Salzburg

November 30 - December 2, 2007

This first Advent weekend we spent in Salzburg. After a long drive of about six hours (through Vorarlberg and Innsbruck) we arrived at the hotel in the south of Salzburg. In the early evening we went to the old city centre. Unfortunately, the weather was not always that good, no snow but rain instead. Saturday and Sunday morning we visited all the highlights of the city. All in all, traveling to the Mozart city is really worth a visit. Salzburg is a small city with beautiful houses and nice small streets, this time of the year nicely decorated for Christmas. And of course there are many "Christkindlmärkte". And many Mozartkugeln were taken back to Basel... 

 

 

San Francisco and Yosemite National Park

August 17 - 29, 2007

Between August 19 - 23 I traveled to San Fransisco for a Symposium on Mass Spectrometry in the Health & Life Sciences: Molecular and Cellular Proteomics. A great opportunity to spend a few days on the US Westcoast. First of all an excellent meeting on mass spectrometry in a great city, but also a great opportunity to visit the Yosemite National Park Park with Bertran. On his website you find the details (and more pics) of a beautiful hike to the Half Dome. It was really a long hike to the top, but with an unforgettable view.

 

Berlin

April 27 - 30, 2007

At the end of April of 2007 we had our annual meeting of the European Pharmaceutical Proteomics Laboratories (EPPL). This time Berlin was the host city (Bayer-Schering). The EPPL meeting is a two day meeting where we have an informal exchange of information between proteomics laboratories in pharmaceutical companies. We try to meet once or twice a year. This was the 14th. meeting since we started in 2000 in Basel. With a long weekend following it was a great opportunity to visit the new capital of Germany.

 

Croatia

September 16 - 30, 2006

Holidays in Croatia. After many years it was a great experience to visit Croatia again. In the 70's I have been in the former Yugoslavia a few times with my family and I have great memories of these holidays. This time Angelo and I went by car from Basel to Ancona in Italy, where we took a ferry to Split. In Croatia we made a beautiful tour to the Dubrovnik area. From there we made visits to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Later we drove back and ended up on the peninsula Istria in the very north. We even had a look on the camping site where I stayed with my family in Seget Donj in 1979... it still looked the same.

 

 

Barcelona

Mai 25 - 28, 2006

There were two reasons to make a long weekend to Barcelona. First, it is a beautiful place for a city trip. Second, on May 27 the Rolling Stones were supposed to kick off their European leg of the Bigger Bang World Tour in the Olympic Stadium. Unfortunately, the tour had to be postponed due to an accident by Keith Richards. So, no concert (for this I had to wait until July 11 in Milano), but anyhow a great weekend in one of the most popular cities in southern Europe.

 

Andalusia

October 12 - 20, 2005

A Fly & Drive holidays to the south of Spain. We flew from Basel to Malaga (with EasyJet) where it took some time to find the rental company for the car. But once found we drove quickly to the small city Nerja, where we stayed the first days. It was very nice early autumn weather, even for swimming. We traveled later via Granada to Algeciras. From there a daytrip to Gibraltar was made and we had a look at the most southern part of Europe's main land.

 

 

Rome

March 19 - 25, 2005

Another city trip, this time to Rome. It was the week just before Easter. It was also the last weeks of John Paul II as pope. During a visit at the St. Peter Square he actually showed up at his window in front of a huge crowd. Rome is a beautiful city, there is so much to see, there are so many historical sites. Even one week was not enough. All in all a great week in early spring with very pleasant weather as well.
 
  

the Netherlands - London 

October 8 - 16, 2004

Holidays in the Netherlands and London... not for the nice weather in this time of the year, but we visited some nice places, where even I have never been before, for example the province of Zeeland in the south-west with the Deltawerken. Further, we visited famous places like Kinderdijk (with the windmills) and 's Gravenhage. Later that week we took an EasyJet flight from Amsterdam to London Gatwick and stayed at Bertran's place in London. London is always great to visit, even when the weather is not nice. When it is getting too wet you can always go the the Dutch bar "De Hems" for a nice beer and real "bitterballen". Back in the Netherlands we drove up north to Steenwijk and visited my place of birth Bourtange.

 

2004_10 Nederland London
 

Prague

October 5 - 12, 2003

This was the first holidays of Angelo and I together. We both wanted to see Prague. With a very early flight we flew from Zurich to Prague. A week for a single city is long, but Prague is really very nice and has a lot to offer. During the week we took a bus tour to Theresienstadt, a former Nazi concentration camp, very impressive. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe.

 

2003_10 Prague