Zurich - Part 1

Zurich pictures:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=DB80BEE8046DF606!737&authkey=!AO7YfxkKprTX7cM&ithint=folder%2c.jpg

The trip to Zurich was uneventful, even though arriving in a big central train station was slightly disorienting for me, I finally found how to pay for the tram and make my way to the hotel, where Clara met me as I disembarked.  Our hotel room is quite lovely - the conference spared no expense for its speakers, of which Clara is one.  We even have what is mostly unheard of in Europe:  air conditioning!  Not that we have needed it much - the weather has been in the 70s every day with wonderful breezes coming from the water.  Lovely.

So while Clara is off "working", I discovered that Zurich offers free bicycles which I quickly took advantage of.  After a couple weeks of alternating between walking, sitting, and eating, I am thrilled to do some biking.  I went along both sides of Zurichsee (Lake Zurich) yesterday - which was lovely as there are parks and gardens and statues all along the way.  I even stopped for a bratwurst for lunch and sat watching the swans and ducks for over an hour.  It felt so good to have nowhere in particular to go and sit down to just enjoy the day.

Just to be clear, however, I only biked a very small part of the lake.  Once you see the size of the lake, you'll probably understand why.  The following map shows the lake with Zurich located at the top (upper-left)

At the end of the day, Clara came back and we got dressed up to attend a banquet that was being put on by the conference.  I have to say that it was Hands Down the most wonderful meal I've ever had.  There were easily a couple hundred people there - scientists young and old from around the world - many of whom I have met by this point and so it was nice to see a few familiar faces.  It was an all-around interesting and enjoyable first day in Zurich!