Ryan's Trip to Germany!

 

In September, Ryan got to go to a research conference in Germany. The conference is at a place called Schloss Dagstuhl, which is an old manor house from 1760 that now hosts computer science conferences throughout the year. This conference was talking about trust in conversational agents, which is part of what Ryan does for his research. He got to spend a week hanging out with other researchers from all over the world who work on similar stuff. It was a really busy week with almost all day spent talking about research. But it was also super cool.

The castle/manor was way out in the country, so he had to take the train 2 hours from Frankfurt, then a half hour car ride from there.

He had a few hours to kill in St. Wendel, Germany before the scheduled cab ride, so he explored the town and visited a local church building.

You can see the church tower from all around town, including from the many outdoor dining areas that were packed. Everybody eats outside, and there's a lot of eating.

This is the front of the manor house (the really old one). It's got a garden across the street with flowers and stuff.

Up the hill from the manor is the ruins of a castle from the 13th century. Just follow the totally overgrown path.

The view from the top of the hill where the castle was. Very helpful for keeping an eye on nosy or dangerous neighbors.

Don't fall in the well!

Inside the crumbling tower

On one day, they got to take a trip to a nearby national park to get out of the conference rooms and stretch. We visited the Hillfort of Otzenhausen, a 2000-year-old Celtic fort defended by what was once 60-foot tall rock walls. Now the wood that supported the rocks has rotted away, but there's still giant piles of rocks all the way around.

A cool lake view from the other side of the rock wall

The castle at sunset

The conference included 3 delicious meals every day, plus a break for coffee and cakes. So much good food.

Including a German-style barbecue. Apparently this is how they do it there. We have gas or charcoal grills, they have giant pulley systems with a swinging grill that hangs over the top of the coals. Ryan asked a few of the people from Germany, and all of them said that's how they BBQ, although a home one is usually smaller than this big one.

Yum!

The manor where all the meetings were was big and beautifully decorated. These are the doors out of the music room. Cherubs, gold, and all sorts of pretty stuff everywhere.

The conference ended Friday, and Ryan's flight home wasn't until Saturday, so he had an afternoon to explore a little bit of Frankfurt. After getting off at one wrong train station (Hauptwache, Hauptbahnhof, what's the difference? apparently about 2 stops), he managed to find his way to the "old town" part of Frankfurt. Most of Frankfurt has had to be rebuilt since WWII destroyed it, but they've restored a bunch of buildings and kept some of the old style.

Main square, with lots of outdoor dining.

Town hall

A random Goodyear blimp flying overhead

St Bartholomew's Cathedral (originally built in the 7th century, it's been destroyed and restored a few times, most recently in the 1950s)

While he was there, Ryan got to listen to an organ performance on this giant pipe organ. Some of those pipes are pointed out like trumpets.

Frankfurt is apparently famous for its green sauce, so he had to give that a try. Here it is with some pork schnitzel.

Also, eating in Europe is weird. They don't give you water, and most of the water you get at restaurants is sparkling. It's a good thing he already likes drinking spiky water.

Apple strudel yum.

Lots and lots of outdoor dining. This whole plaza was full of people eating at like 8pm.

Overall, it was a really cool experience, and a great opportunity to see a new part of the world and connect with new people who are interested in some of the same nerdy things. You'd think that after spending a week basically working every day from 8am to 8pm, he'd be sick of it, but Ryan was a little bit sad to leave. It turns out spending nearly every hour of every day with people turns them into friends.