{"id":5297,"date":"2022-06-13T08:20:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T08:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=5297"},"modified":"2022-09-19T18:28:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T18:28:41","slug":"family-macula-in-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2022\/06\/13\/family-macula-in-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Family & Macula in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>With Macula Society<\/a> taking place in Berlin this year, I had hoped to bring Melody and Westley to visit my relatives in Germany. But with rising Omicron<\/a> infections and geopolitical tensions with Russia<\/a>, I ended up traveling solo. My first flight<\/a> from SMF on Saturday was delayed, requiring a scramble that landed me in Munich. Fortunately, the speedy ICE<\/a> trains got me to Luneburg in just under 7 hours, which felt like a cinch with pastries<\/a> and Wi-Fi<\/a> on board. I arrived at Aunt Phuong\u2019s house in the evening, filled on her bun nem, then overcame jet lag to sleep through the night in my nephew\u2019s room. I awoke Sunday to homemade banh mi and a tour of my aunt\u2019s garden. They introduced to me a promotional 9-euro ticket<\/a> that provided unlimited access to public transportation in June, which provided a whirlwind tour of Hamburg including the Rathaus<\/a>, a harbor ferry ride<\/a>, and the Elbphilharmonie<\/a> observation deck. Anh Hung met us there, shared hazelnuss ice-cream, then strolled through the glitzy HafenCity<\/a> waterfront, past a Ukraine photo exhibit at St. Michael\u2019s Church<\/a>, to seafood at Casa Madeira<\/a> in the Portuguese quarter<\/a>. We walked off our dinner at the red light district in St. Pauli<\/a>, including the infamous Herbertstra\u00dfe<\/a> where women were not allowed. On Monday, more relatives drove from M\u00fcnster to join us for Chinese buffet,<\/a> followed by desserts at my aunt\u2019s home, where Andreas gave me an in-depth lesson in bee keeping. I awoke early next morning for a train to the Ritz-Carlon Berlin<\/a> at Potsdamer Platz<\/a>, which the Macula Society had managed to completely book for members only. After wowing at the 5-star room amenities, I went for Sichuan zajiang nudeln at Liu<\/a>, checked out an Assisi Panorama<\/a>, Checkpoint Charlie<\/a>, and Topography of Terror<\/a>, then returned to the meeting and welcome reception. I gave my talk on Thursday, then after lunch at the hotel, explored the murals at East Side Gallery<\/a> before joining UW<\/a> colleagues for a 3-course tasting menu of upscale German fare at Kurpfalz Weinstuben<\/a>. Early Friday, I tested myself for COVID via telehealth<\/a> using an antigen test kit<\/a> from my friend Lejla, just one day before the U.S. lifted testing requirements, but cleared me to play hookie by visiting the Holocaust Memorial<\/a>, Bandenburg Gate<\/a>, Reichstag building<\/a>, Pergamon Museum<\/a>, and Berliner Dom<\/a>. I was most impressed by the Reichstag glass dome<\/a>, where the audioguide was triggered automatically by location, as well as the Ishtar Gate of Babylon<\/a> and Islamic art collection at the Pergamon. For lunch, I went to Lebensmittel Mitte<\/a> for hearty k\u00e4sesp\u00e4tzle, but could not get a seat at Zur Letzten Instanz<\/a> for their pork knuckle. I spent the afternoon shopping<\/a> for a messenger bag, but instead got an iris photograph<\/a> as personal art. Swimming at the Ritz and banquet at Frank Gehry’s Axica<\/a> reminded me of the high life of retina and the costs of this trip, which fortunately was offset by a travel grant. On Saturday, I headed to the airport after getting currywurst and fries at Curry 36<\/a> at Berlin HBF<\/a>, and suffered another tight connection in Munich before my usual dinner stop<\/a> at SFO on the way home. I was glad to catch up with relatives, but sad that I didn’t have my family with me. Unfortunately, I developed a bad cough after getting back, so it’ll be another few days before I feel really home again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Macula Society taking place in Berlin this year, I had hoped to bring Melody and Westley to visit my relatives in Germany. But with rising Omicron infections and geopolitical tensions with Russia, I ended up traveling solo. My first … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5297"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5441,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5297\/revisions\/5441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}