I had the chance to visit Berlin, Germany during the summer of 2004. You may recognize the Brandenburg Gate from some of the propaganda films of the 1930's.
The Reichstag which was burned by the Nazis in the 1930's has been beautifully rehabilitated and enhanced. The first image shows the entire building. You can seen the glass dome on top. The dome is open to the public (but the line can be long). I was lucky enough to visit it at night and take a pretty decent picture.
Gorzewo, Poland is a small town containing several nice lakes. Here is a sunset image from one of the lakes.
In southern Poland is the town of Zakopane which has some of the best hiking in Poland. The trails are very easy to follow, but pretty strenuous.
I had always wanted to bear witness to the Holocaust, one of the most tragic events of human history. On a recent trip to Krakow, Poland I took the bus to the Auschwitz-Berkanow concentration camp. It was a very sad experience. In the USA we have paid a great deal of attention to the contributions of "The Greatest Generation", but we should also remember the sacrifices and suffering of the Europeans during WWII. You may have seen images like the ones below, and in particular the first one is almost cliched, but being confronted by these symbols brings to mind incredible suffering.
Auschwitz was actually three death camps. Auschwitz-I was the original camp and is the site of the museum today. The other was Auschwitz-II (at Berkanow about 3 km from Auschwitz-I) which was the site of four gas chambers and crematoria. Auschwitz-II was constructed for the mass killings which Auschwitz-I could not conduct. However, at Auschwitz-I there still exists the gas chamber in which the process of killing by Zyklon-B was developed. The image below shows the wall of this room. You may notice what appear to be scratches in the plaster of the wall. Whether these scratches were made by the dying or later by tourists, I don't know. Adjacent to the gas chamber were the ovens used to cremate the dead bodies.
I was fortunate enough to be able to travel around Europe for a few weeks this summer. One of the places I visited was Amsterdam, Netherlands. The canals are everywhere and it's very nice to follow a canal for a nice walk around the old part of town.
Of course, many people think of other things when Amsterdam comes to mind. They really do sell french fries covered in mayonnaise. The coffee houses (as opposed to Koffee Huisen) really do sell marijuana. For all the details I'll just let Vincent Vega explain it.
It may not be everybody's cup of tea, but the Red Light District is worth a visit. It may look dirtier than other parts of town and some of the people standing around seem a little suspicious, but it's reasonably safe for a stroll. There are plenty of cops keeping watch over the safety of the tourists (which include men, women, and children). Ultimately seeing the sex trade makes me kind of sad. The "women" stand in small rooms facing the street behind large windows. The rooms are lit by red (hence the name) neon lights and black-lights. Only half of the prostitutes have their A-game on, and an unknown proportion of those are actually male (maybe 25%). The prostitutes are very approachable and will readily tell you the prices for various services (don't be scared to ask). When a deal between parties is reached, a curtain is drawn across the window and business is conducted. What disappointed me the most is the disrespectful, misogynistic, and racist language used by some of the men looking at the prostitutes. Folks, they may be prostitutes, but they still deserve basic respect and courtesy. You won't see any prostitutes in the picture below since most windows have "No Photographs" stickers in them.
I was in Boulder, Colorado for a few days while my wife was attending a conference. The first day we were there we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park and attempted the trail from Millner Pass to Mt. Ida. We started too late and had to turn back once we got just above the tree-line. On the last day we tried it again, but got turned back by a violent hail storm accompanied by lightning. Looks like we will be trying this one again some time in the future.
My wife and I spent two weeks in Montreal, Quebec, Canada while I attended a workshop on Mathematical Biology at the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics at McGill University. On the middle weekend of the two weeks we had time to travel around Montreal and took pictures at several sites. From left to right below are the tower at the Olympic (1976) stadium, the BioDome nature museum (former velodrome of the Olympics), and Habitat67 designed by Moshe Safdie.
As soon as the semester ended my wife and I went to Greece for two weeks. We traveled with a very nice tour from the islands of Mykonos and Santorini to Athens before returning home. The images below show some of the things we saw: a stone lion on the island of Delos, a typical alley scene in Mykonos town, a view of part of Santorini from Ancient Thira, and (of course) the Acropolis.
For spring break my wife and I went to Tahiti. It takes awhile to get there, but the scenery is fantastic. The water is very clear and blue and the island of Moorea is not overly commercially developed. The first picture below shows the view from the Hotel Kaveka. The second picture is the view overlooking the Sofitel.
For the new year of 2004 I traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic. I would recommend this city to everyone. In the picture below you can see the Vltava River, the Charles Bridge, the Prague Castle, and St. Vitus Cathedral.
