Frankfurt and Heidelburg
Jul. 1st, 2018 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipThe last day of ISC was workshops, mini-conferences in their own right. The two I attended were the HPCIO Workshop and the Performance and Scalability Workshop. Most presentations were war-stories of very metric testings and unusual results, but the practical import was seeing how the different interconnects and storage systems behaved and picking up a few tools for doing the same on our systems. I also had some time to spend with Anja G., whom I first met three years ago at Frankfurt University at one of her HPC courses. Of similar disposition and profession, we've become good friends over the years and have collaborated on a few projects.
With the exception of a report on my activities for work, which I have at least started, I am now on actual holiday probably the first (with the exception of a scattering of days around the place) for at least three years. The last day in Frankfurt included a visit to Liebieghaus, a rather beautiful former Baron's villa who was a collector of sculpture (small and medium) and now includes a great collection of such items from ancient Egypt to the late Renaissance. Also included throughout the collection was an exhibition of William Kentridge. Juxtaposition either creates jarring effects or complementary, and in this case the latter was achieved with exceptional acumen. Adding to the early modern (19th and 20th) centuries technologies of industry and movement, providing absurd and dadaist movement to complement the mimetic and realist stasis. It was a truly memorable performance-exhibition and worthy of a 'blog post in its own right. Afterwards we took a short (2 hour) tour along the Maim covering the two ends of Frankfurt city proper.
The following day took the train to Heidelburg, once recommended to me by a stranger at a university wine tasting. The recommendation was sound. We stayed at the older Krokodil Hotel which is in a good location, half-way between the station and the old city, and in a rather charming neighbourhood. The day's activities including taking funicular to the Schloss and Königsstuhl, both of which provide great views of the city and river. The massive sprawling castle and grounds itself is part functional, part ruin, due to a rather rough history, and of particular note was the presence of the largest wine barrel in the world. At first I thought it was a novelty item, rather like the nonsense you get at some Australian towns. But no, this was actually used - holding over 220,000 litres of wine. Afterwards went to the famous Philosopher's Walk, which includes a fairly steep start but then affords a pleasant journey with good views. Appropriately, it now includes the home of the theoretical physics institute the local university.
With the exception of a report on my activities for work, which I have at least started, I am now on actual holiday probably the first (with the exception of a scattering of days around the place) for at least three years. The last day in Frankfurt included a visit to Liebieghaus, a rather beautiful former Baron's villa who was a collector of sculpture (small and medium) and now includes a great collection of such items from ancient Egypt to the late Renaissance. Also included throughout the collection was an exhibition of William Kentridge. Juxtaposition either creates jarring effects or complementary, and in this case the latter was achieved with exceptional acumen. Adding to the early modern (19th and 20th) centuries technologies of industry and movement, providing absurd and dadaist movement to complement the mimetic and realist stasis. It was a truly memorable performance-exhibition and worthy of a 'blog post in its own right. Afterwards we took a short (2 hour) tour along the Maim covering the two ends of Frankfurt city proper.
The following day took the train to Heidelburg, once recommended to me by a stranger at a university wine tasting. The recommendation was sound. We stayed at the older Krokodil Hotel which is in a good location, half-way between the station and the old city, and in a rather charming neighbourhood. The day's activities including taking funicular to the Schloss and Königsstuhl, both of which provide great views of the city and river. The massive sprawling castle and grounds itself is part functional, part ruin, due to a rather rough history, and of particular note was the presence of the largest wine barrel in the world. At first I thought it was a novelty item, rather like the nonsense you get at some Australian towns. But no, this was actually used - holding over 220,000 litres of wine. Afterwards went to the famous Philosopher's Walk, which includes a fairly steep start but then affords a pleasant journey with good views. Appropriately, it now includes the home of the theoretical physics institute the local university.
