International Photos

This is a collection of photos taken on international travel. They include trips to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East.

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2003

The trip to Madrid, Spain was my first international travel. I gave a talk on the Internet2 implementation of IPv6. I was able to take in a bull fight and found it bloody but at least interesting.

2004

2004 saw three international travel events, all for Internet2. The first was a trip to Berlin to meet with the research and education network in Germany, and then on to Geneva to meet with the networkers at the CERN collider. Networking to the collider was extremely important to Internet2. It is a major scientific experiment putting out an enormous amount of data that must reach the scientists in the United States. That data is typically carried across European networks, then across internationally supported peering fiber spans, and then to educational institutions connected to Internet2. The second trip was to Cambridge, UK to meet with the European R&E network GEANT, and third was to London, for the same reason. An interesting thing happpened as I drove my rental car into Cambridge, a city that has been there for many centuries, and where the roads were simply defined as needed. In contast a city like Chicago, where I grew up, has streets basically laid out as in a cartesian coordinate system grid. Of course I got completely lost in Cambridge and finally stopped to ask someone my location. He said he was going near my destination, so he hopped in to guide my way. He was a professor of mathematcis at Cambridge Univerity and we had a wonderful conversation. The trip to London was also interesting because Carolyn flew in by herself after the meeeting was over and we did a couple of days of sight seeing. She was undoubtedly a nervous reck flying alone on an international flight, but I would not say that to anyone, On all of these trips, I took time to take many photos.

2005

In 2005 my international trips included Italy, Germany, France, China, and England. The trip to France was to attend an IETF meeting and the trip to China was to attend a CANS meeting. The others were to represent Internet2 and give talks about the R&E networking efforts in the United States. The trip to China was especially interesting and included cities like Hong Kong, Shenzen, Dalian, and Beijing.

2006

International travel in 2006 included trips to Ireland, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and Poland. The trip to Japan was especially interesting because Carolyn and I were able to take in a night of Sumo wrestling and a day at the Tokyo Modern Art Museum. The trip to Sweden was to visit the Onsala Space Center where a large radio telescope is located. Staying an extra day there allowed me to drive north through the Swedish countrysiide almost to Norway. The last trip was to Krakow, Poland to give a talk about Internet2's current projects. I was able to take a bus from Krakow to Auschwitz and it becamme one of the most sobering experiences of my life.

2007

The international travel for 2007 included trips to Italy and the Netherlands to visit with the folks from GARR and SurfNet, a trip to Abuja, Nigeria to give a talk at AFREN, a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark for the TERENA meeting, a trip tp Prague in the Czech Republic for a GLIF meeting, and finally, back to the Netherlands to visit with SurfNet.

2008

The trip to Athens, Greece was, to say the least, interesting. Carolyn and I did a lot of sight seeing, but the way home was most unusual. We got to the airport in plenty of time, and as we were sitting at the gate watching our plane being loaded, it started to snow. For Athens it was the first snow in twenty years, and it became a Michigan style blizzard, one where we could no longer see the plane. The flight was cancelled, of course, but the taxi ride back to the hotel, over snow covered interstate with a driver who had no clue how to drive in the snow, was more than harrowing. The trip to Brugges in Belgium was extremely pleasent and the beer was outstanding. Trips to Brazil and Germany followed, and then a nice trip to New Zealand with my friend Heather Boyles. In September, Internet2 hosted a meeting of many of the International R&E netorks and Carolyn and I hosted a cookout for the participants at our home in Manchester, MI.

2009

For 2009, international travel included just two trips, one to Venice and the other to Thailand. Carolyn traveled with me on both trips. The Venice trip was for Internet2, but we stayed several days extra to explore Venice, and we took several side trips to Murano, Burano, and Torcello, islands off the coast near Venice. The trip to Thailand was purely vacation, and included several days in Hua Hin, south of Bangkok along the coast. An interesting situatin happened flying into the Bangkok airport. We took a taxi to our hotel and got to talking with the driver. We told him about spending time in Hua Hin and he offered to take us down there (about a two hour drive) and pick us up a couple days later. He was a really nice guy and drove us to several places around Bangkok.

2010

Travel in 2010 was my last for Internet2 since I retired soon after. In May I gave a talk at the ANKABUT meeting in Abu Dhabi. They flew me first class into Dubai taking 14 hours and, unusually, I was able to sleep. The second trip was a personal one, flying to Mexico City and then onto Zihuatenajo for our friend Ana Preston's wedding. It was a wonderful trip and Mexico is highly underrated. We had a wonderful time in Mexico City and Ixtapa. The last trip was to Nicaraqua where I gave a talk at the CLARA meeting and then drove from Managua to Granada to take pictures. The meeting ended with a performance of beautiful Nicaraguan dances.