Germany -- Day 3, off to Marburg

Today (26 July 2009), Carlos and I were ready to leave the big city (Frankfurt) and get out to Marburg, a small college town about an hour north. We headed out to Café Eifler again for a pastry and coffee breakfast. We had the morning to hang out and look around before leaving for Marburg so we headed back to the Römerberg to look around. We had a relaxing lunch at a pizza place downtown, then walked back to the hotel, packed up, and checked out.

Around 2 pm our friend Emanuel and his wife Nina picked us up from the hotel and we all drove together to Marburg. We passed through some cute countryside and I experienced my first autobahn (some cars were zooming past FAST). Eventually we found out hotel (thanks Emanuel and Nina!) and Carlos and I checked in. We stayed in the Hotel Marburger Hof which was really nice -- we even had a discount since we reserved the hotel through the conference organizers. Our hotel was really cute, comfortable, close to the conference venue, and even had a fantastic and elaborate breakfast -- I really liked it! We were located right across the street from a pretty church -- the Elisabethkirche.

After getting settled, we walked to the Audimax conference center (about a 10 minute walk from the hotel through the old botanical garden) and received our conference program and other registration materials. I also set up my poster in it’s designated spot; I had a great spot on the ground floor near the entrance!

Later in the evening, Carlos and I walked up and up a zillion stairs to Landgrave Castle for the icebreaker party that signified the beginning pf the ATBC conference. We met up with all of our La Selva friends there (it was great to see everyone again!) and basically hung out, chatted, and ate good food for a couple of hours until the party ended. Landgrave Castle was really pretty and offered a great view of Marburg. After the icebreaker, we (La Selva gang) got some ice cream, then got some drinks (I had my first apfelwein) before eventually all heading our separate ways to our hotels. Tomorrow is the real beginning of the conference!