Tuesday, September 25, 2007

A Reflection

"I do most of my work sitting down; that's where I shine."
- Humorist Robert Benchley

I do most of my work sitting down, as I
Am a computer programmer. Not
A desirable job, to say the least, rather
I consider myself to be just another

Tradesman, plying his trade like any
Other would do, driving nails, bending
Pipe (of one variety or another), tarring
Roofs of buildings, plowing furrows . . .

A computer is just another tool,
Is it not? Like a hammer, a saw, an anvil
(Though perhaps much more like an anvil
Or an anchor than I’d like it to be.)

Some days, like today, I rather wish I
Was Garrison Keillor, Teller of Tales
Of Lake Wobegon, or Harry Connick, Jr.,
A Singer of Popular Songs . . . but I’m not.

Not that I don’t shine, sometimes;
Sometimes I impress with the speed
At which I pound out code, fingers
Lighting the keyboard on fire, Logic

Firing on all synapses, it’s all there
Before me, like the world laid out at
The feet of Christ himself. For a time
I have it All Together; I am Happy.

Arbeit Macht Frei, nicht? A Self-
Sacrifice in the form of endless labor.
Or should a sign be posted:
Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here.

For this is not the sacrifice Christ
Made for us; the means of salvation.
This is the sacrifice of time away from
Those we love, to be able to support

Those we love. And realizing that, it
Seems evident and abvious that
I cannot really be Happy, even in
The minor successes of working.

But I am often Happy sitting down
Wife next to me on the sofa, watching
Dancing with the Stars, rubbing her
Feet, and, quietly, loving her.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Day 9 :: Prague, Copenhagen and Home

This is the Day Nine posting. Since it's not day nine yet, I don't have anything to post, so consider this a placeholder. Watch for the pictures!

Day 8 :: Prague

This is the day eight placeholder; posting to follow.

Day 7 :: Prague

The is the Day Seven placholder; posting to follow.

Day 6 :: Prague

This is the Day Six placeholder; post to follow.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Day 5: Munich & Prague

I'm writing this not at the end of the day, or looking back from the next day. Rather, I'm writing this on the train to Prague. I've just completed the first leg, where, surprise!, I had to de-train and switch to the Prague Express (or such as it might be called) in Regensburg. The sun is now streaming through the windows on my right, practically blinding me, but at least I'm on the train I'm supposed to be on.

The helpful support staff at our Munich office booked my trip for me, for which I'm grateful, but I assumed from the booking, and then the ticket, that it was straight through; a non-stop trip through the countryside. Silly me, I didn't pick up a schedule or a route map in the Munich Hauptbahnhof (train station). Important Safety Tip: PICK UP A SCHEDULE AND/OR ROUTE MAP IN THE TRAIN STATION!!! Fortunately, the rail company is efficient enough to have us de-train on platform 5 and re-board on platform 4, and the two are connected. Also fortunate for me, I know Eb bisschen Deutsch. Really fortunate for me: the conductor spoke English and told me what to do. As we entered the station I heard her announce that we were to go to Gleis 4 to board the train for Prague.

And, lo and behold, she's on this train, as well. She just passed by. Didn't even ask for my ticket . . . she's already seen it and me.

So now, let me describe the countryside. The area around Munich is basically flat. Western Illinois flat. You can see small groves of trees, but basically it's farm fields once out of Munich central. That slowly gives way to rolling hills, and many more railroad cuts, which somewhat limits my viewing of the countryside, but that's okay. There's a lot of greenery, and some of the trees have turned to what I know as Jack Pines - straight, tall pine trees that lose most of their lower branches, so they can be bare from the ground to twenty feet up or so. And they're close together. (The lower limbs must grow then die and fall off, leaving a lot of stubs, which are broken and stick out just en ought that if you're not careful, well, let's just say you don't want to run into the bottom of a Jack Pine.)

But mostly there's still farm fields. A lot are now bare, but many still have corn planted on them. The corn is not sweet corn - it's used as animal feed. I asked at the Munich office. Seems they don't have the right something to grow sweet corn. My father tells a story about German POW's, brought to Kansas during World War II to help with the harvest. This isn't slave labor; it's hard work rewarded with a decent meal. Seems the folks cooked up a lot of sweet corn, perfectly acceptable as part of the dinner, but the Germans wouldn't eat it. They called it "Pig Food". Too bad for them; I probably would have called it delicious. Just roll it in butter and you're ready to go!

