We are home! (Star Alliance strikes again)

We got home safely.

The ride on a United Airlines jumbo jet to the Bay Area was smooth. The only casualty was one of our suitcases (yes, all 6 Vogelbräu steins survived). Its polycarbonate plastic outer shell cracked. This is a brand new suitcase, which is a replacement of another piece that was damaged by Air Canada during my trip to Canada in late April. That's strike two for Star Alliance.

So this will be the last update of this blog. I will get this blog printed and bound. I am sure it will help us bring back all those memorable moments and trips when we read it in the future.

Auf Wiedersehen.

A little reflection

As my sabbatical is coming to an end, a little reflection is in order. This was a rewarding year for me as it has given me new perspectives on my personal and professional lives.

On the home front, the bond in our family got stronger as we braved this new environment and culture together. I traded my business travels in past years with quality family time. Perhaps I have taken a step or two back in climbing the career ladder, but I know I won't regret not having spent more time to watch the kids grow and play when I have a reflective moment in the future. We cramped ourselves into a small flat; not only did the spatial constraint bring us closer physically, but closer spiritually as well. In my professional life, I collaborated with some of the best neutrino physicists this year. It was an exhilarating experience to work in a different research culture.

Without the assistance from the scientists and support staff at the research center and its guesthouse, this year-long sojourn would not have been possible. Our family is forever grateful for their hospitality.

We now have to confront the most difficult moment of leaving this country and the good friends behind. We will miss Deutschland.

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Our most memorable trip: Bonn (no, it wasn't Cologne, Munich, Münster, Paris, Salzburg, Trier, or Vienna)

Our most embarrassing moments: showing up two days early on the train ride to Paris, and showing up a year late at the Spargelfest in Schwetzingen.

Our most memorable meals: Canard at Le Procope in Paris, Italian dishes at Umberto Primo in Karlsruhe, Spargel and apfelstrudel at Kaffeehaus in Schwetzingen.

Our last day in Karlsruhe

During the past couple weeks we spent some time preparing for our departure. We de-registered our residency with German authorities, scheduled the closing of our bank account, and terminated our membership with the car-sharing service. We finished packing this morning, and we had the whole afternoon free.

The parent of Jocelyn's friend came to pick up her up for a play date around noon. The rest of us went to the town center and had a fatty German lunch: Gabe had a Currywurst mit Pommes (sausage with lots of ketchup then topped with curry powder, with fries), while Glenda and I each had a Wiener Schnitzel. Then we went on a binge; Glenda and I shared a Lasagneeis (ice cream presented in the form of lasagne), and Gabe had a Mickey Mouse.

Today is the unofficial day of "unification" for Universität Karlsruhe and Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (to form Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, one of the first three elite universities in Germany). To commemorate this event, KIT gave all employees the afternoon off, and turned one of the open fields into a giant beer garden. Gabe and I met up with some of my colleagues there (while Glenda went for some last-minute shopping). To make sure that kids were not left out in this event, there were a number of activity tents. Gabe spent quite a while at the tower-building tent.


Before we left for home, I showed Gabriel a couple of interesting sites on campus, including the monument for Heinrich Hertz (who demonstrated the existence of electromagnetic waves, and the frequency of alternating current, as in 60 Hertz from the electrical outlets in the US, is named after him).

That's it, we are leaving Germany tomorrow.

Gabriel's emotional roller coaster

Gabriel said farewell to his beloved violin (Roederich Poesold, model A. Schroetter, 1/4 size) today. He practiced for well over an hour this morning. Just before he put it back into the case, he took a few pictures of the violin. As soon as he closed the case, he cried. It must be hard for him to bid goodbye first to his teacher yesterday and his companion violin today.

Just before lunch we returned this rental to the violin maker's studio.

Gabriel's last violin lesson in Karlsruhe

Gabriel has developed a very close relationship with his violin teacher Martina. As we leave in two days' time, he had his last lesson with her today.

In the past two days, he kept reminding us to bring a camera along to the lesson. Here is a picture of them together.

He wept as he left her studio.

