Day 342

The view from the breakfast room at the Palazzone. I had to stop and stare out the window every time I walked through.





And this is the breakfast room itself. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of the Palazzone, but this gives a good sense of the feel of the place.

We had the afternoon free, so I wandered around Cortona shopping and taking pictures and generally being touristy.












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Day 341

This is the room where all the talks were held. Quite the contrast: Renaissance frescoes and quantum physics. more...

Day 340

The bane of my week. Do you know how LOUD pigeons are?!! Especially when they're sitting on your windowsill at 4 am. more...

Day 339

The perfect picnic spot...





...for a perfect picnic.

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Day 338

During our outing to Arezzo, we stumbled upon what I gather was a police conference of some sort. It entailed a great deal of medieval-ish pomp and ceremony, including these absolutely amazing flag guys. I was impressed.





Before the pomp and ceremony kicked off, there was a considerable amount of standing about doing nothing. I felt sorry for all these guys - their outfits looked hot. The ones in chain mail probably had it the worst.




But hey, they looked good! I was a bit bemused that they were playing Beethoven. Finally someone explained that "Ode to Joy" is the official hymn of Europe.




A medieval cross in a church.




The cathedral in Arezzo.



And last but not least, (one of) the chimaera(e). That fountain looked pretty nice by then...

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Day 337

I was lucky enough to get to stay at the spectacular Renaissance villa where the conference was held. This was the view from my bedroom window.





The view from the piazza in Cortona where the restaurant for the conference dinner was located.




I was drawn to the light of the setting sun down a random street.




Swallows circling the town hall. Noisy!

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Day 336

Today's itinerary: taxi to Leeds-Bradford airport, plane to Pisa, bus to Florence, train to Camucia, taxi to Il Palazzone di Cortona. Fortunately all went smoothly and it was a beautiful day. more...

Day 298

Another day in the air. more...

Day 294

Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic it's a beautiful day. more...

Day 71

Apologies for the geeky moment - this is a bit of a wall at the university that has the signatures of just about anyone who's anyone in physics. Pretty amazing.

For those of you who couldn't care less about playing spot-the-famous-physicists, here's something more touristy!



Hoogslande Kerk, seen from the top of the Burcht van Leiden (Citadel of Leiden).




The crossed keys are the symbol of the city.




A friend and I ate in a pancake house that claimed to have the largest pancakes in Leiden. I'm not inclined to doubt their claim! The pancakes were delicious, and we both cleaned our plates. *oink*
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Day 70

Rather than going to the morning session, I snuck off to do some sightseeing in Leiden.





A big windmill in the centre of Leiden.




Waterlilies on the Rapenburg canal.




The Hortus Botanicus is one of the world's oldest botanical gardens.




Perhaps my favourite part of the gardens was this recreation of Clusius' original garden of 1594.




And finally, just for fun, the multi-storey bike park at the train station!
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Day 69

A few of us went to Amsterdam in the evening. Away from the touristy bits, the city has some lovely peaceful areas.




Naturally, I couldn't resist this street sign!
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Day 68

A boat trip through the canals and lakes near Leiden was included in the conference. After raining earlier in the day, it cleared up in the evening and we had lovely weather and a gorgeous sunset.




Our entertainment for the evening.




Yes, there really are windmills everywhere!
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Day 67

Is it just me, or is this picture hung sideways?

(Uninspired, I know, but after inadequate sleep and a full day of talks I was knackered!) more...

Day 66

I attended a conference in Leiden, in the Netherlands, this week. It was late when I finally arrived, and the most interesting thing I could think of to photograph was the hotel Bible in Dutch. more...

Day 44

Due to a miscommunication with my aunt, I had to change the day on my train tickets. In order to do this, the website insisted that I had to first pick up the original tickets from the train station. Then the only option for delivery they gave me was next-day post, at £5 per ticket. So I called them and was told that I should book a new ticket, call them back with the reference number, and they would issue a refund. This would allow me to pick up my tickets at the station rather than paying for delivery by post.

All of this was Monday night. Saturday afternoon I got an email from them, saying that my original tickets had apparently been picked up at the station, so I would need to post the tickets back before they could give me a refund. Of course, I had already thrown them away!

Fortunately, my wonderful husband managed to dredge them up again, rather worse for wear. more...