IP: Berlin Diary # 1 of !

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Gg and I just got back from the trip to Berlin. We stayed 6 nights and it 
was marvelous.

First Berlin. The city is the second biggest construction site in the world 
(well at least my world) after Shanghai. The government is moving from Bonn 
and the Reichstag is open. There is a simple memorial to the Holocaust in 
front of it. While we were in Berlin there was a small rally by the far 
right wing and two days latter a huge counter march and demonstration 
against those people.

The Unter den Linden is becoming one of the main streets in Berlin again 
and is full of Linden trees rather than first Nazi flag poles.

We stayed at the Adlon Hotel. It has become the star hotel in Berlin and 
maybe even Europe and richly deserves the  ranking. It opened three years 
ago and is a wonder of comfort, excellent service and great food. GG and I 
had our 35 th Anniversary dinner at the Lorenz Adlon restaurant and it was 
the best dinner I can remember. Service and food outstanding, ambiance 
great and price remarkably low (well by Washington standards). The only 
negative was there was no real Internet access available from the rooms 
(three year old hotel!!). Dial up service was there but at about 50 cents 
per minute rather pricey and slow.
I forgave them. If your get to Berlin it is the only place to stay.

The conference was rather good and my Keynote seemed well received. If 
anyone wants a slide set from my talk, yell. I will post a URL for the 
proceedings when it becomes available.

We had endless great German meals and I gained weight -- GG did not.

It was interesting to watch the election from afar (I voted as did GG weeks 
ago). Seems to me no matter who wins that person's leadership capability 
will be severely stained. BUT if it ends correctly and fairly , the 
American democracy will win.

I am still jet lagged and will maybe say more in a latter note.

Dave

ps. Internet access in Germany was in general poor for a visitor. The 
Lufthansa clubs in Berlin, Munich and Franfurt as well as UA had no 
Internet capability and few if any even dialout ports that were not 
prohibitively  expensive. I bought a Nokia GSM card for my PC for the next 
time -- cheaper than hotels (if I can find the Win 2000 software for it)