I'm as happy as a little girl.

The 3rd day of the conference ended up being a short one in terms of science, but a long one in terms of goings-on. I did the usual--woke up and showered, checked things online, and then went and had breakfast. I then decided to walk a bit around Tubgingen, as I had a bit of time before the conference started. After a while, I headed up to campus.

The morning session was good, with me managing to avoid hurting myself in anyway. During the coffee break, somebody asked if he could take my picture for a Finnish astronomy magazine--look out, coming to a newsstand nowhere near you! We then adjourned for lunch.

In the afternoon, though, we all gathered at the bus stop and traveled off to Hohenzollern Castle. (Note: This says webcam, but I think the camera has not updated in 6 months or so.) It was a beautiful setting--castle up on the mountaintop, overlooking the surrounding valley. The bus drove us up about half way...the rest we were left to climb. That took some effort. Despite it all, it was a very nice visit.

We then headed back to town, dropped our stuff off at our hotels, and then headed to the Casino am Neckar for our conference dinner of "Traditional Swabian food." There were about 100 of us attending, and the room was well decoarated, with a jazz band playing. They decided to serve us drinks before dinner, which was nice, but poorly handled. There was a single door leading from the bar to the banquent hall. A single waitress would load up a tray with beer, then walk into the banquet hall where we were all standing (we hadn't sat down at this point) to pass out the drinks. The poor woman would get mobbed every time she came out--she could only cary about 8 at a time, and people kept moving closer and closer to the door so that they could get to her before she handed her beer to someone else. Eventually a crowd just started encircling the door she was using, throwing elbows and pushing one another to get better or maintain good position. It was amusing and sad at the same time.

Eventually, though, everyone got their drink, and we sat down for our food. It was a buffet style dinner--though with what seemed to be a very small selection. I loaded up on lettuce and vegetables, a small slice of turkey, and some fish--and that was essentially all that there was. We all sat down and ate...going through it pretty quickly, figuring we'd go back for seconds. However the waitstaff hurriedly cleared all the food, leaving bare tables. Fortunately, though, after about 5 minutes, they came back with the second course--the "hot course" as we finished our "salad course." We then had some pork and beef, some potatoes and some steamed vegetables. We then had ice cream for desert. Overall it was very good.

The only downside was that we did not start eating until about 8:30 or so, and the pace of the meal was pretty slow. Things were still going on when I left the banquet hall at 11. I wanted to get back to the hotel and get some sleep, though the coffee I had with dessert had me a bit wired.

Unfortunately, I haven't been sleeping too well since I got here. Usually in trips to places like this, I am sufficiently jet lagged that, come nighttime, I pretty easily am able to fall asleep--largely due to the concentration of the day ending and the exhaustion taking over. Here, though, I've struggled a bit. I've got no good explanation, though--I am tired, the bed is comfortable, there's no noise issue. I dunno...oh well, woe is me. I'll deal though.

I've reached that point in the conference, though, that I am growing more and more ready to head home. Two more days. The conference ends tomorrow at lunch time, after which I'll spend some time shopping for the girls at home. Found toy stores and chocolate stores, so I think I have all the bases covered. Still need to double check that it'll be easy to get to the airport Saturday morning...I don't want to let that one slip.

Until next time...