I left Munich in the dark and snow last Wednesday, and returned home less than a week later to warm sunshine and spring blooms. As it turns out, the World Orchid Conference was a fitting interval between this rather startling change in seasons.
I spent much of the trip to Dijon wondering (a) how I had let a travel agent talk me into taking such a circuitous route, and (b) why said travel agent booked me in a day too early. Though I spent more than a few hours of the twelve hour journey waiting in train stations and cursing missed connections, I also had reason to be grateful. If I had left on Thursday, as I intended, I would have been caught in the nation-wide strike that shut down France’s transportation systems that day. And so, while the majority of delegates were stuck wherever because of the strike, I had time to explore medieval Dijon and visit its museums.
This was to be the theme of the entire week: Frustration and disappointment one moment, followed by unexpected surprises and pleasures the next.
POLLENATRIX 