Day 1 of the conference, which focuses on computational modeling of problems in solid and fluid mechanics.  Turns out there are 3600 attendees, mainly from Europe, the US, Japan, and Korea. I know several people, but for the most part this group is a little outside of my regular crowd.  Did run into UIUC officemate Jim Stewart, now at Sandia, and we had lunch together, in my case a 10 Euro cheese sandwich.  The bread was good.  I spent most of the day in technical sessions, and gave my talk mid-afternoon.  After the happy hour, an ND graduate student and I went to a dinner at the same fine place I was last night.  There is a lot of attention given to good food in this town.  We shared for starters roasted potatoes, really fresh grilled shrimp, roasted peppers, and bread.  The main course was a thin steak along with sautéed mushrooms, peppers, and a really sweet onion.  Mmm. Mmm. good.