Click here for photos from Day 6.
The day started by going to the Hauptbanhof one final time to return the rental car, and leave for Prague. It was a stressful morning because we could not figure out the precise location to return the car, which caused tension and unhappiness. We had two trains to take: one to Dresden, which would take us across Germany close to the Czech border, and another from there to Prague. With a one hour wait in Dresden, the total trip was about six hours.
We had a 6-seat car all to ourselves, which gave us lots of room to stretch out. We read, I worked on photos and the diary. Beth napped.
The ride to Dresden was wonderfully picturesque. It was difficult to choose which photos I should publish on-line, so I published a lot of them.
In Dresden we had time to kill. Like Würzburg, I couldn't help but think how the beautiful train station was, in contrast to how the city was demolished during World War II.
I looked for an English language book or magazine. I had no luck but I skimmed some of the German technology mags. I read a Java magazine and an Eclipse magazine. There were articles about the Google projects Android and Google Web Toolkit, and one about Mik Kirsten and Mylyn. I was sorry I couldn't understand them.
However, by now I had gotten pretty good at being able to pronounce German phrases, and I finally managed to say "Vo ist" to get most of my queries across. Maybe this will come in handy later on.
Beth found a lovely market in the station called Marché, the freshness and quality of the food was truly amazing. It was great to have a nice healthy, primarily raw salad, and Beth's golash was very good. Beth also got yeast almond rolls that she claims were "fabu". I agree.
We boarded the next train to Prague. Nobody asked to see our passports when we crossed the border. When we first entered the Czech Republic, Beth gave me a kiss and said "Welcome to the Czech Republic!" I said, "Maybe we should play some czechers! Maybe we should czech it out!" And Beth said: "Czech, Czech it, yeah" We are original.
We arranged in advance for a car to take us to the hotel. This is generally considered a wise move in Prague because the taxi drivers are notorious for ripping off tourists. Our driver was an aggressive driver, even to go so far as drive the wrong way down a one-way street. This street turned out to be the one where our hotel was. I'm still sort of puzzled by it.
Hotel Josef is a 'boutique' hotel. Indeed it is. Plastic and bare and clean. It seems to cater to the Americans (given the large number of Americans in the hotel) but then again, so does Prague in general. Don't get me wrong, this is a fabulous hotel. It amazed me how we really did not need to know any Czech to get around.
We took some photos of the view from our room and went out to walk the streets. We went to Staroméktske to kill some time. We watched the Astronomer's Clock tick 7 and then got dinner.
Back to the room, and then to sleep.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Vacation Day 5: Würzburg -> Ostheim -> Würzburg -> Frankfurt
Click here for photos from Day 5.
In the morning we found out that the banging from the night before was due to a plumber repairing a broken water pipe. In the way of an apology, we were given a small bottle of sparkling wine and nougat chocolates. The breakfast in this hotel was similar to the Hotel Post in Frankfurt. Notably, one of the cereals was a chocolate cereal with some small chocolate flakes and Nutella-filled pillows! This cereal was not messing around, and makes Cookie Crisp look like a health-food item. Damn, it was good.
We walked through Würzburg, did some bird watching, shopping, and stepped in to the Dom Cathedral, and got a chance to listen to its organ play as part of its noontime sermon. After lots of dawdling (and some great bird watching), we finally drove to Ostheim. Instead of taking the Autobahn we rode on local, slower roads that took us through local towns.
Our very first reaction to Ostheim was that, it smelled like cow dung. This discouraged Beth but she got over it since that was only noticeable at the entry to the town. We parked our car in front of the organ museum in Ostheim and walked to see what we could find.
Ostheim is home to St. Michael's Church, which was a Catholic church turn Lutheran in the 18th centrury. Nobody was watching the church, and we were allowed to enter as we saw fit. I wonder if it will stay that way in 30 years. The ornamentation was clearly very old, older than most anything we've seen on this trip. I was particularly taken with it.
Next we went to a recommended local restaurant, Kaak, where Beth had more schnitzel and I ordered pork medallions in green peppercorn sauce. (Green peppercorn sauce seems to be a trend here in Eastern Europe.) Hot damn, yet another amazingly succulent meal. At least this time it came with a salad, and even that was delicious. It was like a cole slaw that grew up to be its own course. Full of dill and yummy scrummy.
We returned to Würzburg to have dessert at the Franconian restaurant. Beth ordered Warm Chocolate Cake. We both agreed that their main courses were more awesome. Finally we returned to the Hotel Post in Frankfurt for a night's sleep in preparation for the next day's trip to Prague.
In the morning we found out that the banging from the night before was due to a plumber repairing a broken water pipe. In the way of an apology, we were given a small bottle of sparkling wine and nougat chocolates. The breakfast in this hotel was similar to the Hotel Post in Frankfurt. Notably, one of the cereals was a chocolate cereal with some small chocolate flakes and Nutella-filled pillows! This cereal was not messing around, and makes Cookie Crisp look like a health-food item. Damn, it was good.
