Goodbyes and Hello

The last week at eawag went pretty fast.  We did another step of the lab work we've been doing that involves large gels and UV light (which is why I have a 1 inch strip of sunburn on my wrist) that was pretty cool to finish off with.  

Wednesday was my official last day and Deb's too.  She's been post-docing for a year here, so we co-hosted a little apero after work to day our goodbyes.  I made tiramisu from an American recipe, which amused all of them, and Deb made cookies, which is very American too.  It was fun to just sit around and chat.  Afterwards, a lot of us went into town and sat by Lake Zurich for a few hours.  It was so lively there and was fun to just watch the characters passing by. 

Thursday I didn't leave until the evening, so I did my last long run, checked out of my room, and stopped by eawag for a lab meeting and lunch.  I said my real goodbyes and headed up to the Uetliberg with Aline for a last view of Zurich and a last Movenpick ice cream cone.  

I caught my night train at 8:42.  City Night Line trains are so plushplush.  The chairs lean back super far and are really comfortable.  I slept like a baby, and woke up in the Netherlands.  I met Amanda just fine as she was getting off her flight. 

We dropped our bags in a locker and trekked into Amsterdam for a little wander.  All the architecture is so difference and so quaint.  It's really fun to see what people carry around on their bikes.  Sunflowers is popular, but we've also seen hula-hoops, dogs, edibles, and small children.  The canals and sidewalk cafes are really nice.  

We were a little tired by mid-afternoon, so we headed for our next destination, Delft.  One of my friends from Beijing lives here, and its a cute smaller Dutch town with a lot of history.  (Antonie van Leuvwenhoek, the first person to see a bacteria for example).  Our bags are heavy, but we made it to our nice hotel and were informed that we were the first people to book through hotels.nl, so were upgraded to a suite!  So we have a kitchen, lots of closet space and lots of comfy seating for the cocktail party we could host.  Its quite nice.  We went for a little wander in town and found the fresh stroopwafel (cinammony caramel sandwiched between waffel wafers) stand.  Too bad.  It was pretty amazing.  We then watched all the cute children playing on the central square while listening to the nice church bells that seemed to go on forever. 

Today we meet my friend Matthijs at 10 for a little town tour and catching up.  Tomorrow we might try to rent a bike to get around Dutch style for a change.  And we catch a train tomorrow afternoon for Paris.  

We have two guidebooks for paris, Rick Steve's, and Clothilde's Edilble Adventures in Paris, written by a Parisian food-blogger and food enthusiast.  It's pretty great, and we are quite excited.  

                Doesn't Amanda look European?