Europe Trip 2010: Day 4, Conference & Blue Wonder Bridge

As expected, Day 4 of our trip was a little more sedate, since Teisha is at the Conference and Andrew is telecommuting during the day. But that didn’t stop us from having fun (and being a little crazy), by doing a 4 mile hike along the Elbe to the Blue Wonder Bridge (and a 300-year old beer garden). The hike was probably good for us, considering how much tasty German food we’ve been eating.

Here’s all of Day 4’s photos, but the fun travelogue and explanations are below!

The conference has a large exhibition hall, with all the posters (hundreds), vendors (dozens), and caterers (a never ending stream). Mmm, caterers.

Some of the exhibitors, such as Tecan, were demonstrating quite impressive automated machinery for cell work and liquid handling. Their system can automatically maintain plates of cells, changing media and moving samples in and out of the incubator.

One of the largest presences was Novus Biologicals, who were very devoted to selling their brand– including the first “booth babes” that I’ve ever seen at a scientific event!

Teisha took a few nice shots of the bustling exhibit hall, which looks more lively than it did during set-up, yesterday.

Similarly, the conference hall was packed today!

At about 5 pm, we headed out from the conference center, walking down the banks of the Elbe river. Even at 5, it was bright, sunny, and something like 85 degrees, so we made sure to change into appropriate hiking garb:

The hike over was quite beautiful, and it was a good chance for both of us to relax and just enjoy each others company. Here’s a few of the best shots we took along the way:

It was nice to see how active the park/promenade area was– lots of people swimming, bikes zooming by on the path constantly, and a few kids swingsets (along with beer gardens every mile or so). As a bonus, the photo of the biker has our destination in sight: the Blue Wonder bridge!

The area near the bridge boosts the distinction of being the most expensive land in Europe… in the 1800s. Still, there are a ton of impressive villas along the way. Teisha was reminded of Jane Austen novels by the one with the fountain.

Finally, we made it to the bridge, and to the 300 year-old Schillergarten beer garden. I think neither of us had packed quite enough water for the hike, and we were both quite hungry. So we immediately dove into a tasty, tasty meal– the centerpiece of which was amazing schnitzel.

The Beer Garden had a really relaxed, pleasant atmosphere– and reinforced once again that (a) Americans are noisy, since even drunk Germans don’t hoot and holler, and (b) Germans are very friendly. A few examples: The menu was all in German and had to be verbally ordered from (no printed menu to point to or anything, just a blackboard near the entrance), and when we struggled to order, a friendly customer acted as a translator for us, making sure we ordered just what we wanted. Then later, while eating, a mother and her 10-year old daughter sat down next to us, and upon hearing us speaking English, ended up chatting with us for a while. It was sweet and kind of sad– she carries around a travel guide to New York city, as “her dream”, but has lived in Dresden her whole life and never visited the united States… she said the flights are just too long. Much fun was had! Here’s a shot of the beer garden vista (we were too distracted talking and eating to take more photos).

We then took a quick tram (think Light Rail) back to our hotel’s neighborhood (On Day 5, I’ll talk about the awesome public transportation), and captured a few outdoor shots of the conference center– and a pretty sunset over its flag collection. It was a good day.

One Response to “Europe Trip 2010: Day 4, Conference & Blue Wonder Bridge”

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“…the first “booth babes” that I’ve ever seen at a scientific event!” — with all the women going into science, you would think they would consider having “booth beefcakes”!

meg - July 13th, 2010 at 3:27 pm

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