The Sixth International Symposium on Neurobiology and Neuroendocrinology of Aging was held from July 21-26, 2002 in Kloster Mehrerau, Bregenz, Austria - the same location as the 5 previous. It is a very picturesque area from the abbey to the old town to the business and residential sections. Kitty captured some of the visual "flavor" for posterity.
We spent 5 nights at the Gasthof Lamm, a guest house and restaurant on the west end of Bregenz which, from our walks in the area, appeared primarily residential including short-term for vacations. An enormous welcoming buffet reception was held in the dining room in the building behind Tom (Paul) on Sunday night after we arrived; we also ate all our breakfasts here each day. (Read a bit more) Kloster Mehrerau is situated about 1/4 mi beyond Tom (Paul), just a short walk from our room; and there were blackberries growing wild on a fence we passed - yumm.
Our room was the corner one on the second floor in the building behind Tom (Paul). Kitty really liked the windows which were double hinged so that they could swing in either sideways or from the top down. The first arrangement permitted her to take the shot from our room of the monastery's church tower in the distance on a cloudy late afternoon.
As Kitty has written elsewhere, we supplemented our less than well balanced diet, with purchased vegetables and fruit (peanut butter too), eating them in our room most evenings.
Kloster Mehrerau is an operating monastery that serves as a teaching facility, primarily residential (this was semester break). It grows its own flowers and vegetables, though we didn't see as many of the latter as we would have liked.
It was only a short walk from the lake to the monastery grounds; we familiarized ourselves the very first day.
The newer building seen here is primarily classrooms and housed the conference presentation sessions. The organizer of the Conference can be seen in the 3rd floor right open window (near photo) as we approached the second morning taking a different route from the guest house.
The group of attendees was small enough that most people who wanted to were able to ask questions.
Lunches were provided in the ground floor dining room where students would eat during the school year. (Sorry for the blurred shot.)
The poster session on Thursday evening, held in the entry way of the newer building, was accompanied with wine, cheese, meats, and fruit - very good. Several of the posters were very interesting; Kitty's shots of the most valuable to us were not close enough to discern important details. Rats!
While most of the Bregenz we saw during our walks was quite modern, some of the older section has been preserved and is quite picturesque. The sheep are grazing on the steep slope up the road beyond Kitty.
Bregenz is easily reached by train; the haptbahnhaf (main train station) is seen in the first photo at the curve in the main highway (190) that goes through the town. Bicycles are plentiful and pedestrian "traffic" was significant during our daylight walks.
This skateboard park, located near the train station, was getting a fair amount of usage from a group of young boys as we walked by on our first exploration.
Much of Bregenz's Bodensee shoreline, with a lovely set of walking and cycling paths, consists of parks with swimming and boating facilities. The tall building in the distance is the Opera House where presentations are part of the city's summer cultural festival. The German shoreline can be see across the lake on the right side of the picture. The Bodensee borders Switzerland, Austria and Germany.
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