I had been invited to the HERA Betriebsseminar which was held in Bad Lauterberg. This small town is located within the Harz mountains. It snowed somewhat, and so the landscape was a mixture of grey-white woods.
In June I participated at the EPAC'98 in Stockholm, together with the same two colleagues who had accompanied me to the PAC'97. We lived in a hotel in the city center. Because the city is located relatively northern, the nights were rather short. We visited the Gamla Stan, the Vasa Museum, Skansen and other sights. The conference reception and banquet were held at the Stadshuset.
With a colleague and long-year friend I made a vacation in the western part of the USA. The vacation consisted of a two week long circular tour plus one week in Los Angeles. The tour went through California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada. It was extremely diversified, with lots of breathtaking sights both of nature and by human.
The tour started in Anaheim (Los Angeles). The first day we drove to San Diego near the border to Mexico. Along the way we visited San Juan Capistrano and SeaWorld. Next day we went east to Scottsdale (Phoenix). Then we drove north towards the Grand Canyon. Along the way we stopped at Montezuma Castle, a small town built into a cliff, and passed the Red Rock and Oak Creek Ridge. The Grand Canyon really is breathtaking. We made a scenic flight with Grand Canyon Airlines.
After that we drove through the Painted Desert to Lake Powell, also known as Glen Canyon. We visited the huge dam and made a boat trip on the lake. Then the way led us to Bryce Canyon, which is a valley with bizzare rock columns. On the way there we also passed the small, but nice Red Canyon.
Through the Zion National Park we reached Las Vegas with its famous casino strip. We spent the night in the Sahara Casino. Then it was on to Death Valley where we stayed at the Furnace Creek Ranch. The next day we drove through the Sequoia National Park, where can be found the largest trees of the world. We reached the Yosemite National Park, which consists of massive granite rocks and has beautiful waterfalls. Then we came to San Francisco. We spent a whole day there. For example we drove the Cable Cars, walked the Golden Gate Bridge and made a harbour cruise. We also made a visit to SLAC at Stanford.
After that we drove south along the pacific coast, through Monterey, Carmel, Grover Beach and Santa Barbara, back to Los Angeles. For the last week we stayed at the Figueroa Hotel in downtown LA. During that week we made the Angels Walk, stayed at Disneyland and Universal Studios, and visited Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Venice Beach and Malibu. We saw the Griffith Observatory, the ship Queen Mary, the Hollywood Entertainment Museum, the Hollywood Wax Museum and the Wells Fargo Museum.
For more pictures please visit the photo page of Jens Barth.
I attended the TESLA/TTF Collaboration Meeting held in Frascati near Rome. The weekend after the meeting I visited the city with its antique buildings and ruins, its numerous beautiful churches and places. I started at the Colosseo, then walked through the Foro Romano and Palatino, the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II., the Fontana di Trevi to the Piazza di Spagna. The next day I walked from the Citta del Vaticano over the Gianicolo to Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.
