Last weekend, I attended a conference in Germany. I used the opportunity during my sabbatical to return to this conference series, which I attended the last time in 2002.
The conference takes place in a small village in the Harz, a Mittelgebirge (I didn’t know that this is an English word!) in Northern Germany.
Because I had time, I chose to walk/hike the 7 miles from the train station in the next larger town Goslar to the hotel. It was wonderful and my most relaxing travel to a conference site ever. Because of the rain in the last days, some parts where pretty wet and some streams got larger than usual. But other people ‘built’ already crossings.
One thing I remembered, after it was too late: A shortcut is not always the best path to take. If you save on distance traveled in a mountainous regions you could pay with an increase in slope! Not surprising but interesting to realize.
After my talk, listening to presentations, and talking to many friends and colleagues, I hiked back on Tuesday. I stopped at a lake and a bear cave until the sun started to get pretty low. This is when I took a picture of my gigantic shadow.
