HOWe Things Are…

No problems at all getting to the conference place (which is very adorable, not as movie-set like as England but pretty close, only I don’t know so many movies set in small villages in Germany…).

We (meet at San Fran Coffee Company colleague and I) kind of forgot that we had said we would get dinner before arriving. Luckily the cab driver said there were restaurants in the village. We found the pub. Of course, the menu is in German. My colleague has some German but not enough to interpret the menu. So the guy who took our drink orders (who turned out to be the owner, Felix) spoke to us in English so our master plan was to ask Felix what he recommended. However, the couple at the next table, Keith and Carol, from Florida, who work in Stutgart and live in the village here, been here 14 years noticed the problem and offered help. Keith and Carol recommended way too many options so when Felix returned I asked him. He also recommended way too many things so I settled for the first in the “local dishes” section of the menu. Noodles, whose name I learned again from a woman providing childcare for these meetings last night and have again forgotten and lentils and sausage. It was good. Keith and Carol and Felix (and San Fran Coffee company colleague) were all very nice. As it turns out the accommodations with the bathroom down the hall aren’t that bad (we have a sink in our room) except the part about it’s bunk beds and I will likely injure myself at some point in the next 8 days because … well, there’s height and a ladder involved.

Interestingly, there are no sheets. There is a gi-normous pillow, the size of a couch cushion, and a duvet. And it’s not cold here, it’s kind of hot.

Yesterday morning I went for a nice run through the village and there’s a park behind with a bike path that runs along the river (or stream or canal…). There’s a water wheel and loads of flowers and a museum back there.

However, mostly I’m working now (as opposed to England where mostly I was a tourist). There aren’t meetings Sunday and also the following weekend Saturday will be free to see stuff. I really like how much stuff I can walk to.  Looking forward to wandering…  Carol and Keith recommended some places but I’m not sure will get to those. It’s okay though because Keith and Carol will never know whether I took them up on their recommendations or not.