Inductive Bias

While I was at the conference – Teddy spent some time exploring the surroundings of the conference hotel. Looks like in particular Hyde park was attractive:

The last two September weeks Teddy was in Down Under. He spent the first few days exploring Sydney: Taking the ferry from Manly to the city each morning, followed by beautiful sunny weather, warm enough to already go swimming.



The following days took him to the Blue Mountains and into Kangaroo Valley for some hiking, animal watching and kayaking:



Of course Teddy also made some new friends:



A huge thanks to Tatjana, Steve and Ash for hosting us in Sydney. Thanks also to Brett, Laura, Samantha and Tobi for hosting us in the Blue Mountains. And thanks to the folks joining us on our very last evening for a Apache Dinner. Was great meeting you – looking forward to see you again soon.

Also thanks to Thoralf, Anja, Astro, Douwe, Stefan, Nick, Brett and everyone else who provided us with lots of hints and recommendations on what to do in and near Sydney. As usual it was too little time for too much to do and see.

Taken earlier this year in Meißen the picture shows a detail of the beautiful cathedral:



Teddy after a busy day:

Some picture taken all the way up in northern Sweden:



Those picture were taken mid-June. That means what looks like Teddy sitting in the afternoon sun actually was taken 20min before midnight some 40km south of the arctic circle at Camp Frevisören - an incredible spot to start the day on a canoo:


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(That little half-isle that stretches into the ocean.)

If you ever travel that far north, make sure to stop by at Hulkoff.se. We got the tip only a few days before we left asking a Swedish friend where to go to see midsummer. Though he is not from that very area he recommended going there if we get a chance - and that turned out a beautiful idea: Not only is the restaurant/ conference venue nicely located just a few km before Finland - they also serve most tasty meals!

PS: In case you're wondering what that monkey on the pictures is - it's Teddy's new friend "Herr Nielson" - the little squirrel monkey that is the best friend of the strongest girl in the world.

A few beautiful sunny though windy days in Zurich late April:

View from the path between Ütliberg and Adliswil/Felsenegg:





Strolling through the city and sitting next to Zürichsee enjoying the sun afterwards:


  


A boat trip to Rapperswil - started cold and cloudy, finished warm and sunny:


  

Some images taken in Poznan after GeeCon - big Thanks! to Dawid for giving advise on where to go for sightseeing, exhibitions and going-out.

The tour started close to river Warta - it being a sunny day it seemed like a perfect fit to just walk through the city, starting along the river headed towards the cathedral:


   


After that Poznan Citadel was a great place to spend lunch time - sitting somewhere green and shady:




Afternoon was dedicated to discovering the city center, several local churches and the national galery:


    

Last week I spent several days in Chicago mainly to attend a few meetings at the local Nokia/Navteq office. Though the schedule was pretty packed, a few hours remained to explore the then frosty and windy city:



Top three images: Some impressions of the city. Bottom left: Teddy's new friend. Bottom right: Situation at ORD when flying out - fortunately both, the airport as well as the airline (Swiss) have quite some experience with challenging weather conditions so that we could leave without too much delay.


As usual I wondered whether there are any Apache people close by. So before flying in I checked our committers map. As there were a few people in that general area I sent a brief heads-up to the greatly under-advertised, private, non-archived, committers only list party@apache.org. In case you've never heard about it: The main use case of that list is to provide a means for committers to arrange for meeting up with fellow Apache people and share travel details.

As a result I received a brief list of things to do in Chicago and got to attend a small but really nice meetup. Having a means to get in touch with locals can make such a difference - thanks for the warm welcome! Hopefully next time I'm there weather is as warm - would love to explore the (at least according to my travel guide book) beautiful nature of the great lakes.

It was several years ago that a frequent traveller told me about it being more comfortable and time saving to travel mid-sized distances (e.g. from Berlin to Amsterdam) by train - night train that is - instead of flying. Back then without decent knowledge of which combination of booking early and discount card make prizes of trips by train somewhat comparable to those offered by airlines that wasn't really an option for me.



It took me years and a conference in Vienna to re-visit to his proposal: Trying to find ways to reduce the amount of times I fly I looked for alternatives. Going by car clearly is not an option as it's more time consuming and on such long distances also more stressful. Going by regular train seemed like a waste of time as well. So I re-checked the offers for night trains. The idea of going to bed in Berlin and waking up at my destination just seemed too good.

Currently sitting in a CNL to Amsterdam I have to admit that for now this is the most relaxing way to travel I've found so far: Get on board, sleep heavenly (though not as comfortable as in your preferred hotel, beds are still ok), get your breakfast brought to bed in the morning. Mix in meeting friendly people (so far maybe I was just lucky) that are either discovering Europe as backpackers (met one from Australia and one from Canada yesterday) or happen to be taking that train as part of their weekly commute.

I think at least for most European cities I'm converted now :)

On his trip from SFO back to Europe teddy spent a few days in Amsterdam. He brought back the following pictures of bikes, cheese and the canals:

Going to Amsterdam usually is pretty darn dangerous: I tend to return with some toys added to my collection of puzzles. Somehow I tend to be drawn to the shop called Gamekeeper selling them even when I do not remember the exact address or even just the street name:

Before attending O'Reilly Strata there were a few days left to adjust to the different time zone, meet up with friends and generally spend some days in the Greater San Francisco area. As was to be expected, those were way to few days. The weekend was a bit rainy, still packed with visiting China town right after the plane had landed and spending some time at ... Finally was taken out to Bucks - the restaurant among software engineers generally known for being the place where VC deals are being made.

Sunday was reserved for visiting some red wood trees - it's so great driving just a few minutes out of the city and arriving in an area that looks like being set up for a fairy tale movie. With all the mist and with sun coming out here and there the area looked even more bewitched.

On Monday sun finally arrived in the bay - as a result a ferry trip to Sausolito seemed like the optimal thing to do. Unfortunately not enough time to rent a bike an to the "ride the bridge" tour - or get a kajak to go out into the bay. Maybe next time though.

After returning back home, Teddy showed me some pieces of chocolate someone in the US made him adicted to - now it's not just the tasty swiss one but also the Berkley one I have to find a shop for in Berlin ;)