Freiburg im Breisgau

It's been a fast and furious last few days! Saturday in Vienna I skipped the first day of my meeting (theoretically the reason we're here 😉). Went to Hofburg in the center of the city. A huge complex of buildings built in stages going back to medieval times, it houses among many things the Spanish Riding School, where we saw the famous Lipazzaner stallions perform what could be best described as a ballet on 4 hooves. (The fact that it is the Spanish and not Austrian school is a cool story worth looking up.)

The Hofburg complex was also the seat of the Habsburg dynasty, and the former winter palace of the king and Princess (not queen). There we went to the SISI museum, named after the nickname of Princess Elisabeth, Sisi, who was the husband of King Franz Ferdinand. She was truly one of the "beautiful people" of the day, much as Princess Diana was. There we learned about her and her husband, and toured the royal palace.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning I attended the reason for coming, the International Symposium on Tick-Borne Pathogens and Disease, ITPD. Droll sounding I know, but actually fascinating as while I knew Europe has many of the diseases carried by ticks here such as Lyme disease, I had no idea they are found throughout Europe, and not restricted to the N. Midwest & NE here. Thus it is a much bigger public health problem for Europeans.

We've made it to Freiburg im Breisgau in the heart of the Black Forest, in SW Germany. There's a story to tell there about the trip but I'll leave it for now.

Peace.Read more