Business trips, sigh

I'm finally back from an arduous, three week trip to some of the trouble spots of the earth. First up was a conference on ultraviolet astronomy at San Lorenzo de El Escorial, near Madrid, followed by an observing run in Hawaii.

It was my first trip to Spain. Madrid has an amazing number of construction cranes at work. Apparently, a lot of EU money has moved into Spain. Spain (or the tiny corner I saw) had good wine, excellent orange juice (fresh-squeezed, even at the airport), acceptable food (though one will yearn for a green salad after a few days), love affairs with the car horn and the cigarette, and pleasant spring weather.

I liked Madrid. My favorite part of visiting large cities is walking about the neighborhoods and seeing what the locals are up to. I had an amusing conversation with a girl in a shop whose English was about as good as my Spanish (i.e., minimal) about life in Spain vs. the U.S. Madrid also has the Palacio Real, whose sumptuous interiors give a hint as to what Versailles must have been like before it was sacked, and the Prado, which has an outstanding collection. I particularly liked Las Meninas, The Triumph of Death, and all the Velasquez portraits of Philip IV, showing off his impressive Hapsburg jaw. El Escorial meets every stereotype about 16th century Spain you can imagine: it's huge, heavy, imposing, and grim. One can picture the auto de fe in every courtyard. Okay, I exaggerate (a little).

Hawaii was Hawaii; one of my favorite spots on earth. I only spent a day and a half at sea level, though. The rest of the time I was on Mauna Kea, working at 14000 ft and sleeping at 9000 ft (see second picture). I highly recommend paying for one of the tours to the summit if you don't have a professional excuse to go there. The summit is like nothing you've seen before. It looks like the surface of Mars. I was going to say that nothing grows there, but my buddy and I hiked into a lake at 13,000 ft (fed entirely by permafrost) and damned if there wasn't a dandelion growing near the water's edge. Those things will survive anywhere.

The observing went well: summer hours (dawn at 5:30), great observing conditions (6% humidity is hard on the observer but great for infrared astronomy) and a great facility. I would have taken one more day on the beach, though.