So we’re back in Tübingen again. We actually passed through Tübingen a couple of times in the past 6 weeks,  just long enough to do some wash and re-pack the suitcases. This time, though, we have no immediate plans to head out on another trip, so I think I can safely stash those suitcases back in our storage room for a while.

I know, I always seem to be talking about going on trips on the blog. But really, we usually don’t have as crazy travel schedule as the one we had this past month and a half. Since March 18, in a 6-week period that was book-ended by Chris’ invited talks at 2 conferences as well as by visits to 2 special photography exhibits by 20th century American female photographers, we have been to places in 2 countries and spent time in 8 cities. That’s not counting unexpected long layovers at other cities with the airports, nor stop in towns when the train plans changed as we were riding the trains (e.g. the time we spent in Fulda due to a transfer we were suddenly forced to make when the train we were on decided to end in Frankfurt).

Overall, we took 5 flights, rented 2 cars and rode on at least 15 trains, plus an assortment of subways, trams, buses, shuttles and taxis. We didn’t take any ships that I recall, but it’s one of the few modes of transportation we overlooked.

And we actually had a lot of luck, that necessary stop in Fulda not-with-standing. Although I worried about the weather on the East Coast in March, we got really lucky. Other than hail-storm delays in Atlanta, we didn’t run into other really bad weather on the trip. And we managed to time the train travel around the unexpected snow storms they had here and there in Europe during the past 4 weeks.

Although it still seemed like winter (cold or colder) most everywhere we went Germany,  the weather never seemed to be the reason that almost every train we took was delayed. But as I said, even there we had some luck, too; the one time we thought we were definitely going to miss our connecting train, the connecting train was also delayed as well as. Whew.

And, I have to mention, there was one train that was on time. But that was the replacement train for the train we were supposed to have been on,  which had been cancelled completely. So, I don’t think I should have to count that as completely on time, do you?

But I digress.

Anyway, I’m not really complaining – it’s been quite fun to be dashing all over the place, although a bit hectic. In the past 6 weeks we haven’t spent a Saturday in the same city twice. But the summer semester starts today at the University of Tübingen, and so we’ll be a little more sedentary in the coming weeks as we get back into a more regular routine.

Which is good, since that will give me a chance to catch up on sorting the photos and posting about all the places we visited in the last 6 weeks:

• In Germany:
  Berlin
  Potsdam
  Leipzig
  Munich
• In the US:
  New Jersey
  Connecticut
  Massachusetts
  Florida

Look for more about those places coming soon.

Now, since Spring weather has finally arrived here in Tübingen today, I’m jokingly referring to this next period as our “Spring Break”. I.e., we’ll be hanging out at home in Tübingen, catching up on everything. To celebrate, then, the beginning of our “Spring Break”, I’ll leave you with a peek a standard destination for most people’s Spring Break: Florida. Now, we weren’t in the part of Florida where all the university students go for their “Spring Break”, but this photo — one of the final ones I took on our last day in Florida 2 weeks ago, caught my eye as I scanned through them quickly this morning.  Let’s call it “Daybreak”, as it was indeed taken at sunrise. This photo is just out of the camera, without tinkering on the computer. Now, when I took the photo I did deliberately set the camera so it was a little darker, which allows the brilliance of the sun to not be too overwhelming.

Enjoy.

“Daybreak”, over Indialantic Beach, Florida, April 2013