Greetings from Germany (Gruss aus Deutschland)

I am currently on a business trip to Regensburg, Germany, so keep an eye on my blog over the next few weeks for frequent updates.

It is Monday morning in Germany, but my body does not know what day or time it is. I left North Dakota on Saturday afternoon, flew overnight, lost seven hours, and have not yet entirely caught up with myself. The trip was mostly uneventful, except that my luggage (along with that of about 50% of the folks on the airplane) did not make it from Amsterdam to Munich with the plane. It came in a few hours later, though, and arrived safely at my hotel.

As an aside, it was a beautiful time to fly into Amsterdam. As we approached the airport, we saw many brightly colored fields out the window. These are the tulip fields. Of course, having left North Dakota where we have yet to see our Spring growing season (in part because it has been very dry), the flowers were very impressive. I will attempt to take a photo on the way back.

Upon arrival in Munich, I took a shuttle to the hotel in Regensburg. The drive took slightly over an hour, although it seemed faster, perhaps in part due to the Autobahn speeds. We drove through some very pretty country. Much of it seemed similar to parts midwestern US with rolling hills, lots of farmland, and many small towns.

Bearing in mind that I was quite tired when I arrived, my first impressions of Regensburg are "wow!" Parts of the old city date back almost 2,000 years. There are many different types of architecture, all nicely fitted together. I will have some time next weekend to do "the tourist thing" and will talk more about the city then.

In the meantime, you might be wondering about the "business" part of the trip. My reason for being here is to work with the Grid Engine team, who are based primarily here in Regensburg. We are in the process of completely redesigning the information for the next project release. In a few weeks, I'll be able to show you more.

Well, that's enough for now. As I said, I will blog frequently over the next two weeks to keep everyone informed.

Tschuss! (pronounced something like "chooss" is an informal German "bye-for-now")

Posted at 04:01AM Apr 28, 2008 by jcinfoblog in General  |  Comments[0]