Farewell dinner

At -91 hours from liftoff (from Frankfurt airport), my colleagues threw us a farewell dinner at the microbrewery Andresbräu near the research center tonight.

They also gave us a few presents: a photo album of all the group members (with a title "My sabbatical at IK" on the cover), a DVD about Karlsruhe with narration in "four" languages: English, French, German (Hochdeutsch), and Badisch (which is the local, hard-to-understand dialect), and Wahre Geschichten by humorist/cartoonist Loriot.

Then the "big" surprise came. They also got us six beer steins from my favorite microbrewery Vogelbräu across town. I was shocked by their generosity, and drinking beer out of one of these steins will certainly bring back a lot of the good memories from this past year. The problem now is to pack and transport them back to the US.

Gabriel's recital

Gabriel played a couple short pieces at a recital tonight. It was held at his violin teacher's flat. Click the picture to see him play (the clip is about 10 MB).

Arrival of "submarine" DPS2-F

The landing of the "spaceship" (the main spectrometer used in the experiment that I am working on here in Germany) earned a spot in the BBC Offbeat Photos of the Year in 2006. Another significant component, one of the cryogenic systems "DPS2-F", arrived this morning. There was a small celebration (with offerings of pretzels and non-alcoholic drinks) in the experimental hall after the unloading.

The transport of this "submarine" did not take the most direct route from the manufacturer in Genoa in Italy. Instead of heading straight north from Italy, the truck went around Switzerland, through Austria, before entering Germany (a slight detour compared to the 8800-km transport of the spaceship).

Haydn's "die Schöpfung" (für kinder) at Klosterruine Frauenalb

Gabriel's violin teacher is the concertmaster of Kammerphilharmonie Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Chamber Philharmonic), and she is also the mentor of its junior orchestra. The junior orchestra and the choir of the local St. Stephan's Church performed a children's version of Haydn's "The Creation" at the historic Klosterruine Frauenalb (monastery ruin at Frauenalb) today.

The town of Frauenalb is in the Black Forest and is less than 30 km away from Karlsruhe town center. Because of the extensive tram network in Karlsruhe, and the fact that the trams here can also run on train tracks, there is hourly direct tram service from just outside our flat to a few towns in northern Black Forest, including Frauenalb. Our family took a tram to see the performance this afternoon. The performance was great; the junior orchestra (of teen musicians) sounded very seasoned.

I got a speeding ticket

I found a speeding ticket in my mailbox today. Apparently (since there are pictures of me in the driver's seat and the license plate on the ticket) I was going too fast while driving near the town of Hopfau during our Black Forest driving tour. How fast was I going? According to the ticket, I was going at 56 km/h in a 50 km/h zone (or 35 mph in a 31 mph zone). The fine is 15€, which I paid promptly by bank transfer given my previous experience with additional fines levied on "late" payments for our driving permits early this year.

Day 8: Salzburg: Return journey - Railjet

The return journey was uneventful. We had a full-price train ticket from Salzburg to Karlsruhe. The leg from Salzburg to Munich was on Railjet, the fast train operated by ÖBB (the train operator in Austria). The train interior was really nice. There was even a special TV that showed cartoons to keep kids in our car happy. Of course, Gabriel and Jocelyn spent nearly the entire journey in front of this TV. The train from Munich to Karlsruhe was a direct Intercity (IC) train, and that saved us the worry of missing a connection due to delay.

Day 7: Salzburg - Sound of Music Tour, Leica Gallery

The city of Salzburg is famous for music: Mozart and the movie The Sound of Music. Most of the movie's outdoor scenes were filmed in Salzburg and the nearby Bavaria (despite how the film ended with the von Trapp family hiking over the Alps to Switzerland, the Swiss border is a few hundred kilometers away).

We went on the four-hour Sound of Music tour in the morning. The tour bus took us to locations where various scenes were shot. Here is a picture of Glenda and the kids in front of "the" gazebo, and a picture of the basilica in Mondsee where the wedding scene was shot. We had a one-hour stop in this idyllic town, and enjoyed a nice apple strudel at one of the cafes.



