erste Tage in Saarbrücken

Ah, "home" at last. I have my bike and my duffel, and I know where my toothbrush is.

Here I am in an internet café in the heart of Saarbrücken, getting used to the German kezboard, er keyboard again. This morning I woke to discover that Saarbrücken is quite civilized - my first foray by bike took me past a pretty lake and an old church. The weather here is a bit nippy - my nose stays up if I wrinkle it, so it is definitely fall.

The people here are very friendly and luckily don't tend to switch to English, so my German is already improving. Even the officer at the Auslandererlaubnis Büro (foreign work permit office) was patient and helpful and explained all I need is a rental contract and to register at the local town hall and I can get my work permit right away.

I also found this internet café - only 1€ per hour! So expect blog to be populated with pictures this weekend ... or maybe tomorrow. The first day of my contract is a holiday - All Saints Day. What a strange introduction to a new town :-)

Enrouterunningfortrainnotimetoupdatetoday

Just stopped in at ISU to retrieve my old bike and oilskin coat, en route to my new job in Saarbruecken. Four hours between trains from Basel (landed from Naples before lunch - now getting to the airport there will make it's own entry!), and just enough time to say "hi" to everyone at ISU - I don't even know what language I'm speaking anymore Italian-French-German-?. More later!!!
(physically-correct snail courtesy of TOPOLOGY AND REENTRANT PREDICTIONS)

Up Vesuvius!

Another long, winding bus ride, another steep climb, this time to reach the heart of this province: the volcano Vesuvius. On the way, we stop to hear the tale of the last 50 years from a resident of Torre del Greco, a village on its western shore. Antonio has seen everything, running from the great eruption of 1944, working the funiculare until it closed in 1970, and now working a tourist booth on its shoulder.

A new funiculare was started in the 90's, but ecologists halted it to prevent damage to the cone. Yet the chimney is frozen solid, implying that the next eruption could be on the scale of the largest in history, the 79AD blast that smothered Torre del Greco and Herculaneum under 25 metres of ash and as far as Pompei under 5 metres. Damage indeed. I think this hill can take care of itself.

I reach the top, get taken for the 10-minute English version of the guided tour and circumnavigate the path around 2/3 of the rim. It is still smoking and the guide tells me there are on average 2 "events" per day.


I wonder what the evacuation plan for 600 000 in the Napoli area looks like with striking trains, an airport the size of Kamloops' and roads narrower than alleys in other countries ...

In the shadow of Vesuvius

The ruins, or scavi, of Pompei are hidden within the bustling decrepit city crumbling anew around it. Its still-being-uncovered, surprisingly intact structures lie in the shadow of a still-active volcano.

And its new residents, stray dogs, lie in the shadow of reclaimed plinths and doorways.
The colours of the paint adorning many of its walls are still fresh and the designs ring with past events.






The ancient gardens and plazas are revived with trees and vines following their former design.










Now if I can find my way out of here - next stop Vesuvius!

One night in Salerno

Trundling back down from Ravello on another SITA bus, I decided to venture further down the coast to Salerno, the home of Antonio, one of my ISU classmates. He picked me up at Central Station, directed me to the old section of town and gave me my next words in Italian "Ave gratia plena minor" - actually that's a prayer in latin, but also the name of the hostel I am staying in tonight. A 17th century conservatorio cittadino (city conservatory) with the lovely arches and tumultuous fountain in the sheltered central square are a welcome respite from the heat and bustle of the surrounding city. I think I'll just rest here a while...

Later, Antonio takes me to the top of Bonadies Hill. The view is so entrancing, I forget to take a photo (sorry! but here is a beautiful one). After we feast on grilled baccalao and roast vegetables and stroll through the botanical gardens.

This morning, I feel like Salerno belongs to me, but I have to go catch a train across the peninsula ... first stop: il panettiere


... next stop, Pompei.

Ravell-ing in the view from the top

This morning, I enjoyed a sumptuous continental breakfast courtesy of the hostel in the company of travellers from Holland and Michigan and got some tips on scaling the hills to Ravello, a village on top of the peaks, especially how to say "where is...?" (dove'di...). The lovely winding stairs beckoned from the edge of the plaza. "You get the best views if you take the steepest stairs..."





... and steeper stone stairs






... and even taller, rougher rock stairs





An hour and a half later (and 5 pounds lighter), I've scaled some 1500 steps through olive groves and crumbling alleys to the land of Escher. Here in Ravello, overlooking the aptly-named village of Scala, I can see fishers on the sea toward Mauori on one hand
... and the town of Amalfi on the other.
This is truly the land of M.C. Escher, with the familiar geometric architecture ...




... towers,

windows

and, of course, the stairs.

(See Escher's view of Ravello and more.)

Creative driving 101

Even seaside villages like Positano have a gas station burrowed into the cliff ... and it is great sport watching Italian drivers jockey into line while avoiding the next bus looming around the corner.

I had to do a bit of jockeying myself to make it up some of the hairpin roads to the top ...


and then considered the odds of making it unscathed,

considering the condition of every ...
... single

... vehicle on this coast.





