As promised, here are the chronicles of my German visit.
The visit started with a flight from Lisbon to Saarbrucken via Palma de Mallorca. It’s been quite a while since I’ve flown without frequent flyer benefits: No lounge, no special check-in. It was quite a shock to sit on the uncomfortable terminal chairs with no Internet access, but I managed. The flights themselves were surprisingly comfortable. Due to the fact I was flying on a low-cost carrier, I could book seat 1A, which is a regular economy seat, just in the front of the plane and with much more legroom. As luck would have it 1B was vacant on both flights, and on the second one 1C was vacant too, leaving me with a whole row to myself. Onboard service included a sandwich and free soft and hot drinks. All in all, a very positive experience, comparable even to “Europe Select” (business class) on KLM.
Between the flights, I ate at KFC at PMI, was surprised to see they offered Coke and not Pepsi, and French Fries instead of Mashed Potatoes, but the chicken was more or less the same. They also talked Spanish, but that I’m used to from KFC in the US too.
Saarbruecken airport is very small, serving mostly general aviation. It has exactly two gates and two baggage belts, and the passengers walk from the airstairs to the terminal. No border control was needed, and in less than half an hour from landing I was outside and picked up.
Later that night came the shock: The vacation apartment we were staying at did not have basic necessities: No Internet access, and even no phone! This left me without any form of communication with the outside world. In the following days, my outside communications were strictly monitored and limited, and thus no blog updates, among other things.
What we did do in the following days was play lots of boardgames I brought, and go touring in several towns in Germany and beyond.
The first day was all spent playing boardgames and resting. The next day we went to the northern Mosel valley and visited the tourist town of Cochem and Eltz Castle. This was not the original plan, but the road to the southern Mosel valley was closed for bicycles only for a “bicycle day”. I could not help noticing the contrast between that and what happened recently in San Francisco, where the city was sued by car owners for a plan to dedicate more bicycle lanes.
On the third day we went to Luxembourg, capital of Luxembourg. On the way we passed the city of Schengen, which is known for the Schengen treaty for open borders in Europe. This leads to the anomaly that Luxembourg is in Schengen, while Schengen is in Luxembourg. The city itself houses an impressive castle and “casemates” — ancient city fortifications. Another useful feature is the free municipal WiFi all over the city and the impressive views.
The fourth day was spent in the city of Heidelberg, known as the home of the first university in Germany, and well, another castle. The castle houses the largest wine barrel in the world, and a museum of German pharmacies.
The last day was spent packing and playing boardgames, and the day after was spent flying back. The route was STR-AMS-MSP-SFO. We left home at 6am towards Stuttgart airport, where I was upgraded to business class on the two short segments. The flights were comfortable, but the illness I began developing in Lisbon has intensified, and I spent the flights coughing and aching, especially the last one. The first class flight attendant was very nice and repeatedly offered me more tea, until we finally arrived at the airport. Finally I took the shuttle home and went to sleep.
At home, I checked my newly repaired laptop and some boardgames I’ve ordered and made a doctor’s appointment, where I’m headed right now.
Yesterday I have given my planned talk at the Dagstuhl seminar about 
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Today after lunch there was a break from conference sessions. Conference participants were encouraged to participate in an excursion to an 