Mile-High Marvels

Denver, the Mile-High City, is located at an elevation of exactly one mile above sea level. Back when I was seven and when my parents and I lived in the neighboring city of Boulder, I would frequent Denver. I remembered the awe and thrill I experienced when I first encountered the magnificent dinosaur fossils at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (back then known as the Denver Museum of Natural History). While the ATS 2015 conference, which I was attending there, did not leave me with much time to explore, I knew I had to go back and meet my prehistoric friends again! In the end, I managed to make brief trips to the aquarium, the zoo, and of course the museum of nature and science. One of the most surreal experiences during the trip was dining at the aquarium restaurant where you can relax and watch shoals of fish swim around colorful corals while you relish a generous serving of their kin on your plate. 

Dining on fish and with fish at the aquarium

Macadamia-crusted trout and some creamy hot chocolate. Note: Colorado has some of the tastiest trout in the country. 

In and Around Seattle

I was in Seattle for the IEEE NSS MIC earlier this month. Interestingly enough, there was no rainy welcome. The weather was in fact uncharacteristically dry and surprisingly chilly. A packed schedule left me with very little time for exploration. But I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the boisterous Pike Place Market and the city's popular landmark, the Space Needle. The conference banquet was held inside the Seattle Museum of Flight, which has a splendid collection of aircrafts from all eras, particularly those used during World Wars I and II. On the day after the conference ended, I went on a hike to the Big Four Ice Caves. A fairly nice trip overall, although I was chilled to my bones on more than one occasion. A brief photo tour follows starting with the splendid display of jumbo crabs at the Pike Place Market on my first day in the city and closing with one such succulent crustacean on my plate on my last day!

A Blissfully Swiss Adventure

Switzerland is a fascinating combination of natural beauty and German engineering. Vast and numerous water bodies and plenty of greenery along with the majestic Swiss Alps make way for the most picturesque and pristine landscapes. Add to that some cable cars, cogwheel trains, and funicular trams to access every summit, high or low, and you have more attractions to check off your list at every destination than you can possibly cover, however long your stay. So, in short, rain or shine, you can't be a bored tourist there. During my short Swiss trip, I camped in Zurich and backpacked around armed with a Swiss Pass, which allows unlimited use of almost all forms of transport, including most trains, buses, and boats.  

To Brittany and Beyond

Six years ago I blogged about my extraordinary experience at the IEEE EMBS summer school in Brittany, France. We were on a tiny tidal island in the Gulf of Morbihan near the Bay of Biscay. This summer I was back there again as a lecturer and had an even more fabulous experience. The school relocated to the Côte d'Armor area, and we were housed in a lovely abbey on a narrow peninsula jutting into the English Channel. Brittany (French: Bretagne, Breton: Breizh) has a rich history. A very long time ago our Neanderthal cousins would roam the place. More recently, it has been home to Celtic populations. The local vernacular Breton (nowadays largely overshadowed by French) is a close relative of Welsh, Cornish, Scottish, and other Celtic languages from Great Britain. Parts of Brittany were occupied or destroyed during WWII. In fact my visit to the city of Saint Malo strongly reminded me of a great novel I read based in the then German-occupied Guernsey, an island not far away from the Saint Malo coast. The trip to Saint Malo, which was part of the school program, was on the night of the Fête de la Musique, a music festival that takes place on summer solstice, the longest day of the year. After a fascinating tour of the historic walled part of the city, which was wiped out during WWII and rebuilt later, we roamed around listening to an assortment of local bands playing music from genres ranging from traditional Scottish or Breton to French or English rock. I tried some delectable kouign-amann from a local bakery and dined on buckwheat crepes (both the savory version, known as a galette in Brittany, and a sweet version with salted caramel), a Breton specialty. The school program also arranged for a trip to Dinan, a medieval town nearby, where we walked down to the beautiful banks of the river Rance. Like last time, school menu featured regular seafood extravaganzas with juicy langoustines, mussels, scallops, escargots (sea snails), oysters, and fish. Not a desserts person, I would still find it hard to resist the mouth-watering crumbles and cakes. I also got to taste the far, a flan-like traditional Breton dessert. The fresh fruit plucked from the abbey gardens were otherworldly. 

A Visit to Vancouver

I visited Vancouver last week for the SNMMI 2013 Annual Meeting. With the ocean, mountains, ample greenery, terrific weather, and scenic parks and bridges, the place is utterly breathtaking! The perfectly mouthwatering Asian food is an added bonus. So what if it rains a bit every now and then? This Bostonian can handle rain. :-) What I covered in the little time I had is by all means just the tip of the iceberg. Here are some snapshots of the city and a few of its landmarks.

The city and Burrard Inlet as viewed while walking along the Seawall, "a scenic 22 km path that lines Vancouver’s waterfront."

