Final Tally

1. Countries visited: 3.

2. Cities visited: 13.

3. Trains taken: 10.

4. Talks given: 11.

5. Funiculars ridden: 3.

6. Castles toured: 6.

7. Hotels stayed in: 9.

8. Official dinners eaten: 16.

9. Hospitals visited: 15.

10. Asparagus stalks consumed: Hundreds.

11. Friends made: Countless.

12. Blog entries posted: 100.

It really has been an incredible experience, and I loved every minute of it.

Thanks for reading!

Love, Susan

Things I Learned

1. Most doctors in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany (ASG) wear whites in the hospital.

2. People in ASG don't clap to applaud...they rap their knuckles on a desktop or armrest.

3. Public restrooms in ASG are incredibly clean and private. Visitors from there to the US must be disgusted when they see what we have.

4. There may be such a thing as too much asparagus.

5. There may also be such a thing as too much chocolate, bread, and cake, but I apparently didn't approach it.

6. It isn't as easy to motivate oneself to exercise in a hotel room as I thought it would be.

7. When traveling by train on a Eurailpass, seat reservations cannot be made online...you must do it at a train station.

8. When multiple people tell you to "pack less than you think you need", believe them!

Hopes & Dreams Revisited

So, here's what I accomplished:

1. Drink Eiswein. (I didn't have Eiswein, but I drank plenty of other wine and, of course, beer).

2. Go to the opera in Vienna. (Done, and it was one of the best experiences of the trip).

3. Go to the symphony in Berlin. (Were we in Berlin?)

4. Buy Steiff teddy bear keychains for Eli and JoJo. (Done).

5. Complete my Rosenthal coffee cup set. (Done, but I've yet to find out if they survived being shipped over).

6. Ditto for John's espresso cup set. (Ditto).

7. Try at least 3 new flavors of gummi candy. (Done).

8. Visit Dachau. (This was something we unfortunately didn't have time to do).

9. Reconnect with some of my old friends from Salzburg. (Done, and it was really fun to catch up after so long).

10. Spend time with my dear friend Alex and her family in Heidelberg. (Done, despite a last minute threat posed by the Icelandic volcano).

11. Give myself "carbs amnesty" and eat fresh bread, pastry, and potatoes every day. (Done, and then some).

12. Take the Gustav Klimt walk through Vienna. (We didn't do the walk, but we went to the Belvedere, where many of Klimt's most famous works are hanging).

13. Buy Mozartkugeln. (Done, not to mention sampling every other type of chocolate I came across as well).

14. Have a "Bosna" for lunch. (Done...and it just might have been the highlight of the whole trip).

Overall, I'd say I didn't do too badly.

Verkehrt und Umgekehrt (Upside Down and Turned Around)

The last few days of the trip, I was feeling a bit tired, and I was looking forward to getting home, and even dreamed about home the last couple of nights away. Today, it seems like the whole trip went by so quickly, and last night I dreamed about being back in Europe.

Swag

We were presented with gifts at many of the hospitals we went to. I came home with 1 baseball cap, 1 winter cap, 3 bags, 3 scarfs, 1 coffee table book, 1 cd, 2 t-shirts, 1 coffee mug, 2 pens, 1 kitchen magnet, 1 key chain, 1 business card holder, 1 group picture of our visit, and a chocolate bunny. Not bad.

Someone Is Still Giving Me The Cold, Yet Furry, Shoulder

Elvira is none too sure about my return. She's still giving me a pretty wide berth. When I got home last night, she didn't come running right up to me, and when I picked her up, she cried and looked longingly at John. I think it's going to take a few days before she forgives me for going away for a month. However, she did enjoy picking out a souvenir.

Home Sweet Home (For Real)

It was actually a relief to arrive back in Omaha after about 21 hours of travel yesterday (I left the hotel in Baden Baden at 6 AM and arrived home at about 8 PM Omaha time, which translates to 3 AM German time). John met me and Suitcase-Zilla at the airport, and made a light dinner for me (scrambled eggs with fresh herbs, well-done like I like them, and a light fresh cabbage salad). It was nice to be back in my own house, with my own bed. Especially since my garden looks so beautiful right now, with loads of tulips and my favorite bleeding hearts blooming.

Bookmarks 8 & 9 (and a Preview of 10 & 11)

I finished two books on the plane: Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby, and The Doomsday Key by James Rollins. "Juliet" is typical Hornby...kind of literate and music- and pop culture-savvy chick lit for men. It's about a reclusive former rock star who starts an email correspondence with one of his fans. Hornby has a vast knowledge of music, and he writes both male and female characters who are believably real. If you've liked any of his previous books (like "Hi Infidelity" or "About A Boy"), or the movies made from them, you'll like this.
"Doomsday" I actually kind of fell into by accident. I downloaded a sample of it one day when I was demonstrating my Kindle to somebody (it was the first book that came up on the Kindle bestseller list that day), then read the sample and got hooked. It's a perfect plane/beach read...pure escapism. Imagine "The DaVinci Code" but way better written. It's apparently one of quite a lengthy series...I don't know that I'll rush to download every single one (like I did with Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" series), but I can definitely see reading another one when I'm in the mood for some conspiracies and ancient secrets.
I also started two new books: The Gates by John Connolly, a fantasy thriller for children that also includes very cogent explanations of some of the principles of quantum mechanics. The basic premise is that the gates of hell have been opened by a mishap at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. It's played for laughs, and is charming. And finally, Orange Is The New Black by Piper Kerman, a memoir about the year Kerman (who is an upper middle class Caucasian woman who graduated form Smith College) spent in federal prison for money laundering. So far, it's fascinating, as you might expect. But lately, I've read quite a few memoirs by contemporary women (often of the "fish out of water" or "year long experiment" varieties), and by the end, I kind of hate all of them. I somehow suspect this one will be no different.