The tour ended at the Mirabell garden, where one of the Do-Re-Mi scenes was shot, near the old town in Salzburg. Here is a beautiful view of the garden.

About a year ago Leica Gallery Salzburg opened its door to showcase the work of some of the most significant photographers of our time. The exhibit I saw today was Timeless Moment by Jürgen Schadeberg, who is known for his documentary of the South African apartheid. The images gave a strong impression on the hardship of black community during those years.

We honored our promise of taking the kids to the Spielzeugmuseum (Toy Museum). Gabriel really enjoyed the toy trains that were on display in the museum.

Here is a picture of the kids at the Mirabell garden.

Day 6: Salzburg - Festung Hohensalzburg, St. Peter, Residenz

We visited Festung Hohensalzburg, one of the most popular attractions in Salzburg. It is the castle atop of the city in the picture.

We took the funicular to the castle. Once we reached the castle, we were all awed by the breathtaking view of the city below. There was a moderate wait (~25 minutes) for the audio-guided tour, but it was well worth it. During the tour, we got to one of the watch towers, which is also the highest point of the castle. The view from this vantage point was even better. After the guided tour, we had lunch at the outdoor cafe at the castle. The dishes were reasonably priced, and there was no extra premium for the magnificent view.


We returned to the city after lunch. The funicular dropped us off at the front entrance to Petersfriedhof, where a few luminaries, including Mozart's sister "Nannerl" was buried. Glenda found the catacombs, carved in the rock face, most interesting.

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather today, and toured around the old town. We did go indoors briefly to see the Residenz.

Here is a picture of the old city from across the Salzach river. The rest of today's pictures are here.

Day 5: Salzburg - Mozart Geburtshaus and Wohnhaus

We had our Deutsche Bahn nuisance during the journey from Munich to Salzburg today. A full-price fast(er) train ticket would cost about 50€ for our family, but a Länderticket (the same kind that we have been using to travel on one-day journeys within our state) for the slower regional trains was only 28€ and the local transit from our hotel to the train station in Munich was included. The difference for a 30€ or so saving is about half of an hour in travel time (2 hours instead of 1.5 hour).

We got to the main train station ahead of the scheduled departure time. The display at the track indicated that the train would leave on time. But there was no train at the scheduled departure time, and the display showed that the train had already left from another station! We ended up waiting for an extra hour for the next scheduled train (which did leave Munich on time).

Our hotel in Salzburg is a 5-minute walk from the train station. After we checked in, the weather turned for the worse and was raining heavily. By about 16:00, the rain subsided and we went to Mozart Geburtshaus (Mozart's birth house) in the old town. Perhaps our expectation was too high, but it was a disappointment. The exhibits were much inferior to other "houses" we have been to. There was not much of a story being presented for the visitors to better understand Mozart's life.

But we got better luck at Mozart Wohnhaus, the house where Mozart, his parents and sister resided. The exhibits gave a more detailed view of Mozart's life and his travel. There was also a special Haydn exhibit to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his death.


BTW the house where Christian Doppler (of Doppler effect fame) lived is less than 100m away.

Day 4: München - Neue Pinakothek, Königsplatz, Karlsplatz

We spent time in the museum quarter today, and our destination was Neue Pinakothek, which has an excellent collection of 18th and 19th century classics.

We gave Jocelyn the digital camera, and she snapped quite a number of her favorites. What impressed me most was the audio guide. The amount of details were just about right for a typical museum tour.

We emerged from the museum in mid-afternoon, and walked around the Königsplatz area. This was the area where the Nazi held mass rallies. To aid visitors in learning more about the historical significance of this area, maps were erected to identify buildings that were once used by the regime.


But the storm clouds were rolling in, and we found refuge at a Viennese cafe after taking a short subway ride to the old town center. By the time the sky turned blue again, we had traversed to Karlsplatz and admired the splendor of Michaelskirche (St. Michael). Here is a picture of the kids in front of the fountain at Karlsplatz.