Rediscovering Mughal Majesty

Last month an opportunity to revisit Agra came my way! Once the capital of the Mughal empire of India, Agra today is a tourist magnet owing to the many majestic Mughal monuments it houses. My trip was brief, and we only managed to cover the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, and Itimad-ud-Daulah (the first three happen to be UNESCO World Heritage Sites). The Taj Mahal, a marble mausoleum built by emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, stands on the banks of the Yamuna river. The Agra Fort, with its august red sandstone facade, intricate layout, and lavish interiors was built over many hundreds of years by multiple monarchs, both Mughal and non-Mughal. The tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah, built by Nur Jahan, wife of Mughal emperor Jahangir, for her parents, like the Taj Mahal, also stands on the bank of the Yamuna. Fatehpur Sikri happens to be a city under the district of Agra. The Mughal capital shifted from the city of Agra to Fatehpur Sikri during the reign of Akbar, who built this city in honor of the Sufi saint Salim Chishti after the saint's blessing supposedly gave the king his first male heir! Without further ado, the photo tour commences:

The Taj Mahal, a white marble mausoleum built by emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, stands on the banks of the Yamuna river. Shah Jahan was quite a fan of white marble and it was brought all the way from the state of Rajasthan. Today the monument is struggling in the throes of pollution which has severely compromised the condition of the marble.

Discovering Madrid

It is a city teeming with life, an art-lover's paradise, and one of the greenest cities in the world. The official symbol of Madrid is an upright bear next to a Madroño tree, displayed in form of an almost 20 ton statue at Puerta del Sol, the city center.

The bear and the Madroño tree at Puerta del Sol. The Madroño tree is often referred to as a strawberry tree as it bears little red berries that look similar to strawberries.  

¡Hola Valencia!

The schedule was tight. The rain posed a formidable challenge. Yet, thankfully, I got to explore bits and pieces of this eponymous capital of the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia. The cityscape of Valencia is a strikingly unique blend of the past, the present, and the future. The architecture ranges from Gothic splendor to flamboyant postmodernism interspersed densely with mundane arrays of lackluster modern midrise apartment buildings.  

In the Land of the Rising Sun

Long before my Japan trip, I absolutely fell in love with Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji, a fascinating collection of woodblock prints, some of which happen to be on display at the LACMA. While the limited duration of my trip and the busy conference schedule made it difficult to plan a trip to this active volcano and the highest mountain in Japan, my flight to Kyoto offered me a spectacular surprise: Mount Fuji, with its strikingly symmetrical cone was peeking at me through the cloud covers! Thus commenced my glorious adventure in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Kiwi Travelogue

Hundreds of years ago groups of seafaring, adventure-loving Polynesian explorers set sail in canoes (or wakas, as they called them) and discovered an uninhabited group of islands in the South Pacific. They became the first settlers in the lush and green wonderland full of exotic birdlife. Many of them perished in the cold. But then they learned to heat up rocks to keep themselves warm at night, make tools out of sea shells, and make warm clothing from flax fiber, feathers, and fur. They carved out a niche for themselves in what they named Aotearoa, or the land of the white cloud, a place that was renamed New Zealand by the Dutch in the 17th century. Today, more than 75% of New Zealand's inhabitants live in the North Island. The South Island, to a large extent, continues to be nature's sanctum full of forests, mountains, volcanoes, lakes, fjords, glaciers, and more. In this travelogue, I will share my experiences as I traveled across the North Island from Auckland to Wellington and back.

Malaysia: A Tropical Paradise

It is a lush green wonderland. Not far away from the cities, dark green wooded hills pattern the landscape like clumps of broccoli tops! Not a speck of dust on any leaf thanks to the daily dose of convectional rain. With its staggering biodiversity, every corner of Malaysia seems to be teeming with life. It was here that I had a close brush with a deadly viper out in the wild, held a fabulous stick insect on my arm, and acquired my personal pet insect-hogging pitcher plant! Without further ado, let me share some highlights from this trip. The complete collection of captioned photos are available here. 

France Encore!

I continue living the dream as I made my deuxième voyage to France just months after my first. My destination this time was Nice, a touristic Shangri-La. I did manage to find some time outside the conference schedule to tour the city and regale my appetite with bountiful servings of seafood. After the conference, I decided to say hello to good old Paris and acquaint myself with Versailles, its august neighbor. Below are some photographic highlights from this pleasant trip. The full collection of photos is here.

Un Voyage Extraordinaire

The green meadows of the French countryside dotted with grazing cattle and golden rolls of hay looked like a delightfully serene painting. The deep blue waters of the Gulf of Morbihan stirred gently in playful contemplation as a solitary jellyfish drifted past a stretch of oyster farms. Close by, a charming old mansion stood tall on its own private little island. It was an island so tiny that you could walk around it in less than an hour. And, rather peculiarly, it would cease to be an island, when the tide fell, for a meandering road would surface restoring its connectivity to the mainland. Somewhere inside the mansion a lecture on medical imaging was in progress. And there I was seated in the lecture hall scribbling notes after being jolted out of my jet lag by one too many shots of French espresso!

It was all part of a two-week summer school program on medical imaging under the IEEE EMBS. We were housed on the the little island called Île  de Berder, fed lavish servings of fresh seafood, and instructed by some of the smartest minds in medical imaging. Sounds like stuff that dreams are made of, doesn't it?

The Grass Wasn't Green on Either Side...

In fact there wasn’t any grass anywhere. Oh no, I’m not talking about my recent trip to France. France (especially the French countryside) was very green and simply breathtaking. But, during my return trip, I had an experience—a rare one, and that is what I’m here to share today… I saw Greenland!