Maybe We Need One At Eppley

At the Frankfurt Airport, there is apparently an adult bookstore...it's listed in the map key as #11. Yesterday, while there, I looked for #11 on the map, and couldn't find it, and I didn't come across the actual bookstore in my pre-flight wanderings. Today, though, I see #11 on the map (below and to the right of the orange "you are here" dot.) It's hard to believe, but I must have passed right by it without seeing it.

The Last Spargel

After the presentations, the tradition is for all present and former ASG fellows to go to a formal Spargel lunch. Our last opportunity to enjoy this delicacy was also partly sad and partly a relief. It was wonderful to see our hosts again, and also to hear the travel report of the European ASG fellows who returned from their trip to North America just as we were leaving for Europe. At the end of the afternoon, RT and SS were presented with their official ASG neckties, and I got an ASG scarf. Then we took a picture together with our European counterparts.

The Last Presentations

Here we are giving our final talks of the trip...it was partly sad, and partly a relief.

Beautiful Baden Baden

It was a really nice walk from the hotel to the conference hall this morning...I can definitely see why everyone likes coming here.

Starting the Morning with a Smile...

Not to mention a pretzel!

Baden Baden ohne Betten (Bedless in Baden Baden)

So far, every single logistical aspect of our trip has gone perfectly smoothly, which is due entirely to our wonderful local hosts. So, we kind of took it for granted that even though we didn't have specific information about where we were staying in Baden Baden for the Southern German Orthopaedic Congress, things would just get sorted once we arived. Keep in mind that this is a very large convention (sort of like the German version of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting) in a very small city, and hotel space is at a premium. Turns out, we didn't actually have hotel reservations, so we just hung out in the convention center drinking coffee and goofing off, while our two knights in shining armor, Dr. K from Berlin, and Dr. S-B (Hi Klaus!) from Cologne, found us the last three hotel rooms in Baden Baden, not to mention a dinner invitation. Vielen Dank fuer Ihre Hilfe!

No Rodents Involved

Ina can tell you that I love a good tour of a Rathaus (Town Hall). When she and I were in Scandinavia, I insisted we visit every one we came across. Basel has a beautiful one right on the market square. Unfortunately, guided tours are given only three times a week. I'm going to have to come back.

And Speaking of Irresistable...

How could you not want to taste a baked good called a Schoggiweggli?

(By the way, "schoggi " is the Swiss German word for "chocolate ". I'm not exactly sure what a "weggli " is).

Remember These?

Dr. Scholl's exercise sandals! These were the height of cool when I was in the 7th grade. Basel has an entire store devoted to them, and I was weak in the face of it. I came thisclose to buying a pair before regaining control of my senses.

Morgen am Markt (Morning in the Market Place)

We had a free morning in Basel today before heading to Baden Baden. I strolled down the hill from our hotel to the marketplace, and spent a while wandering through the local farmer's market. There were beautiful flowers, fresh mushrooms (check out the morels in the upper left hand corner of the picture!), and tons of great looking vegetables, including our old friend Spargel.

Bookmark 7

Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are by Rob Walker (who used to write the "Consumed" column for the New York Times), was a good companion piece to PopCo and Snoop, because it covered a lot of the same territory about our relationship as a society to the vast array of consumer goods and choices that we have in the 21st century. It was interesting, and Walker is a very good journalist, but I'm not sure it gave me a significantly greater insight into my own consumer habits. Still, the chapters on Red Bull and American Apparel were very entertaining.

Be Your Own Bartender

Last night we had dinner at a traditional Swiss fondue restaurant. We all got giant pretzels to dip in the authentic melted cheese, but the other interesting feature of the restaurant was the serve-yourself beer tap in the center of the table. There's a little flowmeter that keeps track of your consumption. I'm actually surprised this concept hasn't caught on in the US. Maybe the Homey Inn in Omaha could install table taps for its world-famous "champagne on tap" (available in dry and sweet!).

Anyone Know What This Is?

Those of you who went to Horace Mann...it's a strigil, an instrument used to scrape the remains of the sand and oil that the Romans used instead of soap off the body. "Strigil" was the second of the daily vocabulary words we were taught by the beloved Mr. Glidden...it came right between "zarf" (an ornamental coffee cup holder) and "duniwassal" (a Scottish gentleman of second rank").

When In Rome...

Yesterday, we visited Liestal, a city outside of Basel, and spent a very busy day. It started in the OR, where we watched a total ankle replacement, and included 2 scientific sessions. But an unusual aspect was a side trip to the small village of Augst, which is the site of the very extensive ruins of a Roman colony, Augusta Raurica. The museum and ruins are truly inpressive, and we had a great guided tour. There are still performances given in the remains of the amphitheater, but I particularly loved the lone paw print of a cat on the tile of a bath.

Strawberry Tart, Ready For It's Close-Up...

I realized that you couldn't really get a good view of the strawberry tart I had the other day, and since the strawberries are in season here, and it was so good, I had to have another one. Here it is, up close and personal.