Prague is also the home of another building designed by Frank Gehry. This building is referred to as "Fred and Ginger" because the two sections appear to be dancing with each other.
For a chuckle and a frightening new perspective on our fear- and productivity-based society, visit the Museum of Communism.
If you plan on traveling around the city of Prague and visiting more than one or two museums, you should purchase the Prague Card and a multi-day transport pass. The Prague Card costs 490 Kc (around $15.00 at the time I write this) and gets you admission to 49 different museums throughout the city. Most of these museums charge 100-250 Kc each, so you really will save a great deal of money with the Prague Card. The transport pass is valid for all bus, tram, and subway travel within the city. You can purchase it right in the arrival area of the airport and then you can take the bus from the airport to the city center (it drops you off at the subway in 20 minutes). Public transportation will take you to within a block of almost anywhere you want to go in Prague. Most of the time the subways and trams run every 5-10 minutes, so you never have to wait long for a ride. In addition to single ride tickets (8 Kc for 15 minutes) you can get 24 hour passes, 3-day (72 hours) passes, and 7-day (168 hours) passes. I bought a 3-day pass for 200 Kc, but probably should have bought the 7-day pass for only 250 Kc. The protocol for riding public transportation in Prague is different from that in most cities in the USA. In Prague you are on your honor to purchase and validate a ticket for public transportation before you board. I would not recommend gambling on riding for free. There are plainclothes inspectors riding public transport who will ask to see your valid card. While using my 3-day pass, I was asked to show it twice for inspection.
Between 08/06/2003 and 08/09/2003 I was in Scotland for the International Conference on Mathematical Biology 2003. On a Friday afternoon we took an excursion to the Blair Athol distillery to see how single malt scotch whiskey is made. After the distillery tour, I took a walk through the surrounding neighborhoods and took this picture which gives a good idea what the area is like.
During my sabbatical of spring 2003 I spent some time at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa. Behind the campus are the very picturesque mountains known as Table Mountain (on the left behind the clouds) and Devil's Peak (on the right).
I recently returned from Las Vegas, Nevada where I got a pretty decent photograph of the sunset in Red Rock Canyon.
I recently returned from Spain where I had the chance to visit the cities of Madrid, Barcelona, and Bilbao. Of the three I liked Bilbao the best. The main reason I wanted to go to Bilbao was the newish Guggenheim art museum built there in 1997. Once there I found the city has a beautiful mixture of old and new buildings that make for a very interesting city.
During August of 2000 I had the great good fortune to attend the Pacific Rim Dynamical Systems Conference in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. After the conference we were able to enjoy some of the wonderful outdoor activities Maui has to offer. If you ever get a chance to go, I encourage you to visit some of the following sites.
The extinct Haleakela Volcano (last eruption 1790) is a great place to go hiking. The ten-thousand-foot elevation makes it feel great.
For me the best part of the trip to Hawaii was taking a trek through an extinct lava tube. It was a strenuous 3/8 of a mile.
While in Puerto Rico for the 2000 SIAM Annual Meeting I took a side trip to the Arecibo Radio/Radar Telescope. It is so large it is difficult to get a picture of the whole thing.
During my last visit to Nova Scotia, I had the good fortune to take in a day of sea kayaking. In the first picture the kayaks have pulled ashore on a beach while we take a break for lunch. The island was fairly rocky except for the beach. The second picture shows the view from the top of the island.
I was lucky enough to get a pretty decent shot of the sun setting behind the Angus McDonald bridge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on June 26, 1999.
If you are looking for the coolest way to get from the Maine to Nova Scotia and back, take the Cat. This picture of the ferry was taken in the fog in the harbor in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.
I was fortunate enough to have a free weekend in California, USA recently. The weather in northern CA this past August 1999 was phenomenal, low humidity and low temperatures. I rented a convertible and drove along the coastal highway. Here are two pictures I took along the coast. The first shows the view from the coast road during the afternoon, while the second shows the view just as the sun was setting. If your car should leave the road, it's a long way down to the beach.
To celebrate the new year I went to Florida. While there I took in some of my favorite sites and activities, viz. minigolf and the Kennedy Space Center. The first picture above shows some alligators relaxing at one of the minigolf courses in Kissimmee, FL. The second picture shows the scale of the first booster section of a Saturn V rocket. The tour at the Kennedy Space Center is well worth taking.
I was also able to visit Florida Southern College and see their extensive collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. The picture above is of the interior of a building originally designed to be a library, but which is currently used for a small Wright museum, gift shop, and for college administrative needs.