European Science Tour: Part II. London

I woke up in England and had to run downstairs to meek Paul Neve who was giving me a Ride to Rothemsted Research.  Once there I did a lot of thinking, talking, and touring.  I took no pictures because it was so busy!  I was even asked to go to the on campus pub for dinner with some British and French students.  It was fun but I forgot to take pictures!  The only one I got was of some blackgrass plants:

They grow a lot of blackgrass, real good...

The next day was Saturday and I had the day to myself.  To be honest I had mixed feelings. On one hand I got to go see London which was pretty high on my bucket list but doing it alone can be kind of boring....especially eating!  I started a text document on my phone with some observations.  Maybe I will share those in a later post. I also entertained myself by trying to take selfies with famous monuments.  I experimented with many facial expressions (Please see below).  I dont know how social media bloggers do it!  

I was all ready to get going and I walked out of the front of my hotel and BAM! Farmers market. It was immense and I had to go directly through it which sent me on quit the detour to the train station.

Finally made it to the trains. Navigating the trains and tube the first time was difficult but once I convinced myself that there was a logic to it, I could find the cryptic patterns. By the end of the day I was jumping on and off trains like a Londoner.

St. Pancras station is immense!  It is where my train and the underground intersected so I spent a long time walking around this mall.

Off the metro and near Hyde park I started to be bombarded by monuments. I guess if your country has been around forever and you have fought almost every other country you need to have lots of monuments to remember. This was the first on my way to Buckingham palace.

The beginnings of my selfie experimentation. I gave this one my best serious expression.

A nice Indian lady wanted her picture taken in front of the Palace so I obliged, which made me realize "I can ask other people to take my selfies for me"...I guess then its an otherie but she reciprocated.  This felt more awkward then the selfie (look how I am standing/holding my hands) so I didn't ask anyone else the rest of the day and resumed me selfie taking

I took a picture of this couples butt. I wasnt creeping, instead I needed proof of there genius.  The lady was playing Pokemon Go, as was I. One problem with playing Pokemon Go in London is that you are very likely to get run over or run into by angry immigrants. The man hand a firm grip on her belt loop and was navigating her so she could be fully immersed in the game and not die. I think this is the clearest indicator of love I saw on display.  Otherwise I have not seen any British people touch each other.

Some random abbey I stumbled on ;) Trying out my casual happy tourist look.

Parliament...  I had been walking for a while at this point and this is my "my legs hurt but I am having fun face"

The Eye over the River Thames. Im fairly Neutral I would say.

This is my "I better move or get run over" face... Also big ben was getting a serious face lift so it looked rather post-modern

I liked this tree and it made me miss Margaret.  If she was there she would have been able to tell me about the all of the plants in the gardens that were everywhere.

This tree needed some help.  Industrial scale bonsai.

I dont know who this is but they gave him a nice garden full of tulips.

I had to get a picture with one of the four MASSIVE lions in front of the royal gallery.  I wanted to ride one like all of the other children but then who would take my picture?

I found 2 real life pikachu protesting the BBC to cover atrocities in Nepal....I don't get it either but they sure were friendly!

These guys were doing a martial art (something like Thai Chi?) Also to raise awareness of something terrible. Come to think of it there was soooooo many protesters in England.  Way more then I have ever seen in America.  Maybe its because I don't hang out on the Washington Mall. 

This is apparently a lightning rod in the middle of the road and shorter then everything else.  I didn't bother to investigate it further.

This is the St Pancras Hotel.  You can stay there for 250-800 pounds a night.

This is the church next to my hotel in St. Albans.  I took a picture of it on my way to get Thai food after I returned from London.  It was the nicest place of them all.  No damn tourists!

European Science Tour: Part I. Germany

I was fortunate to be invited to Europe for two separate science related meetings, back to back, which generated enough impetus for me to be allowed to spend Clemson money on a 10day trip! I first flew from Greenville to Chicago and then from Chicago to Frankfurt.  I landed at ~9:30 am local time after not sleeping. My friend Anita, who worked with me in my PhD lab, happens to work at Bayer CropScience in Frankfurt. She was able to meet me at the airport so I did not have to navigate hailing a German Taxi or talk any German besides "Danke". Unfortunately it was the beginning of her work day which meant getting picked up and going into work with her for ~ 8 hrs. Since I was there to visit some scientists at Bayer, I had many delirious meetings and talked a lot of weed science with some scientists who have funded my projects, past and future. I also got to get on the bench and help out troubleshooting some of there KASP assays.  Luckily Margaret and I do this on a regular basis... well Margaret does and I offer council if I can. As per usual with KASP they have been trying for a couple months with no luck.  I was able to show them exactly what Margaret and I do and it worked perfectly! 

The 777 that flew me to Germany... To big to pull up to our terminal so we had to walk over the tarmac.

Anita showing me her experiment.

Touching tubes and pipettes for the first time in over a year.

Feeling very silly following all of the extreme Germany safety protocols

A cool german pub where I was treated to dinner by Anita and Roland... We had traditional German food (Schnitzel, Spaetzle, and Green Sauce which is a Frankfurt specialty.) Traditional German food is incredibly bland. No Salt, No pepper unless requested. The beer is the best though.

Ancient walls that were part of some fortification and now houses shops.

More Old masonry.

Freaky Geese that wander the Bayer Complex.

I didn't get to see much in Germany hence no good pictures.  I had to fly to England the next night and I was in meetings 90% of my waking time there. It was exhausting but interesting.

After one night in Frankfurt I took a late night flight to England and took an hour long taxi ride north of London to St Albans to visit Rothemsted Research and my collaborators there. I was one worn out dude!

return to Yellow Branch Falls

We went back to the Yellow Branch Falls trail this weekend. The rhododendrons aren't quite blooming yet, but the mountain laurels were amazing!

We stopped a little way in for a bit to eat, and then Edie insisted on walking and John on being carried. Which was great, except Edie wanted to pick up every ding-dang stick, and couldn't tell the difference between a stick and a tree root! She also objected fiercely to holding hands over rough terrain, and to falling on the rough terrain, and to being airlifted over all the roots she was trying to pick up. But once we got to the waterfall she forgot about all that.

John and Oscar both took turns carrying the backpack on the way out, and I took turns carrying them. We got rained on a little bit, just enough to make things exciting. And Oscar was such a pleasanter companion than the fall - we've all come a long, long way. All in all, an excellent adventure!

Vine with thorns

The second crossing

Oh, these brothers!

Wait for it...

Cheeseburger!

A euphorb

A handsome leaf

 John says, Uhhhh! My legs hurt!

Can you find the boy in camouflage?

We made it! We almost turned back about two minutes away from the falls! They are so loud for so long, it's hard to know just how far away they are.

She's crying because she hit Eric in the head with her own graham cracker