Dimcho, age 4. These brothers are happy and healthy. Dimcho is chatty with occasional outbursts of bossiness typical of a four-year-old, exclaiming "Ne pipai" or "Don't touch!" He loves pictures and organizing things. Elisei is initially quieter but once he warms up is also talkative. He is fascinated by cars and power tools, likes to ride a bike and to throw or kick a ball back and forth. They both know how to share and care for each other, and they frequently call out to each other by name.

Hotel Strimon

Here are a couple of pictures of the hotel where we are staying.  I'm afraid things are too hectic to post more, sorry!

It's actually quite nice, and the food is surprisingly good, even though we are on a "packet" with a fixed course dinner.

Kew Gardens

Saturday morning we went to Kew Gardens. Lovely grounds, fantastic hothouses with many wonderful plants and flowers.
Here are some sample pictures for your enjoyment.

Jetlag

Jetlag hit as scheduled. We went to Kew Gardens in the morning (pictures to follow in a couple of days), headed to downtown, and saw a matinee performance of "One Man Two Guvnors," a popular farce playing in the west end. From reviews we thought it might be a bit more than just a farce, but not, it was just a farce. Well done farce, it's true. After the play we met up with our friends from Milton Keynes, Jonathon and Rissa, wandering around central London and then off to a spicy hotpot dinner in London's Chinatown. A full and happy day. Tomorrow we go on to our next destination. Supposed to have internet at the hotel, but that's not confirmed. Don't worry if you don't hear for a couple of days....

Arrived in London

Our plane was 2+ hours late, but as we had no connections and no plans for this evening it wasn't a problem. Checked into our hotel near the airport--very near, as you can see the planes screaming across the sky. Fortunately the rooms seem well soundproofed. We went into town, went to the Crypt cafe at St. Martins-in-the-Field where we had a traditional pub food, fried fish, chips (french fries to Americans), and mushed peas. These happened to be very well done. Walked around a bit more, then back to the hotel. Probably will have disturbed sleep tonight, as is natural. Tomorrow we plan to hit Kew Gardens in the morning, go to a matinee performance of "One Man Two Guvnors," whose banners proclaim "funniest play in the western world;" so go further and promise it's the funniest "on the planet." After the play we meet up with our friends Jonathon and Rissa to catch up, have dinner, and catch up some more. Then Sunday morning it's off to Sofia. While I'll try to post pics from Kew Gardens, I probably won't write much about our first few days in Bulgaria as we assess the situation.

The start of an awfully big adventure...?

We're currently hanging out at the San Diego airport. Our 8 pm direct flight to Heathrow has been delayed 2 hours. Fortunately we are taking two days in England before continuing on, and nothing planned for Friday night. Saturday we will see a play, "One Man Two Guvnors" and then meet friends for dinner. But right now...just waiting...waiting...waiting....