Day 3: München - BMW Welt and Museum, Olympic Park, Asamkirche

Our trips to the Mercedes-Benz Museum and Porsche Museum in Stuttgart were eye-opening, and we expected no less from the BMW Museum when we got off the Olympia-Einkaufzentrum subway this morning. Across from the station is the imposing BMW Welt (BMW World, shown here) building, which is the manufacturer's giant showroom and car delivery center.

We spent over an hour in this showroom, not because we were contemplating to buy a 90,000€-plus-change M3 (BTW, 19% value added tax included) or to argue with the associates there why the BMW hydrogen powered car (aptly named Hydrogen 7) is not going to be the answer to the energy and environmental problems due to basic thermodynamic principles. A nasty thunderstorm was in full force outside, and there was no covered walkway between this building and BMW Museum across the street.

The only predictable part about the weather in the past week has been the transience of thunderstorms; they came and went usually in an hour. As soon as the storm subsided, we walked to the museum (the bowl-shaped building). We began our tour at the basement, where a collection of antique BMWs are on display, and we worked our way up, with a stop at the cafe for lunch, to the top floor where concept cars are exhibited. The kids were snapping a lot of pictures in the museum and a couple are shown here. The rest can be found here.


By the time we left the museum, the sky was clear and we enjoyed a leisurely saunter in the nearby Olympiapark, the hub of the 1972 summer Olympics.

One of Glenda's friends suggested that Asamkirche is a gem and is a must-see. An easy subway ride took us directly from the Olympiapark to this church. Unfortunately, the church is under renovation until fall, and we could only peep through the glass on the front door to admire the grandeur inside.

Day 2: München - Deutsches Museum and Altstadt

The kids saw pictures of Deutsches Museum in our guidebook, and told us that they really wanted to go there today. They loved this science and technology museum so much that we practically stayed there from late morning to the museum's closing time at 17:00.

After visiting the navigation and aviation sections on the ground floor, the kids spent some time at the Kinderreich (Kids' Kingdom) on the basement floor where displays on sound and art are plenty. Here is Jocelyn playing on a piano in the Kinderreich.

The museum has changed quite a bit since my last visit in 2002. A lot of the displays have received new facelifts. Here are two prime examples. In the physics section, we saw the 50-cm diameter photomultiplier tube (a sensitive light sensor that shapes like a giant light bulb) that is being used at the Super-Kamiokande experiment in Japan. Then we saw a section of the Large Hadron Collider ring. Gabriel took a picture with this real model and I explained to him how two proton beams circulate in the real 27-km ring across the Swiss and French border. Of course, he said he already knew all these from reading the PhD comics last week.



We went all the way to the top floor. The view of Munich's old town (Altstadt) is magnificent.


So magnificent that we decided to go there after the museum visit. Since we did not get much time to look around the old town yesterday, we strolled around Marienplatz for an hour before the kids yearning for food.

Other pictures from today can be found here.

(Free) internet availability in Deutschland

It is not easy to get free or low-cost internet connection while traveling in Germany. Most hotels in North America provide free in-room internet, while their German counterpart do not. Hotels in Germany may have WiFi available, but the cost could be very high. The American style hotel where we are staying in Munich, Holiday Inn, charges 7€ for 60 minutes of connection time. This "low-cost" option allows web browsing only (for the geeks: port 80 and 443 access only). To get more secured access would cost substantially more €.

In the SF Bay area, one just has to walk into a cafe and there is a good chance that free wireless internet would be provided. In Germany, most cafes do not provide such freebies. Instead one has to go to McDonald's or the McCafe (which is usually on the same premise). Their coffee is not bad at all, and beat Starbucks in both price and quality. In order to get one hour of free internet access at McDonald's, a local mobile phone that can accept SMS messages is required, however. One types in the mobile phone number on the T-Mobile connection page, and a password to allow access to the WiFi network in the restaurant will be sent in a SMS message. Typing this password on the connection page will give one-hour of free access.

Day 1: München (Munich)

Most German schools do not finish their school year until the end of this month. But our kids' school did not have as many holiday during the year, and their school year officially ended yesterday.

