Saarbrucken (Germany)
26th March - 2nd April, 2011
The trip: Waterloo -> Toronto Pearson -> Frankfurt -----Train ----> Saarbrucken (Germany)
I think I planned my journey well. One thing I decided not to do was to buy my train ticket from Frankfurt to Saarbrucken. I thought that since the flight might be late I had better get there and then buy my ticket. It turned out that this was not a great idea. I had to stand in the DB Bahn travel centre’s waiting line for over an hour. When my turn came it took only 2 minutes to get the ticket. There were automated ticketing booths but for some reason they would not issue a ticket to my destination.
The two and a half hour journey from FRA to SAR went by without a hitch. I dozed off and on. Got off the train, spent 10 minutes figuring out where to catch the S1 street car (did not want to take a cab). In the end it was all quite easy. Got on the street car and got off at the Kieselhumes station. The ETAP hotel that I am staying at is a BUDGET hotel (29 Euros a night). Sink is inside the room (which I guess might not be too uncommon in Europe). The most interesting part, however, was the check-in. NO one was at the front desk: but I was expecting this. It turns out that the front desk is only open a few hours in the morning and then a few hours in the evening. Otherwise, you check-in by punching in information into a machine, which obliges by giving out your room number and a key code which you then use to access your room.
Left (top): The street car station. For ppl familiar with Waterloo/Kitchener I say vote yes to a street car. If it is anything similar to the one in Saarbrucken it really helps travelling through the busiest street in town. Very convenient too: ran every 6 minutes or so during the day.
Left (middle): My small room. The sink was at the top left corner (hidden by the bunk bed in this picture).
Left (bottom): the automated check-in machine gave me an access code which I had to punch in to this reader on my door.
Unfortunately, I had to break my rule of never again eating McDonalds! The only two restaurants I could find were both fast food: McDonalds and Burger King. However, the decor in the McDs was quite nice: soft couches rather than those plastic chairs. There was also a McCafe which was serving quite good looking desserts and coffees. The burger “Chicken Ceaser Salad” was edible :)
Did not have my camera with me so no pictures to show.
Left: I have been meaning to take a picture of this for quite a while. It is the now not so new Express walkway in (I believe) Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson. Sorry the picture is so bad but I was already on the walkway when I remembered to take the picture. The walkway is FAST and LONG. It uses some pretty amazing technology to speed your travel to the Terminal 1 gates. Essentially when you have gotten on the walkway its little metal plates “spread out” which helps it go faster. Plus unlike the old walkway where you have to get off and get on three times this one does the entire distance in one go.
The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful. I had thought that the benefit of an overnight flight would be that I would get to sleep. BUT, the over-efficient Air Canada staff keep offering you food and beverages, and every time they do that they turn all the lights ON in the plane. Plus the guy next to me had a bad cold. What with the lights coming on and off and my neighbour sneezing every few minutes, it was a sleepless flight.
Right: At frankfurt airport I saw this sign out of the window.
I write this while sitting at Track 3, Flughafen Regionalbahnof waiting for my train (Regional 3306) to Saarbrucken. Having not slept much in the last 36 hours I feel tired.
Right (top): the sign on the train track.
Right (bottom): the gloomy waiting area for my train.
Left: The gimmicky elevator control panel. All touch buttons. One problem is that if you are not careful even a slight touch will push the button to a different floor. Happened to me a couple of times. Also interesting was that the panel was up to 9 floors whereas the hotel only had 4.
Right: touch button coffee in the lobby. Coffee cost 0.80 Euros and SUCKED.
The next five days went by in a flash. The conference kept me busy from around 9 in the morning to 6pm. Not much time to go sightseeing after that (not much energy either considering the time difference). Met a lot of interesting people at the conference. I always like attending conferences. Yes, you get overwhelmed by so many cool new ideas and so many people doing such interesting stuff. To me attending a conference is the best motivation to get on with my research :)
Left: The banner for the ETAPS conference I attended.
The welcome banquet was at an old castle. The interesting bit of trivia is that the middle part of this castle was torn down and rebuilt using modern architecture (glass). The picture on the right shows how well the old and the new have been combined.
Saarbrucken gets its name from the river Saar. While atop the castle I was able to capture this image of the river Saar winding its way through the city. The Autobahn on the right of the river totally screws up the otherwise serene surrounding.
One of our great finds in Saarbrucken was this restaurant (top) which specializes in Potato dishes :) I had dinner here twice. Both times I ordered the Chicken Souffle (bottom). Potatoes, Chicken and Spinach baked in a cream and cheese sauce. Yummy!!!
I was told that pretty much every medium to small city and town in the region has a little area (the city square) which is all walking (no cars allowed). Below are some pictures from the square in Saarbrucken. Lots of cafes and restaurant for people to sit, soak in the sun and enjoy good food and drink.
Didn’t really get a chance to get lots of nice pictures in Saarbrucken. I will end this with a few assorted shots that I did manage to take.
