Accomplishing the real reason for visiting NIC/CBB at Jülich meant that I have a full Saturday to roam around and see/do things that have been on my wishlist. Thanks to all the walking I got to do in town as well as between train station and the research center has added pleasure of walking to the list of new things learned or old things re-realized during my stay here. Although I wanted (desperately) to visit Ulm for scientifically historic reasons (hint: some body hailing from here went on to make 1905 annus mirabilis), but the length of the journey (nearly 6 hours one way, not counting layovers) and the cost of the journey (about € 100 each way) changed my plans.
Through The Streets Of Cologne
As I mentioned in the previous post, I headed towards Cologne (Köln) with most of the fellow workshop participants. Much of the traffic signs as well as other things along the way were kindly explained by Siegfried – which made a 50 km journey quite interesting :)
Back To Basics, In Germany
The Journey
For those of you who have been quite regular at reading these posts, my trip to Germany is kinda old news. Unlike my previous attempt, weather gods in UP (Michigan’s Upper Peninsular) were more than kind and none of the flights had any technical difficulty (FYI – technical difficulty does not necessarily/always mean technological difficulty. It’s often a very lame excuse given by Airlines when their flights are under-booked and they don’t want to fly!). Journey from Houghton to Minneapolis in the twin engine carrier, as always, was quite a bumpy ride – thanks to some not-so-rare atmospheric phenomenon. What was unusual and took me by a great deal of surprise was the fact that the computer did not randomly select me for extra security check! Trans-Atlantic flight was fun too – needless to mention that these carriers have individual on-demand display units but the choice of movies kinda sucked this time. Having four trainee flight attendants on board meant that pretty much everybody, who wanted to, got first class service in economy class seating.