I just got back from a week long cruise to Mexico and I have to say I am not upset that I missed the very cold temperatures in Michigan. In addition to the seven day cruise, where it was sunny and 85, I was able to spend a few days in LA and went to Disney Land. I have to say it was a blast they really do have something for every age. I just posed the pictured up to flickr so if you want to see how the trip went please have a look.
I sitting on a train whipping along at over 200 km per house and it feels smoother and quieter then any plain I have been on. I wish I had some idea how fast we where going because the trees sure are whipping past us fast! I am riding the ICE and uploading photos to my web, this train has a T-Mobile hot spot in it. I should note this is the third train I have been on in two days in Germany and I have to ask my self, where the heck did the US go wrong. Every time I am in Europe I am always amazed how great their transportation system is. I do not know any German yet I easily got from the airport to my hotel with great ease. Then the next day it was a snap to head into downtown Frankfurt. I think the people that put together the maps and schedules but have a few PhDs. How else could someone with no language knowledge figure all this out. I like to think that I am fluent in English yet most cities I travel to in the US have transportation maps that I thing where written by Martians. I think they just have lot of practice dealing with people that speak several different languages. While I was waiting for my train I was able to identify people talking in 5 different languages. At any rate I think we need to send some folks over from Amtrak to see how a modern rail system should be run!
Now that I have that out of my system my first few days in Germany have been a real blast. It turns out that the World PHP and Open Source Database conference started today in Frankfurt. So I did what any tourist would do faced with going to an amazing exotics city, stayed in doors and geeked it up with some cool people. It least for the first part of my day in Frankfurt. I got to see Markus again and some other great people from OSCON. I also met a few new friends that I went partying with in downtown Frankfurt. It was a fun night and we did not get back to the Hotel until two in the morning. It all it was a great day, got to see an amazing city, meet cool new friends, say hi to old friends, and learn some things about Pear. Unfortunately I could only hang around for the first few hours of the convention but maybe I can attend next year or even give a talk about PostgreSQL. Tonight Donnie is picking me up at the train station in Cologne and we are going out to dinner. I have to say I just love going to a city where I have a friend to remind me that home is any place I am. If you get a few take a peek at the pictures of my first few days in Germany. I could go on but I am going to turn my attention to the nice visits going past the window. The train is sure a nice way to see the country side.