And now that I've made it to Amalfi ... I discover the only hostel in Amalfi is actually in Atrani, the next village. And it's a hair-raising 200-metre stroll around the bend. Luckily, I make it there in time to get a bed just as the town wakes up and local trolls take over the central square in a battle with firecrackers and shrieks of glee. Amalfitani lasagna - mmmm ... Wish I could waft the aroma from this kitchen your way ...

Posit(ano)ively refreshing

Positano is a village on the Gulf of Salerno popular for its beach and many shops.


A dip in the chalk-blue water at Positano refreshed me for the endless hill-climbing through a maze of stairs and stucco buildings just to find my way back to a bus stop ...









I clambered past lizards, passed a snail, past a model of this village nestled in the rocks, nestled in the rocks (nestled in the rocks) - kind of recursive art.

A Malphetani

This morning, I went for a stroll through Sorrento's back lanes (even descending a cavernous storm drain) and found omnipresent olive trees that probably predate most of the buildings.

A little later, I went exploring the winding Amalfi Coast by bus - thank goodness I didn't go with my first idea and rent a scooter or I would be part of a submarine exhibit in a thousand years.
The roads here were designed by the same people that designed the bobbypin and the pretzel. How 2 busses can pass in a space smaller than a typical North American lane on a curve while a motor scooter is passing between is beyond my spatial comprehension. I just stare saucer-eyed out the window in wonder.

The bus climbed the endless meander to the top of the hill overlooking Vesuvius, then suddenly we swept around a curve and while one eye kept the Bay of Naples in view, the other found the Gulf of Salerno.

Capri-cious cruise

The ICEUM ended today, early enough for the participants to circumvent lunch and circumnavigate Vesuvius.

Tibor, Aravind, Rodolphe and I made a dash for the Sorrento docks, cast off on the Capri ferry, climbed aboard the funiculare and crested the Isle of Capri.


We clambered back down on foot, stopping to snap photos ... and getting lost along the way. Lucky Rodolphe took Italian!

... and made it just in time to catch the last sailing amid lightning cast by some Roman demi-god. You can't catch us!

Rapt audience

The ICEUM is proving very interesting and informative. With representatives from agencies, academia and industry, the potential for networking is fabulous.

Today, I had lunch with a researcher from the University of Missouri, a rep from the Italian space company Carlo Garvazzi, my old boss from OHB-System, a DLR (German space agency) rep, and the new youth generation rep for the Space Generation from Vienna.

Sorrento Palace

The ICEUM is being held at the Sorrento Hilton Palace Hotel - well-named, this hotel is built into the rock and boasts expansive marble halls and stairs.

The gala dinner was in the coliseum-scale restaurant with pool and painted frescoes, impeccable service, custom vegetarian menu, and 6 courses of gourmet plates.

Presentable in Sorrento

Today, Rodolphe and I presented our Masters team project to the lunar exploration community. The presentation was limited to 10 minutes and followed an introduction by John Farrow, one of our professors. The poster session followed directly, but was poorly attended because the other presentations ran overtime and everyone was overdue for dinner by that point. Luckily we don't have to take the poster down today, so hopefully we'll hook more fish tomorrow.

Now that the pressure is off, we can enjoy the rest of the conference. One of the more original presentations I saw today was a Japanese artist who is demonstrating a zen garden for use on the Moon - here displayed in the Hilton hallway, complete with light-actuated "flowers."

View over Vesuvius

You can see Vesuvius from just about any point around this province... wreathed in the eternal haze.
Tonight we had an opportunity to see the International Space Station from the balcony of the Sorrento Hilton Palace - the waiter even helped us out by shutting off the outside illumination. The ISS just grazed the top of the rocky hills backing the Palace.

Bienvenuto a Sorrento

Spent the day traveling by train, tube, express train, plane, bus, and yet another train to arrive Sorrento at 11PM. The Naples train station revealed the local colour.

The language is lovely - musical and familiar, very like French. I've misplaced my Italian-English dictionary, but I can still get by with a bit of Spanish.

The ICEUM conference begins tomorrow.

The Empire Strikes Back!

Would you believe a Brit and a Canuck spent their Sunday afternoon building the Empire State Building? The London Post provided the template, we provided the enthusiastic (if unskilled) labour. (photo credit: Ahmet)

Pub crawl, Hook style

In the shire of Hook, outside London, it is common to combine pubbing with some healthy exercise. Kathleen and Ahmet took me for a nice stroll along the local canal, stopping in at a half-dozen pubs and exploring a bat-cave along the way ... wait a minute, did you say "bats"?














*phew* we all made it home in time for dinner - shades of Blair Witch Project :-) I should sleep better after a long walk ...

Tea in Hook

Arrived Gatwick yesterday - sunny and a bit brisk (5 deg C). It's more like coming home than going away. Gatwick-Redhill-East Croydon-ClaphamJunction-Surbiton-Woking-Farnsborough-Fleet-Winchfield-Hook - I've been to Kathleen's enough times that I can navigate the trains in my sleep (literally).
This morning I was woken with tea service. After curling up with Kathleen to warm my toes up, we went for a short walk through her frost-tipped neighbourhood to the corner store for lovely fresh warm bread. We enjoyed trout on toast for breakfast.