Lok Man in Germany

On 29th April I flew to Warsaw in Poland to start a trip through central Europe with Liang, my friend from high school and university. The 11 day trip would take us through Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg and then back "home" to Munich. The visit to Warsaw was a brief one. I arrived on Saturday afternoon and met Liang and his friends from Warsaw, Tomasz and Alicja. There I stayed overnight and walked past (and sometimes through) numerous churches, former noble residences, institutions and also parts of the old town. On the way we visited the Royal Palace, which was in the process of being refurbished but the new paint job was in a rather garish yellow colour. Our local tour guides kindly gave us a bit of history behind many of the buildings and the Polish religious traditions, and it became apparent that Pope John Paul was a very well loved and respected figure there. This theme would continue during our next few days in Poland. The next morning we all hopped into To...

Over the Easter long weekend I went with some friends to Bodensee, otherwise known as Lake Constance. It is located on the border between Germany, Switzerland and Austria, several hours by train away from Munich. After the train trip to Lindau we took a ferry across the lake to the town Konstanz. The scenery was fantastic - for an Aussie like me it is an awesome sight to be on a ferry on a warm(ish) day while looking at snow capped mountains in the background, although many Europeans are accustomed to the concept of going snowboarding and surfing on the same day. We had some seagulls flying next to the ferry at the same speed, so it was perfect for a bit of photography practice. The fun started once we arrived in Konstanz, when the hostel said that they didn't receive our booking. We ended up heading across the border to a hostel in Switzerland, in Kreuzling. Late at night, when we walked across the border from Germany back into Switzerland, I was just about to comment on the ease ...

On April 3rd I presented a technical paper at the SAE World Congress. The short story is that the research and the paper was prepared by another engineer, who forgot to apply for a visa to go the U.S. Since I was available at short notice and Australia and USA are old buddies (i.e. no visa required for my travel), they sent me instead. For me, the conference was a good learning experience and also a chance to practice my presentation skills. The fact that somebody else paid for my dinner in the Coach Insignia restaurant on the top of the Renaissance Centre was just a little bonus. The RenCen is the tall silver building on the right of the picture. Also, it was a chance to have a look at Detroit, not that it is renowned as a top tourist destination. Along the river, it looked like any other major city - towering shiny high rises such as the GM Renaissance Centre, large hotels and conference centres, Starbucks, and so on. But as I walk away from the riverside district, it is not long bef...

I have been rather busy lately and have been away from Munich quite frequently, but finally I am back here with some time to write. So, here is what I have been up to since mid February. I moved into my new flat in early February. It gets very good sunlight and has a nice serene view from the balcony, which I hope to use more now that we are moving into summer. With the world cup starting in less than a month, I am looking forward to having a few visitors staying over here! I've already written about the ridiculous amount of snow and the Starkbierfest in previous posts, and they happened in the timeframe covered here so go and read those blog entries! With so much snow, it would have been a shame not to go skiing. I have only managed to go twice this winter, nowhere particularly high, cold or exotic, but nonetheless quite fun since there was fresh snow cover. The first time was in February, when I went with a colleague (a snowboarder!) to Brauneck, a resort which is about an hour ...