Here's another announcement over the train's loudspeaker: nope, can't really understand that one, either. I get bits and pieces, but I'm really, really glad that (so far, at least) my travel needs have been met by the very many people who speak English here in Germany and in Denmark. We're pulling into Schwandorf . . .

Back to the countryside. Before we pulled into Rosenberg, we must have passed a fields of onions. The smell was quite strong . . . it had to be. When I was young, we drove through one western state or another that grew onions and the aroma (not stench - I love onions!) was quite distinct. And I believe that I saw the beginning of what might have been called foothills off to the east, but I don't really know if we're climbing higher as we move into the Czech Republic or not. Have to wait and see on that one.

We seem to have a short wait here. I just moved from a rear-facing set to a forward-facing one that has a table. There are over 50 seats in this train car, but there are only four people, total, in it. Nobody else has stepped in here at our stop. The seats are nice and wide, and spaced far apart, too! First class travel by rail beats coach air travel any day, in my book. Oh, and a good-sized bathroom, too!

At 19:00, that catches me up on the trip so far. Let me talk about the rest of the day. Some of us were able to "sleep in" a little bit (not me - up at 05:30 local) as we had dinner in the Freisinger Hof's restaurant last night. It must be good - it was completely booked. We couldn't get a table for five at 19:00; we had to wait for 20:00. And it was full! Not a table or an extra chair to be had, which is too bad for the two people from the company who tried to join us at the last minute. The staff was quite clear that it was impossible to add two more people; were we going to leave? Nope. We apologized to our co-workers, but stayed and ate.

And what a dinner it was! I really enjoy a good Wiener Schnitzel, but I have to say i haven't had one as good as what I had last night . . . ever! Everyone's food was delicious, from the salad to the, well, nobody had room for dessert (and I was going to get a selection of cheeses if anyone was up for anything). I'm really, really hopeful that, some day, I can bring my wife back to Munich to the very hotel I stayed in. It was gorgeous! She would love the flower boxes, the flowers in the lobby, the decor in the rooms, the chocolates on the pillow, the china (especially the tea cups) at the breakfast tables, the friendly staff. I just can't say enough!

Uh-oh. Another announcement. We're being delayed for what I think is signal trouble for 50 minutes? Can that be right? No - it's 25. Time to grab something from the store on the platform.

Okay, just magazines: Fotographie, Sport, Erotika . . . I'll pass. Nothing to spend calories on un-wisely, though.

A couple more cars just joined up with us. Quite a band and bump, if you weren't waiting for it. I watched them get everything hooked up, thinking that we were adding a few cars from the next train. Then we started moving . . . backwards! Hmmm, this is either gonna make me late, or make me waaaaay late. I hope they know a way around the broken signals. Oh, and three German police just walked by, down the aisle. What does that mean?

Okay, I just asked the (new?) conductor, who doesn't speak much English, if this train gets to Prague tonight. Here's why the safety tip above is so important - we were supposed to arrive in Schwandorf, then pull out just as we did, backwards, and head to Prague after adding a couple of cars. He said the trouble was with the train from Frankfort to Schwandorf; it was late so we had to wait for it. Heck . . . if I could've understood the German I guess I would've known right away. Title this: international rail travel for the un-educated.

Looks like we're on target to be thirty minutes late. We're down to three people in the car, by the way.

Now it's 20:10, and we're traveling in the dark, though the coach is well-lit, so I can't see outside well at all. It seems to me that the ground has gotten higher, and we seemed to be running parallel to a river for a while, but I think that's gone. So much for describing the landscape.

Passport control just came through. I haven't a clue what the man said, but I gave him my passport, as I saw he was checking that of the man behind me. The stamp is for a exit from Germany. I wonder if I get a second for entry to the Czech Republic? And if he was speaking Czech, I certainly didn't understand word one . . . There's a whistle and the closing of doors. Looks like we're off! I knew we'd stop for a passport check, but I thought I'd get a Czech Republic entry stamp, not a German exit one. Got my train ticket stamped a second time, too. That stop was at the border, I guess. On to Praha! (The Czech spelling for the city which is spelled, alternately, "Prague" in English, and "Prag" in German.)

The rail car has cooled-off nicely, now. It was hot before. And the first compartment I was in - a sauna! Fortunately, I was alone in a compartment that seated six, so I turned off the heat using the control nob for that cabin and opened the window. I won't open a window now; it might get too cold.

