I decided to interrupt my much-delayed post on the rest of Northern Ireland to cover something of a more timely nature – a conference I just attended in Aachen as well as the soccer World Cup.
In mid-June I was at EUSAR, the European Synthetic Aperture Radar conference, probably the best conference that there is in my field. The European part is a bit misleading. It’s actually an international conference which is always held in Germany, and it’s thanks to EUSAR that I ended up in Germany for almost five years in the first place.
The opening speaker revealed deep insights.
As well as the buffet meals three times a day plus coffee breaks, evening entertainment was provided with dancers who normally perform for the German Carnival in February. Think Christmassy German cheerleaders.
But definitely the highlight of the conference for me was winning the Best Student Paper award, which came as a total surprise. Here I am accepting the award and grinning like a maniac.
Aachen – where the conference was held – is a beautiful, small German city. The mayor even came and gave a speech at our big conference dinner which was held in the coronation room of the palace-converted-into-city-hall. Aachen’s claim-to-fame is their gorgeous cathedral (below and title image), a UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back to 805 A.D. and built on the order of Charlemagne. The cathedral is pretty interesting because of the mix of architectural styles (Romantic and Byzantine) since was started in the late 6th century and consistently added to for the next 1,200 years. I like the cool little bridge leading from the cupola to the tower in the second image.
In addition to the cathedral, the Aacheners have an almost equally impressive fairy-tale city hall.
When it comes to local delicacies, Aachen is known for their fancy gingerbread called Printen.
In addition to traditional Printen, they came out with special versions for the 2010 World Cup (in German the World Cup is ubiquitously known as the WM or Welt Meisterschaft).
In the run-up to the World Cup, Germany was going WM-crazy, with even little figurine shops trying to cash-in on Germany’s soccer obsession. Check out this bizarre arrangement of a lit-up soccer ball and a penguin vs. turtle soccer game with an owl as a referee and cobras in the stands.
Now that Germany has qualified itself for the semi-final against Spain with a decisive victory against England (4-1) in the pre-quarter game and after creaming Argentina 4-0 yesterday in the quarter final, the energy level here in Munich is reaching fever pitch. Last night fans packed the streets on foot and in their cars. The drone of honking cars replaced the vuvuzela (word of the year for 2010?) immediately after the game. Here are some pics from the fan mile after the pre-quarter game.
Go Schlaaaaaaaaand! (the cool way to cheer on Germany; the word Germany = Deutschland in German, but it’s easier to just to yell the last syllable Schland).
