back from Edinburgh

We got back from Edinburgh and I have to say it was a great trip. The conference stuff all went really well, and even my presentation went well. I was a little bit nervous right before it, but once I got started talking about my research it was fine. People seemed interested and they laughed in the right places. The other talks at the presentation were mostly interesting as well, even though some people's research went straight over my head. All the businessy things I didn't really understand. But overall I can say this was a successful visit and I now feel much better about my PhD than I did before. I guess it was just a matter of seeing so many other people who are doing research in a similar field to mine, and I could see that it isn't completely useless.

The only slightly bad thing about the trip was that I couldn't spend that much time with Neil. Both conference days I pretty much was away all day from 9 am to 5pm, but I guess I shouldn't complain too much. I still had a chance to see the city on Thursday and half of Sunday, and it is a beautiful city... Immer eine Reise wert!

Here are a few pictures:

this is the top bit of the Scott Monument. I took a few more pictures to get the whole thing in sections (or well I thought I did) but the camera must have not saved them because the battery was coming to an end.

This one is the view from Carlton Hill over the city with the Castle at the other end.

This is the view again from Carlton Hill but to the other side. You can even see the sea in the back

This one was taken on the Royal Mile:

and of course we cannot forget the Cows from the Cowparade. here is a small selection of the cows we could find. There is also one designed by KT Tunstall somewhere in Edinburgh...