It's now 21:00 . . . will we get to Prague at 21:45 (or so), the time I saw on the Deutsche Bahn web site, or at 22:45 or so, the time my itinerary says I'll get there. I hope Prague is in a time zone one hour further along than Munich, because that will mean that I'll be getting there sooner than I thought. If not, it's going to be a real stretch to stay awake the whole time! Oh, heck, I just checked the time settings on my PC and it's the same time zone as Munich. Shall I simply drift off - I can't see anything anyway. I guess time will tell!

OK . . . 21:25. I've drifted in-and-out a couple of times, but am still pretty much awake. Get the PC out - that'll help. I've been up for sixteen hours now, with what looks like at least two more to go. We've just stopped in a city, now, but I didn't catch any signs. Ah, we're in Plzen, or Pilsen, if you prefer the German and English spelling. This is the home of, yes, Pilsener beer! But that's more of a type of beer nowadays, not a brand. If I only had one or two of those . . . I'd be asleep. Looks like we've got a bit of an extended stay here, too. The stop here in Plzen is the "Halvni Nadrazi" - i believe that's equivalent to the German "Hauptbahnhof" (main train station) in Czech, as the station at which we're terminating in Prague is the "Hlvani Nadrazi". (By the way, I've left off the punctuation over the "i" in "Hlavni" and the first "a", "z" and "i" in "Nadrazi".)

We just added one more to our car, but it appears as if he's staggering a little. Too much Pilsener?

A small aside: it appeared to me that after we entered the Czech Republic the train was held to a lower speed than what we were doing in Germany. I mean, we were moving along! When we passed another train (going the other way) it was whoosh! and gone. It seems that the tracks are a little less even, we're swaying a bit more and the ride is a bit bumpy. Perhaps they're not suited for the speed we achieved in Germany. It is night now, though - are trains supposed to travel slower at night, much like the day/night speed limits for trucks on some US expressways?

If I could go back and do anything different about this train ride, I'd go back and buy an extra bottle of water, I'd have something to eat (though I wasn't really hungry before boarding) and I'd have bought something to munch on during the ride. I've only got a package of M&M's I'm bringing for Kerry from her friend Lisa and some chocolate mints I bought in Germany to break a 20-Euro note. Can't eat the M&M's and I've had 5-6 mints already. Too much of that good thing would be bad.

Another stop; this one is Rokycany. Boy, the brakes are squeaking! No new passengers in this car. The conductor just came through and asked a sleeping Mr. Pilsener for his ticket. Looks like he's got one, but in second class, and he's being sent to the other part of the train car. And that's another interesting feature of this train - first and second class. First class definitely has nicer seats (and six to a compartment with a sliding door on the first train, which helps keep the noise down if the train is full). First class is also guaranteed a seat, which is why I bought a first-class ticket. (Of course, with the company paying for my air travel, I could afford the 77 Euros for the train.) But there are both first and second class seats in each train car. One section for each, split (I think) down the middle. Makes good sens, when yo think about it. There's no reason a train would have to be split up into so many cars all first class and so many cars all second class, like an airplane's sectioned off from front-to-back, first class to steerage, er, that is, coach.

Just passed 22:00, and I guess this typing is going to keep me awake. I hope and pray my co-workers made it to London. They were due in two hours ago, I think, staying overnight near Heathrow for a somewhat-early return flight to Chicago on Saturday morning. My own return is Tuesday, first a 10:00 flight to Copenhagen, then a 15:30 flight to Chicago, and a limo ride home. I have exactly four hours to lay-over. Time to eat lunch, grab a magazine or a book, buy a snack of some kind for the 8-hour flight home and wait for a short while at the gate.

I was told that the trick of flying to Europe is in sleeping on the plane, then staying up all day and going to sleep at your regular time; regular time, that is, at your destination. The trick on coming home, I'm told (though it didn't work for me last time), is not to sleep on the return flight, but go to sleep at the normal time at home. That means I'll get up by 6:30 and go to bed at the equivalent of 29:00. Will it work this time? Maybe I'll sleep until I wake up, then go into work. At least for one day.

22:20 This stop: Horovice (yes, there's some punctuation missing). This is the first stop I've seen where a signalman is out with a lantern.