We began our weeklong trip to Munich and Salzburg today. The TGV train that took us from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart, where we would transfer to Munich, was late and we had to take the connection about an hour later. When we got to the Munich main train station, storm clouds were rolling in. By the time we got to the U-bahn (subway) station near the hotel, the thunderstorm was in full force. We had rain gear, but we waited in the subway station (Münchener Freiheit) until the lightning had subsided about an hour later.

The sky began to clear up after we checked into the hotel. After a brief rest, we decided to get some Bavarian food at Hofbräuhaus in the town center. It is a tourist trap, and I would say over 80% of the customers are tourists (with the remaining 20% being locals accompanying their visiting friends). But Glenda and the kids have never been to a beer hall of this size and I like their Schweinsbraten (roast pork) in my previous trips, so we had dinner there. Here you see our happy family (those drinks are, from left to right, 0.5L of water, 0.5L of Orangenschorle, 1L of wheat beer, and 0.5L of water).

California made news in Germany

The main discussion in the coffee room today was the dire budget and the circus-like government in California. Yes, the news made it to Germany. People here are genuinely surprised that the Governator has ordered state workers to take 3 days of unpaid furlough every month. The University of California system may enforce a 8% pay cut across the board. Depending on the final decision, I may see the cut as soon as I return from the sabbatical (although my salary is paid for by federal grants, and not state fund).

But we are going to enjoy our last month in Germany. Tomorrow we will head to München (Munich) and Salzburg for a week.

A birthday party with a "Star Wars" theme

One of Gabriel's best friends Milo had his birthday party today. The theme was Star Wars.

Here is a picture of the kids with two Clone Troopers.

What is Gabriel reading these days?

It was then (when he probably thought "Teach Yourself C++ in 10 Minutes" was synonymous with learning the alphabets):


and this was two days ago when he was reading the Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD) comic on CERN's Large Hadron Collider in a recent issue of Symmetry, a particle physics magazine published jointly by Fermilab and SLAC (two particle accelerator labs in the US):


Here is the link to the comic, which tries to explain the physics of the LHC. BTW he has started reading The Economist, and tried to explain the current economic crisis to his pals recently.

Sommerfest

The kids' school had two summer festivals in the past week. All the classes, except for the kindergarten, held theirs on Sunday; the kindergarten classes had theirs this afternoon. Both festivals featured performances by the kids (and games, food and drinks).

On Sunday, the kids had fun playing a human version of foosball. Gabriel also performed a couple German songs with his class.



Late in the afternoon today, Jocelyn's kindergarten class joined forces with the German and French kindergarten classes in a multilingual performance of the Rainbow Fish. The narration was in German, and the kids' dialogues were in their native tongue. Here is a typical exchange:

Blue Fish (English): Can I play with you?
Rainbow Fish (German): Nein, Sie sprechen nicht Deutsch. (No, you don't speak German)
Red Fish (French): Puis-je jouer avec vous?
Rainbow Fish (German): Nein, Sie sprechen nicht Deutsch.

Here is the link to the song and the dance by the English kindergarten class.

Zürich

On my return journey to Karlsruhe, I took a detour to Zürich, which is a 20-minute train journey from Brugg.

Since I had only a few hours to spare, I didn't get to see this city as much as I would like. After I left my belongings in a locker at the main train station, I followed the walking tour suggested in the map that I picked up at the tourist center. The route took me first to the sites on the right bank of Limmat, including the Großmünster (the view of the top of one of its twin towers is impressive), the building where Lenin once lived and Cabaret Voltaire (where Dadaism was born) at the nearby street, and the Opernhaus (opera house).


After a coffee and a small croissant at a local cafe ("wow" for the taste and "ouch" for the price - about US$7), I crossed the Limmat and enjoyed the tranquility by the pier at Zürichsee (Lake Zürich) before the arrival of a large tourist group. On the left bank, I particularly enjoyed Marc Chagall's stained glass windows at Fraumünster. They reminded me of the ones we saw at St. Stephan zu Mainz last year.

