Project Meeting in Innsbruck
I reported before, that currently I am part of a bi-national project called Meet and Greet. The project is concerned with Roman fora, so public places, and how they were used. It is a joint venture of the Universities of Cologne and Basel, but we also collaborate with the University of Innsbruck in Austria. This year’s project meeting (15.-16.11.2024) was in Austria and we were guests of the University of Innsbruck.
The meeting
I don’t want to bore you with too many details about the meeting. We basically came together to update us of our progress and to welcome a new member of the research group. The meeting itself could have been done virtually as well. However, I agree that meeting in person at least once a year is vital for a projects progress. It is not only about updating everyone but talking to each other in the coffee breaks and over dinner.
It was quite nice really. We had a full day of presentations, got a tour of the new archaeological institute and its integrated museum (that wasn’t officially opened yet). It was a really nice building and studying there seems like a good idea. I reported also about my progress in automatically analysing RTI imagery, but it was a rather short presentation. Nevertheless, afterwards we had some new ideas.
The city
On the first day, the Christmas market opened in the city, and we had several occasions to walk over it. On our meeting day, we actually spent our lunch time there, as there are many food stalls. The old town of Innsbruck is actually very beautiful with medieval alleys, old houses, and many individual shops (in contrast to Starbucks chains…).
One thing that you will be aware of immediately is the view. From nearly every point in the city, you can see the alps. That view was stunning and I catch myself staring at the mountains and missing my green light a few times. I don’t know what it is, but staring at mountains or the sea is immensely calming. I decided at some point, I want to return for a couple days longer to also get up these mountains…
The Strudel!
Then there was Strudel! Well, there were many things to eat, and I tried (for research reasons) a lot of them. The Strudel however was really really good, so I ended up bringing quite a lot back to Germany for my family. There was one shop in particular, that I really liked: Strudel Cafe Kröll. If you end up there, you won’t make a mistake.
Innsbruck is a town you can easily walk through. Well, not all of it, but the inner part with its old town, university, the river Inn, and countless cafés, bars and restaurants. It is embedded into the alps, and you can see them all the time. In addition, the air is fresh and people nice. If you have the chance to go, I can recommend it. There are also archaeological museums around, if you wonder…