I took a few pictures of the Munich station - I left at 16:45, right during the heart of rush hour. What a busy place! Many, many different tracks (1-36 upstairs but even more downstairs). A nice young lady helped me navigate through the screens of the ticket machine. You don't get an actual ticket, any more, from your travel agent - just a code number. Find out how to enter the secret code and you just may get your ticket! Actually, had I understood their English translation of the German terminology, I'd have been able to get the thing myself. It's easy . . . once you know how!

22:40 We were supposed to be there in five minutes. Hope Kerry sees that we're delayed, and that it's posted how much longer it will take (25 minutes?). I was looking at the map of the area around Prague; it seems that the train line winds way south of the city, then runs roughly parallel with the Vlatav river for a while before crossing it. The train line literally loops back on itself - is it climbing a steep grade, perhaps? It seems like we're climbing, to me. And moving pretty good, now, too. Need to build up speed to get up the hill?

22:56 There's the bell! That means a stop is near. And as we're definitely in town, will it be the terminus, or a local stop? Local stop: Prichoo K Nastupisti. Let's see how many more locals there are.

Have we exported graffiti, maybe? It was present in Munich and it's present here. Some was even present on buildings in the middle of nowhere in Germany. Some of it's pretty cool, but some of it is just nonsense. Looks just like back home, though.

Boy, the train is making a lot of noise! Seems like we went through a tunnel. Hey, here's our stop!

Off the train, down the stairs - there's my daughter! We took one metro line down one stop, took the other to the end, found the tram after a mistake in direction (my fault) and got to the hotel. What a day!

I'll update the other posts (Days 3 and 4) and get them out some time after this weekend, unless I get in a writing mood. At 2880 words, this is a post-zilla! Probably a record for this guy . . .

Day 4: Munich

This is a placeholder for Day 4's blog - eventually to follow.

Day 3: Fredensborg & Helsingor

This is a placeholder for Day 3's blog entry - eventually to follow.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Day 2 :: Fredensborg & Helsingor

My co-workers (Heidi, John and Pantelis) arrived in Copenhagen on the best of their flights so far, got the biggest rental car they could find and drove to the Park Inn to pick me up. I was waiting in the lobby, of course, and was ready with my two bags and two bottles of water. Off we went, through Copenhagen to Fredensborg.

Reflecting on my stay at the Park Inn, one thing that comes to mind is how kind and helpful all of the staff were. I didn't encounter a single person who wasn't willing to provide any help that I needed, from figuring out how the lights were turned on (see my previous post) to patiently answering that, yes, you could pay for two bottles of water with a credit card (I haven't exchanged any dollars for Danish Kroner).

We arrived at the plant in good shape, after negotiating several areas of construction along the highway, with its already-narrow lanes. Perhaps the guy who runs Denmark's road system is from Chicago (where we have two road seasons: winter and construction). Hollister Dansac is located in a small industrial area off the main road. The street you take to the plant is somewhat hidden; we missed it on the first pass. and, yes, it's narrow, as well. Considering the much longer history of Denmark (after all, where I live still isn't fully built-up) I guess these roads hosted a lot of horse traffic in the not-so-recent past.

Dinner was at a Restaurant da Oscar, a nice Italian restaurant in town. I had a half-liter Carlsberg beer, tomato soup and a beef dish seasoned with peppercorns, oven-broiled potatoes, cauliflower, some kind of vegetable pate' that I can't begin to identify (though it was good), sorbetti and coffee. I'm not going hungry, that's for sure. Water has to be asked for, though it was brought out by the pitcher when we did. I caught some good-natured ribbing from the waiter when I wasn't sure of what to order (there were eight of us) and he had to pass me by, both for the appetizer and the main course. (I was sharing a menu with John, and hadn't really made a selection when we started to order.) The waiter said something like "we often have to wait on the women", to which I replied, "I don't know about that, I'm from Chicago", so I was called "Chicago" from that point forward.

Our room reservations were at the hotel Marienlyst, which is much nicer than the Park Inn. For some reason - probably because I was a late addition to the trip - I got a two-room suite. Not bad - two flat panel TV's, a mini-bar (which I never touch), a separate mini-fridge, a nice desk and such. The bed was layed out in what I now know to be typical European style, with a bedspread and two separate comforters (we might call them feather beds). The pillows are square and not at all dense.

This hotel has a casino, for which we were given a couple of chps. Will have to try to spend them tomorrow. There's also an indoor water park - though I'm not sure if it's a full park or a dressed-up swimming pool. Another thing to visit.

