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.