Photo Gallery Up!

Big news! Now, all your desires to see my pictures from Europe can be satisfied by more than the few measly thumbnails on this site. I spent the last couple evenings setting up a seperate but parallel photo gallery site, which will continually get updated along with this site. Check it out at http://students.washington.edu/jdhiller/Eur06. (Also on the links sidebar to the right)

Munich:

Over the summer I will be traveling around Europe most weekends, and Stuttgart is a wonderful hub. To kick things off, on Saturday and Sunday I went to Munich (in Bavaria), which is about a 2.5 hour train ride from Stuttgart. I journeyed with a couple other American students who are here on the same program as me, but work at a different school. Because Germany was playing in Munich Saturday night, every hostel in the city was booked. So we went back to Stuttgart Saturday night--which wasn't bad because the Eurail pass we all have allows for unlimited train travel in a given day.

The Deutsches Museum [Here] was first on the agenda Saturday. It is a huge (16 km path to go through all the exhibits) museum that focuses mostly on technical accomplishments. Everything from water wheels to rockets was represented, with inumerable superb machines and exhibits. Needless to say, it was not hard to spend several hours there!

Early steam engine in Deutsches Museum

Next we ventured into the old city, about 1km square, containing quite a number of very nice historic buildings within the old city wall. I will only have room to highlight a couple here. The Neuesradhaus ("new" city hall, found [Here]) borders the main central square in Munich (Marienplatz), and holds the famous cuckoo clock (visible on the tower). Since we were there on a game day, the square was a sea of german ond swedish colors.

Marienplatz


Nearby was another famous building, the Frauenkirsche. [Here] This is a large cathedral that was home to the current Pope for a while. As big as the outside looks, it felt even bigger on the inside with the gold-ribbed vaulted ceiling well over 100 feet above. Such things simply cannot be conveyed in a picture. Suffice it to say that I could not even fit the whole height of the cathedral in a single picture

Frauenkirsche vertical panoramas, interior and exteterior

There were so many other great buildings, towers, and squares that I will have to just wait until I can figure out uploading full photo galleries (hopefully soon!). Anyhow, the rest of the day was spent seeing the old city and going to the Hofbräuhaus, a world famous Bavarian eating/drinking establishment.

The next day (Sunday), we took an hour detour into Ulm by simply getting off the train and catching the next one. There is really only one thing to see in Ulm: the cathedral [Here]. It is the tallest cathedral in the world (500 some odd feet tall) and the second largest. It is perhaps the definition of "gothic cathedral", with flying butresses, jagged spires, and an abundance of gargoyles. Started in 1388, it took nearly 500 years to complete, but the result is breathtakingly impressive.

Cathedral at Ulm, vertical panorama

Once in Munich, we made tracks for the English garden, which I believe is the largest city park in the world. It is at least 5 km long and follows the Isar river [Here]. From the north end of the garden, we trecked on up to the Alianz Arena, (a nice 12 km walk total) where the world cup games are played. Then we caught an U-bahn back to the city and an S-bahn out to Schloss Nymphenburg.

Schloss Nymphenburg [Here] is an exquisite example of baroque architecture and landscaping. It was begun in 1644 far enough away from the city to encompasse nearly 200 acres in its well planned out complex. The straight ponds stretching out from the front and the back of the palace go for at least a mile in both directions.

Overall, it was an amazing weekend that only makes me look forward to traveling even more!! But anyhow, back to work for the week.

Thoughts on the World Cup:

Largely unbeknownst to most of you back in America, the largest international sports event (besides maybe the Olympics) is happening in Germany as I speak. The World Cup, which runs from June 9-July 9 pits football (soccer) teams from 64 countries against each other in a quest for the world championship. Games happen at 10 cities around Germany--Stuttgart included--and for each game, fans flock to the cities by the thousands decked out in their country's colours. To give you a sense of scale, we're talking over 100,000 extra Germans in Munich last night for the Germany-Sweden game, and probably more than 10,000 Swedes. Most don't actually get to go to the game, but everywhere in the city there are big tvs set up.

Yet despite European's ferverent support of their countries, the World Cup (from all I've seen) is a predominantly friendly competition. Fan of both teams watch the games together, and a few lone swedes in a sea of red, yellow, and black have little to fear except sounding rather pitiful in their rivaling chants. (and being deafened when Germay scores!!) The brits have a reputation for going crazy, but all the brits I've met so far have been quite friendly--if not more than a little drunk (the beer flows freely aorund the games). I think this is the classic case of a minority ruining the reputation of the majority.

So I guess my point is that the World cup is an amazing example of how people from around the world have come together for a common love (Or craze... depending on your perspective). On the S-bahn coming home tonight, I was sitting near some (exuberant) Brits and Italiens. Even though they could barely speak together, they were belting out songs together like none other: The universal language of football.

PS... Germany won the game vs Sweden 2-0, which puts them as part of the final 8 countries. Deutschland fur Weldmeister!

