Where are Ron and Ellen?
Summer 2002
Photos, Prague
Dear Family and Friends,
I (Ellen) am now back at home in Virginia, and Ron is in the Ukraine. We last wrote two weeks ago when we had returned to Munich after biking in Denmark.
On Monday 1 July Ron and I took the train from Munich to Prague, a 6.5 hour ride with lovely scenery to watch, both in the German portion and the Czech portion. An interesting woman traveled in our compartment from Nuernberg to Prague. She was going to Prague to meet with a Czech composer and friend, Vaclav Lidl, and expected to bring back sheet music of several of his compositions for a concert later this year celebrating his work (he is in his 80s). In addition to being a concert manager, she has written two travel books (in German) on Nuernberg and the surrounding area. She had recently visited Frederick, Maryland, since the small town where she lives is a sister city with Frederick, and she went as part of an exchange group. My mother lives quite close to Frederick -- small world!
In Prague we stayed in the heart of the old city at a hotel owned by Charles University that was once a privately owned manor house -- huge rooms! Our 3rd floor room (4th floor as Americans count) looked out on a quiet courtyard and tile rooftops, with two beautiful old church towers just beyond the courtyard. My conference was held in an adjoining university building, so our location could not have been more convenient.
The conference, Library and Information Services in Astronomy (affectionately known as LISA), was excellent in content, and the local organizing committee had done a marvelous job arranging everything from technical support for speakers to elegant food at coffee breaks and receptions to a wonderful concert held in the great hall of one of the university's oldest buildings. Many of the people at the meeting have been colleagues and friends of mine for years, so an additional benefit was seeing old friends again.
Ron spent part of the time I was in meetings wandering in Prague, but also came to some of the sessions. He was also involved as the volunteer treasurer of Friends of LISA. Friends of LISA (me, another US astronomy librarian, and a Canadian astronomy librarian, with Ron as treasurer), raised money from publishers, institutions, and individuals to provide financial support so that librarians from developing countries could attend the meeting. We raised almost $18,000 and were able to provide the requested support for all 29 of our applicants. For many, that support included travel, lodging, per diem, and the meeting registration fee; other applicants needed only partial support. Those we supported came from India, China, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, Russia, Ukraine, and several eastern European countries. Ron says being treasurer is a delightful job: he gets to go to interesting places where he gives away someone else's money to fascinating people!
The meeting was Tuesday-Friday, and on Saturday Ron and I had a leisurely day wandering around Prague. Since we had been there in October 2000, we had already visited many of the major sights, so felt we could relax and explore wherever we chose. We've decided Prague is one of our favorite cities.
Sunday I took an early afternoon train from Prague back to Munich and our friend Uta's flat, and Ron took the sleeper to Kosice in eastern Slovakia, leaving at 11 pm and arriving at 9 Monday morning.
While Ron was getting oriented in Kosice, I spent Monday morning at European Southern Observatory (ESO) where Uta is librarian, along with ESO's librarian from Chile, another Chilean librarian, and an Indian librarian. In the afternoon I took the Indian librarian sightseeing in downtown Munich (having been in Munich 3 times, I was the expert!).
Tuesday I flew back to the US, arriving home with the thunderstorm that broke a month-long heat wave but made only a small difference in the ongoing drought here. I had worried that our grass would be so tall when I got home that I wouldn't be able to get the mower through it, but it had been so hot and dry that the grass hadn't grown at all; instead, it is turning brown. (Moral: be careful what you wish for!) I am gradually readjusting my internal clock, working through things waiting for me at work, and today have started dealing with the large box of 6 weeks worth of mail at home. And I've now unpacked everything and done all the laundry!
Ron has sent two brief messages. On Wednesday 10 July he wrote from Michalovce, Slovakia, about 35 km from the Ukraine border, where the bicycle shop let him use their computer briefly so he could let me know where he was. And today he is in the Ukraine, where he had found an Internet cafe and said he planned to go back to it later and write a longer report.
I have my photos of the trip back, so I will be sorting through them and scanning selected ones for the Web site, and will then be posting the photos and the travel letters to the Web. I will let everyone know when they are available. And I'll be sending out Ron's messages as they arrive (although I won't have any photos from his for a while).
Love to all,
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Last updated: 20 July 2002