Tonight we’re having a joint dinner with the other half of the two-part team I’m on at our hotel. Once we finished our meetings for today I had two hours of spare time, and because I was too tired to run this morning, I decided to run in the heat (26 C). So I headed off on the route I took two mornings ago and then 2km along the way I decided to explore the trails through the forest I’d previously spotted.

Always amazed at how many people ride bikes, I was equally surprised at the number of walkers, runners, and cyclists in the forest. A network of relatively straight paths cross cross a large forest area behind the university, castle, and cemetery.

I felt great and my pace was quick but soon I started to succumb to the heat. My heart rate rose an though I didn’t feel the need to slow my pace I knew I must if I were to make it “home”.

My ad-hoc forest loop ended up being just longer than 7.2 km and I set a new seasonal heart rate max (194 bpm).

The best part? The envealoping forest. Absolutely wonderful conditions I wish I lived closer to.

Karlsruhe is very calm and pleasant this Sunday afternoon. Going for a walk back to the market square to find some dinner. It is warm and a bit humid. Very green and I’m pleasantly amazed at how many bicycles there are. More bikes than cars it seems.

Sunday must be ice cream day. That is about all people are eating, and there are lineups to get it. I didn’t buy any.

Monday morning walk. More cars, but still lots of bikes. Lady riding bike with cocker(?) in the basket behind the seat. Have not seen a single person with a helmet. Even the postmen ride bikes.

Unlike France, no dogs on the street.

I didn’t sleep horribly well. Too warm and my body didn’t think it was the middle of the night. Finally a rain shower came by and the tapping of the drips distracted me from the guy snoring in the room next door. Woke up at 8:00 and felt pretty good despite the wakeful night. By 11:30 AM I’m feeling pretty bleary.

I finally found free WiFi so I’m making use of it. Too bad it’s a 20 minute walk from the hotel.

Now I’m on the train. It seems to have been oversold to people like me without a reservation. All the seats appear to be reserved and full (a red LCD shows between which cities the seat is reserved). I get to stand in the entryway for the 1 hour ride to Karlsruhe with about 10-15 other people. On a straightaway the train gets up to 200km/h. A large LCD just inside the door (on which I lean) alternates between showing the cities the train will stop at (and train and wagon number), and the current speed and time.

The countryside is whipping past but it really doesn’t feel that fast, probably because of how smooth the ride is. Without the display I would not have guessed the rate of travel.

Unlike our drive north to Minden (near Hannover), the land boardering the train line appears to be flat, fertile farmland. North of Frankfurt by car was quite hilly and forested with the exception of the small flat valleys surrounding the small towns.

After the exchange of passengers at Mannheim the train as full or more full than before. It’s great to see how many people use public transportation like this. A train between Calgary and Edmonton like this would be great, but only if the supporting public infrastructure within the city is sufficient to get people to their final destination. The expanded CTrain in Calgary is good, but still may not be sufficient. For example, the Ctrain does not go to the airport. Boo.

Just passed a pair of cooling towers for a nuclear power plant about halfway between Mannheim and Karlsruhe. The land is still pretty flat. Where there are no trees you can see quite far.

As Brenda, the kids and I left for the Calgary airport it was a badly-needed, heavy spring rain. Shortly after boarding the plane the rain turned to thick, heavy snow. Because of the snow, we had to wait for our turn to get de-iced. It took so long to get de-iced and the snow was so heavy that we needed a second de-icing. 45-55 minutes had already passed. We waited another 30 minutes to get de-iced the second time Finally the process was over and we started to move. 2 hours and 15 minutes later than scheduled we finally taxied to the runway and departed.

I had booked a train ticket to Karlsruhe from the Frankfurt airport. The train was scheduled to leave at 13:54. The flight was originally scheduled to arrive at 11:20, but with a 2:10 delay I didn’t expect to arrive until 13:30, leaving 25 minutes to deplane and collect my single piece of baggage.

Leaving the plane at 13:35 I hurried through immigration and was the first person to the luggage turnstile. The priority bags started arriving just as I did, but by then it was 13:50. 15 minutes later my bag was the first non-priority bag to arrive (a 10 minute break between priority and non). I grabbed my bag and hurried to the train station, a 2 minute walk. I knew I had missed my train before confirming it by looking at the departure board. A few minutes later (14:11) I had paid 28€ and was scheduled to take a 14:51 train to Mannheim where I had 12 minutes to switch platforms and take a second train to Karlsruhe.

After waiting on the platform for 45 minutes the departure board on the platform was updated. The train to Mannheim was delayed by 45 minutes and would make me miss my connection.

Up the escalator I confirmed that I could take a direct train to Karlsruhe at 15:54, and that my updated ticket was an open ticket that required no further changes.

So a 2 hour delay in Calgary has propagated into a second 2 hour delay in Frankfurt. We’ll see how things go once I get to Karlsruhe.

“Fun!”

It’s been beautiful weather the past few days. Today it was better than 20 C. But we need rain.

Rhys, Erik and I went to the playground. Rhys makes friends wherever he goes. A mom was being a “monster” to her daughter and soon Rhys was chasing the “mean monster” and hugging her legs. When they left, he went to the gap in the fence and waved.

Erik, however, is afraid of the grass.

For the past several weeks the kids have been taking turns being sick. Mostly Erik has had a runny nose and cough, but Rhys and Soph have had their turns being fevered, throwing up, and trying to recouperate.

It will be nice when everyone us feeling better and the weather is nice.

Just need it to rain instead of the impending snow.

So I’ve done this blog thing, off more than on, since July 2002.

July 2002 was the summer I got a job working for a software startup on the U of C campus after being laid off from gig as an internship student.

Originally I used it to voice opinions, list neat things I discovered or figures out, as a memo pad for my own future reference, and as a public diary of family events and happenings.

Turns out I’m not willing to dedicate the time each day/week/month to actually make updates. Mostly the site gets used as a repository of time-shifted radio podcasts as my way of discovering new music on my own schedule.

So what do I want this to become? I guess I’ll have to decide or forever this will languish. Mostly it seems to be for introspection. A spot to vent and explain myself no to one in particular. Presumably this will help me understand myself better?

I’d say more about day-to-day happenings, but some stuff I want to keep private, and other things I can’t really talk about because they are work-related. It was nice to get a “why blog” reminder from papahashi.blogspot.com.

I started this for a reason, and that reason really hasn’t ever gone away. (And being able to blog from my phone eliminates most other excuses about “inconvenient” etc. I should do this instead of Sol Free solitare. )