We walked through Würzburg, did some bird watching, shopping, and stepped in to the Dom Cathedral, and got a chance to listen to its organ play as part of its noontime sermon. After lots of dawdling (and some great bird watching), we finally drove to Ostheim. Instead of taking the Autobahn we rode on local, slower roads that took us through local towns.
Our very first reaction to Ostheim was that, it smelled like cow dung. This discouraged Beth but she got over it since that was only noticeable at the entry to the town. We parked our car in front of the organ museum in Ostheim and walked to see what we could find.
Ostheim is home to St. Michael's Church, which was a Catholic church turn Lutheran in the 18th centrury. Nobody was watching the church, and we were allowed to enter as we saw fit. I wonder if it will stay that way in 30 years. The ornamentation was clearly very old, older than most anything we've seen on this trip. I was particularly taken with it.
Next we went to a recommended local restaurant, Kaak, where Beth had more schnitzel and I ordered pork medallions in green peppercorn sauce. (Green peppercorn sauce seems to be a trend here in Eastern Europe.) Hot damn, yet another amazingly succulent meal. At least this time it came with a salad, and even that was delicious. It was like a cole slaw that grew up to be its own course. Full of dill and yummy scrummy.
We returned to Würzburg to have dessert at the Franconian restaurant. Beth ordered Warm Chocolate Cake. We both agreed that their main courses were more awesome. Finally we returned to the Hotel Post in Frankfurt for a night's sleep in preparation for the next day's trip to Prague.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Vacation Diary Day 4: Frankfurt -> Würzburg
Click here for photos from Day 4
We tried waking up early with no luck and took the train back to the Hauptbahnhof to rent a car for two days. The plan was to go to the town of Ostheim, via Würzburg. So we drive to Würzburg, a small town that was 85% destroyed in 1945. In fact, most of the town was rebuilt, including the churches and the Residenz, the palace for the local prince-bishop. All the reconstruction is gorgeous. If we hadn't been told that the entire city had been destroyed and rebuilt, we wouldn't have known it. Würzburg has about 130,000 people, and so is an active city in its own right, but it's also a fantastic tourist location, with pretty streets reasonable shops and great restaurants.
We had a nice visit to the Residenz, home to one of the largest frescoes in the world (one of the few parts of the castle to survive the bombing.) It was an awesome piece of work. The artist intentionally placed Europe as the pinnacle of civilization, and Würzburg as its center. You're not allowed to take pictures of the Residenz, but this person managed to take some nice ones:
We drove to a restaurant recommended by the folks from Lonely Planet with authentic Franconian food. We started with Fränkenische Mostsuppe, a local specialty: wine soup (with a mushroom base and cinnamon croutons.) Beth ordered Sauerbraten, a pork rib with cabbage and dumplings, and I had Rhönlamm lamb in rosemary with zucchini. All the food was un-belivable. So we decided to spend the night in Würzburg. We walked up to a nice enough hotel (thanks again to the Lonely Planet guide) right by the Dom Cathedral and went to sleep.
Until 3:45AM, that is, when we heard banging. Bang! Bang! Bang! On and on for 45 minutes. Since the hotel's front door was locked at 10PM, and no staff was around until 6AM, Beth thought someone was trying to get in. So I tried calling the police, but I couldn't figure out how to do it from the hotel phone. We were on our own. Finally the banging stopped and we went to sleep.
We tried waking up early with no luck and took the train back to the Hauptbahnhof to rent a car for two days. The plan was to go to the town of Ostheim, via Würzburg. So we drive to Würzburg, a small town that was 85% destroyed in 1945. In fact, most of the town was rebuilt, including the churches and the Residenz, the palace for the local prince-bishop. All the reconstruction is gorgeous. If we hadn't been told that the entire city had been destroyed and rebuilt, we wouldn't have known it. Würzburg has about 130,000 people, and so is an active city in its own right, but it's also a fantastic tourist location, with pretty streets reasonable shops and great restaurants.
We had a nice visit to the Residenz, home to one of the largest frescoes in the world (one of the few parts of the castle to survive the bombing.) It was an awesome piece of work. The artist intentionally placed Europe as the pinnacle of civilization, and Würzburg as its center. You're not allowed to take pictures of the Residenz, but this person managed to take some nice ones:
We drove to a restaurant recommended by the folks from Lonely Planet with authentic Franconian food. We started with Fränkenische Mostsuppe, a local specialty: wine soup (with a mushroom base and cinnamon croutons.) Beth ordered Sauerbraten, a pork rib with cabbage and dumplings, and I had Rhönlamm lamb in rosemary with zucchini. All the food was un-belivable. So we decided to spend the night in Würzburg. We walked up to a nice enough hotel (thanks again to the Lonely Planet guide) right by the Dom Cathedral and went to sleep.