It's the end of a pretty long day, so I guess that'll be it for now.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Day 1 :: Copenhagen

Tuesday morning, 11 Sep 2007

I'm sitting in the lobby of the Park Inn here in Copenhagen (that's Copen-hay-gen to the Danish, Copen-hah-gen to the Germans, I was corrected by the agent reviewing my passport) at the beginning of the second day of my trip.

I flew SAS for a second time - it's a very nice airline. Sat in the middle section of four-across seating, though, and didn't sleep much, or well when I did. We had a late dinner and an early breakfast, and both were very good. My daughter flew British Airways to Prague recently, and arrived hungry. Not so with SAS.

In any case, I found a taxi when I landed and made it to my hotel. Small, small car - I'm a few inches over 6 foot, and barely could squeeze myself into the back seat. I'm close to the airport and far from downtown. Took a nice walk over to the ocean, though. Day was cool (60's farenheit, I'd say) with a little sprinkle of rain. The beach looked quite nice, though nobody was there swimming. I'm sure the water was quite cool, as well. Being far from downtown wasn't bad - I had wanted to try to see a few sights, but it turns out to have poured rain later in the afternoon.

The hotel has a nice restaurant and bar. I had trout for dinner, with some small red potatoes. It was really quite good. Their breakfast this morning was good, as well. It kind of puts the "Continental Breakfast" we receive at US hotels to shame. They offered all kinds of things: meats and cheeses, including thuringers and danish summer sausage, real scrambled eggs (not powdered), kashi cereal, large rolls with butter and jam, juices and coffee. They don't seem to be too worried about their butter; they seem to be rather proud of it!

Guess I needed my sleep last night. Ten hours! I haven't slept that long for quite some time. 'Course, I slept little on the plane, so when I dropped into bed last night I had gone from 5:30 AM Sunday to about 3:30 PM Monday (10:30 PM in Denmark) on what . . . two hours sleep . . . maybe?

Other observations: lots of English is spoken here. By the people working at the hotel, those eating near me in the restaurant (some French, some German, some Danish) and on the radio. In fact, except for the announcer, you'd think I was in the States. (All rap, too; what's up with that?) The lady at the front desk (or what passes for a "desk" - two kiosks) spoke not with a Danish accent, but with a decidedly British one.

When I was in Las Vegas earlier this year, and it was time to return to the airport, my wife and I noticed two tour busses parked near the smaller hotel shuttle bus. They were soon filled with people from the far east, touring the area (Hoover Dam, et al). This morning I came downstairs to piles of suitcases stacked at one side of the lobby waiting for - two tour busses filled with people from the far east.

Oh, and the "exchange" here at the hotel is quite slanted in the hotel's favor. where I get an exchange rate of 5.4 DKK per dollar on Yahoo!, the hotel is offering 4.85 DKK per dollar. That looks to be a 10% commission . . . is that usual? Think I'll have to find out. Of course, if I continue to use my corporate card and purchase directly, I get the best exchange rates.

A little about energy use: Lots of bicycles here. What I think of as 1960's vintage - balloon tires, no extra gears (single speed), coaster brakes, baskets. I saw one lady biking down the street with what appeared to be a 4x4x4 basket on the front and her small child standing in it (where was my camera?), complete with zippered canvas top and sides.

The hotel has signs asking you to be careful about how much water you're using to shower, with an explanation that only 10% of the world's water can be used for drinking. And another feature that I've never seen before - in order to turn the lights on in your room, you stick your plastic key into the slot of a switch that runs all of the lights. Take your key with you when you leave and all of the lights go off. I guess that's not a bad idea (think of all the lights kept on in Las Vegas all night!); I've just never seen it before.

It's been a little over 45 mnutes since my co-workers flight landed at CPH. They're picking up a car and meeting me here for the ride to our company's facility in Fredensborg. With the need to get through customs, get their luggage, arrange for the rental car and drive over here I think I've got a few more minutes to wait. But I think I'll complete this post and switch over to Sudoku for the remainder of the wait. 'til later, then . . .

Saturday, September 1, 2007

On to Europe!

I got word last week that I'm to be sent to Denmark and Germany on business. But the best part will be my side-trip to Prague, in the Czech Republic, where I'll be able to see my daughter about one week after she's moved over to teach English!

As my former co-worker used to say, "How cool is that?"