Boulder — MoBE Conference

I'm in Boulder Colorado for back-to-back scientific conferences. This week, it is the Sloan Foundation sponsored "Microbiology of the Built Environment" (4th annual edition). In addition to the great scientific exchange, we have been treated to excellent meals, including Thursday night at the Flagstaff House, perched above Boulder.

View north from grounds of the Flagstaff House Restaurant

Happy hour on the patio before dinner.

Paul Ziemann (CU Boulder), Allen Goldstein (UC Berkeley)

This year's conference has 128 attendees; assigned dinner seating

Morning view of mountains above CU Boulder from my hotel window

Kiel — Day 18

We spent most of Wednesday on trains traveling from Dresden to Kiel. Thursday's outing was one of Alexis's favorite local hikes, through the Schleswig-Holstein countryside, only a 15 minute train ride from the city. The days are especially long now, dawn before 5 AM and dusk after 10 PM. And summer weather has settled in, warm, a bit breezy, not humid, and clear-blue skies. Allergies were a bit troubling for the hike (and the allergy medicine made me drowsy). The scenery was lovely in a much more subtle manner than we've experienced on this trip. Most striking was the sprinkling of wildflowers.

Dresden's morning light — Day 17

Dresden Zwinger — Day 16

Dresden is the capital of Saxony. It has a centuries-long history as a capital city. Among its jewels is the baroque palace Zwinger, which opened in 1719. We're staying close by, so we've walked the grounds several times. Today, we focused on visiting the Zwinger more thoroughly, including the Old Masters Picture Gallery and the Mathematisch-Physikalisher Salon. Camera use was not allowed in the picture gallery, so the highlighted art pieces below are from Wikipedia.  In the salon, the devices I photographed were mainly mirrors and lenses that concentrated solar light or lantern light for high temperature heating. 

An immense crown adorns one of the gateways into the Zwinger

Damage from WWII is slowly being erased

One of several gallery buildings in the Zwinger

Rafael's Sistine Madonna (1512)

Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter (1659)

Liotard's Chocolate Girl (pastel!) (1744)

This mirror could melt metal using the sun's light.

Powerful concentrating lens.

An early vacuum pump.

Array of mirrors for projecting light energy from lantern.

Building in the Zwinger that houses a porcelain collection.

Saxon Switzerland — Day 15

About a half hour train ride from Dresden, also along the Elbe, is the spa/resort village Rathen. This was our entry point into the German national park Sächsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland). Rising above the river is an impressive array of upright stone formations. We climbed the well developed trail to the tallest of these, the Bastei, whose top reaches 194 m above the Elbe. We also walked a short loop alongside a slender lake and through a thick forest.

Dresden — Day 14

Dresden skyline from Carolabrücke

View south from Neumarkt

King Johann of Saxony and the Semper Opera House

Gate guard at the Georgenbau

Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche)

Gilded equestrian statue of Augustus the Strong

Hofkirche

Nine of the 78 statues on Hofkirche

Yenidze, a former tobacco factory

Hofkirche from across the Elbe

Church of Our Lady from the Brühl Terrace

Courtyard of Fantastic Creatures, Art Passage

Courtyard of the Elements, Art Passage

On the Augustus Bridge