Until 3:45AM, that is, when we heard banging. Bang! Bang! Bang! On and on for 45 minutes. Since the hotel's front door was locked at 10PM, and no staff was around until 6AM, Beth thought someone was trying to get in. So I tried calling the police, but I couldn't figure out how to do it from the hotel phone. We were on our own. Finally the banging stopped and we went to sleep.
Testing on the Toilet
I'm a big fan of Google's internal series called Testing on the Toilet, in which we post Software Testing hints in the bathroom stalls. It's sometimes difficult to effectively write something that fits the TOtT style: it has to be informative, succinct, and comprehensible, to be blunt, readers are only there for a minute or two while they do their business. So most of the articles have to be short and useful. That said, I wrote a small article last year and it made the rounds through the company reading rooms. It took a surprising amount of work to write that small article, requiring several revisions, lots of feedback, and I practiced removing two words where just one would do.
Early in 2007, Google started its public testing blog, and today I see that the article I wrote, "Time is Random" is on there. It's not mind-blowing, but it fits nicely on a single sheet of paper, and applies to areas well beyond keeping time. Dependency injection need not have a framework, sometimes you just need to add a parameter.
Given the nature of the work I do at Google, it's rare that anything I do is seen by the general public, so I just wanted to toot my horn.
Early in 2007, Google started its public testing blog, and today I see that the article I wrote, "Time is Random" is on there. It's not mind-blowing, but it fits nicely on a single sheet of paper, and applies to areas well beyond keeping time. Dependency injection need not have a framework, sometimes you just need to add a parameter.
Given the nature of the work I do at Google, it's rare that anything I do is seen by the general public, so I just wanted to toot my horn.
News Flash: Stanislaw Lem Drawings in Krakow
I'm jumping a few days ahead here, but this is too cool: a small gallery near my hotel is featuring about 30 drawings (and one sculpture) by my favorite writer, Stanislaw Lem. I spent about an hour inside, and I really loved it. Unfortunately none of the sketches were for sale, I would have considered making a purchase. That's all for now - let's pretend we are still in Germany.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Vacation Diary Day 3: Frankfurt
Click here for photos from Day 3
This was a lazy day.
First we had a slow breakfast, and we met a very nice American woman who lives in Vienna. We talked about all sorts of things, and she gave us lots of recommendations for our trip to Vienna. We gave her our one Las Vegas recommendation, where she was going the next day. I think I spent about two to three hours with her, she was a brilliant and kind woman. I even helped her for a while with her laptop's virus scanner. Try debugging virus scanner problems in a language you don't understand!
Most of the day was spent filling in gaps for the rest of our trip: hotels in Vienna and Prague, and train tickets for the whole trip. All we had time for, besides lots of lazing and napping. After that we returned to the Hauptbahnhof to get our train tickets, walked around, considered seeing La Boheme at the Frankfurt Opera House (I was way too tired) and settled on eating at a Lebanese restaurant where we possibly had some of the best Lebanese food ever. Also, it had no meat, our first meal without it.
We stopped at a gelato shop. The gelato salesman spoke very little English, but he was able to speak Italian and we spoke Spanish, and we were able to understand each other. I said "¿Puedo tratar este?" which I thought means "Can I try that?" and he gave me a sour look. Whether I was right or not, who knows, but I realized, this isn't the USA, they may not let you sample. OK, so I ordered a small almond gelato and went crazy over it. Beth didn't taste it, her loss.
This was a lazy day.
First we had a slow breakfast, and we met a very nice American woman who lives in Vienna. We talked about all sorts of things, and she gave us lots of recommendations for our trip to Vienna. We gave her our one Las Vegas recommendation, where she was going the next day. I think I spent about two to three hours with her, she was a brilliant and kind woman. I even helped her for a while with her laptop's virus scanner. Try debugging virus scanner problems in a language you don't understand!
Most of the day was spent filling in gaps for the rest of our trip: hotels in Vienna and Prague, and train tickets for the whole trip. All we had time for, besides lots of lazing and napping. After that we returned to the Hauptbahnhof to get our train tickets, walked around, considered seeing La Boheme at the Frankfurt Opera House (I was way too tired) and settled on eating at a Lebanese restaurant where we possibly had some of the best Lebanese food ever. Also, it had no meat, our first meal without it.
We stopped at a gelato shop. The gelato salesman spoke very little English, but he was able to speak Italian and we spoke Spanish, and we were able to understand each other. I said "¿Puedo tratar este?" which I thought means "Can I try that?" and he gave me a sour look. Whether I was right or not, who knows, but I realized, this isn't the USA, they may not let you sample. OK, so I ordered a small almond gelato and went crazy over it. Beth didn't taste it, her loss.
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