Before I headed back to the train station, I stopped by Paradeplatz, where pigs were once traded and is now the center of private banking in Switzerland. Not that I have any asset that is worth hiding from the US tax authority, but I wanted to get some good Swiss chocolate from Confiserie Sprüngli's flagship store. Here it is, the Truffes Grand Cru, which amounts to about US$2 a piece.

What I am impressed most by Zürich is how orderly everything is. No wonder it has been voted as the most livable city in the world this year (that is, if one can afford the high cost of living there).

A short trip to Switzerland

I left for Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) in northern Switzerland, this morning. PSI is about half-way between Basel and Zürich, and is a tad over 3 hours away from Karlsruhe. The train ride through idyllic towns between Basel and Brugg, the closest train station from PSI, was enjoyable. I got to the institute before lunch. The talk that I was invited to give went well.

PSI was a nuclear and particle physics laboratory, but has now diversified into energy and material research. This diversification has brought a lot of users to the facility. Its guesthouse was fully booked tonight and I was put up at a (very nice) hotel in the nearby town Böttstein.

The scenery in the surrounding area is gorgeous. Here are two pictures that were taken on the hotel grounds.

Burg Hohenzollern

After a tasty lunch in Haigerloch, we drove to the nearby Burg Hohenzollern. Parkings (for 2€) were available about half-way up the hill. But there were shuttle buses to take visitors to the main entrance (for a fee, of course) if they didn't want to hike. With two young kids, we took the shuttle bus.

We purchased the ticket package that included a guided tour (in English!). The tour lasted about 45 min. and we got to see the interior rooms (which were off-limit to visitors who don't get the guided-tour package. The view of the valley beneath is breathtaking (and must have been scary for the occupants to see enemies coming in from all directions during battles).



More pictures can be found here.

Haigerloch (where a beer cellar turned into a secret nuclear lab)

About a century ago, a beer cellar was excavated in the rock under the Schloßkirche (Castle Church) in Haigerloch, a small town 70 km away from Stuttgart. During the final days of the Second World War, German physicists, under the direction of Werner Heisenberg, were trying to create a sustained nuclear chain reaction with uranium in this cellar. The German physicists who participated in the research denied that they were trying to build an atomic weapon, although the Allied thought otherwise and sent the ALSOS mission to look for the nuclear research facilities and scientists.

This site selection was peculiar, but understandable. The cellar was hidden from Allied's aerial bombing, and was sufficiently far away from Soviet advancement (the German scientists thought it was essential that their work would not fall into the hands of the Soviet). The ALSOS mission dismantled the laboratory upon their arrival in early 1945. They almost blew up the whole cellar, but was later persuaded not to do so as it could also do irreparable damage to the Schloßkirche above and the civic morale.


At the end, the ALSOS mission removed most of the materials in the lab, and the aluminum containment vessel that lined an excavation in the ground in the cellar was destroyed. This vessel is now on display at one corner of the cellar, which was turned into the Atomkeller-Museum (Atomic Cellar Museum) in the 1980s. There is also a model of the proto-reactor with hanging uranium cubes. Here you see Gabriel standing in front of this model.

One of the physicists in the project, Karl Wirtz, led the construction of the first research reactor (Forschungsreaktor 2, FR2) in Germany, which did not come into operation until early 1960s. This FR2 reactor was built at Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe (Nuclear Research Center Karlsruhe), whose research program has now diversified beyond reactor research and is now known as Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK, the host laboratory of my sabbatical). Coincidentally, there are replicas of Otto Hahn's laboratory bench at Haigerloch's Atomkeller-Museum and at the display area of FR2 at FZK. Since this work bench of the co-discoverer of nuclear fission is of historical significance, the original is kept at the Deutsche Museum in Munich.

Unlike the Manhattan Project, the German's nuclear research during the war never turned into a huge industrial complex. Hence, the operation at Haigerloch was miniscule compared to that at Los Alamos at the time. There is a commonality beyond fission research between the two sites, however. The sceneries in their respective surrounding areas are gorgeous (in a different way, of course). Here is the view of the Schloßkirche from a higher viewpoint across the town.



More pictures from Haigerloch can be found here.