Friends and high places:

Last night, I had the pleasure of meeting up with a family friend who lives in Stuttgart! I hadn't actually met Wolfgang before, (he worked with my dad before I was born), but his son Julian had come to visit and stay with my family twice in the last several years, for long enough to get to know him well. (Of course, our families had stayed reasonably in touch over the years) . Julian is about my age, but is currently in school up in northern Germany, so I will not get to see him for another few weeks.

The destination for the evening was the Stuttgart TV tower. As dull as that may sound to the unenlightened, the Stuttgart TV tower is actually somewhat of a city symbol... In fact, very similar to the Space Needle in Seattle. It was (as Stuttgarters are very proud to mention) the first such slender, free-standing tower in the world. Built in 1956, it was a demonstration of the capabilities of reinforced concrete, a new technology at the time.

We rode the elevator on up to the observation deck 120 meters (400 feet) up the tower. The view of the city was astounding! The tower itself is on a hill near the center of Stuttgart [Here], and despite the somewhat hazy evening, one could easily see the major features of the town. The reason that Stuttgart is know as the city of 'forests and vineyards' was readily apparent from the beautiful landscape.

View from the TV Tower observation deck

After some delicious ice cream in the cafe at the top, we went for a walk down the hill a ways to a more natural overlook of the city from a bluff. There were some astoundingly beautiful homes (small castles almost) and a nice park to enjoy the view from.

All in all it was an very enjoyable evening, and I will undoubtably spend more time with Wolfgang & family in the next few weeks.

Watch for a more complete photo gallery in the next few days.



Stuttgart TV tower at dusk

Work Begins:


Well, work more or less officially started for me on Monday. For those of you who don't know, I am doing a full time research internship of sorts at the Universität Stuttgart--more specifically in the Institut für Konstruktion und Fertigung in der Feinwerktechnik, an institution within the Mechanical Engineering Department. (Yes, the Germans love their long words!) I benefitted from an exiting grad student and inherited a nicely equipped, very spacious office... bigger in fact than most professor's offices I ever saw at UW.

My office

[Caution: Any non-technically oriented people may wish to skip this paragraph] The work I'm doing concerns ultrasonic (or piezoelectric) motors. Over the course of the summer, I will be designing, programming conrols, and integrating these motors into test beds. Basically the underlying priniple is to excite a piezo crystal at high frequency and strategically couple it to a rotor/slider by friction to cause a net motion. The resulting motor can be made much smaller than a conventional motor, and the most common application is in the auto-focusing lenses for high-end cameras. If for some reason this stuff snagged your interest, I'll pass you along to Wikipedia for ultrasonic motors and (more generally) piezo-electric motors.

Anyhow, the work is nice, the people are all great, and I am well equipped here, so there's not much to complain about. I get to work on many different aspects of the project, from designing and building a motor to writing the software to control it, which means I get a good perspective on things (and don't get bored!).

On a side note, there was an excellent sunset Tuesday night unlike any I've ever seen. Yes, those are thunderstorms!


Sunset from my balcony

First Weekend in Stuttgart:

Things are going well over here. I went to church this (Sunday) morning at IBC Stuttgart (International Baptist Church). I am very blessed to have a good, bible-based, english speaking church within (albeit long) walking distance from my room. The church [Here] is right near a US military barracks, but there were fewer young servicemen than I would have expected. There were quite a few american families (presumably mostly military), but a good percentage of the church was internationals. I would bet its about the only bible based, non-german speaking church in Stuttgart, thus gaining a diverse congregation. There are also a number of germans who attend, presumably because its a good church, and also allows them to practice english.

They are running an ambitious month-long outreach coionciding with the world cup. They have a big tent set up in a lower income, international neighborhood nearby, running a kids programs and showing the games on a big screen. I'll almost certainly go help out at times when I am not working.

Oh yeah--another "small world" story: I met the fiance of a guy who grew up in my home church in Marysville. He was occupied elsewhere, but it was still a connection. It was in fact his parents (still at FBC Marysville) who told my parents to tell me about IBC Stuttgart.

Last night I went to a BBQ with Mani in one of the further-out suburbs of Stuttgart (A 15 minute train ride away) Again, it was a great chance to meet and converse with students from around here. The weather has been extremely nice so far, being mostly sunny and in the high 70's/low 80's, so sitting out on the lawn into the evening was quite enjoyable.

Saturday morning shopping:

This morning I "slept in" till 6:00 and went for a walk into Vaihingen, the suburb of Stuttgart that the university is near. Unlike the US, where cities just sprawl into the suburbs, here--in Stuttgart at least--the suburbs are well defined with meadows and forest between them and distinct downtowns.

Of course I had to stop by one of the open bakeries for breakfast. Germans are good at several things when it comes to food: fresh bread, good fresh meat, and good cheese. I think I could live on these alone my whole time here! I also fulfilled my unofficial goal for the trip, which was to find the Saturday morning market. So now I am finishing off breakfast with some delectable fresh strawberries. mhmm.


Vaihingen Marktplätze (Marketplace)


A random shot around downtown

Unfortunately, the sunlit-haze made good pictures nearly impossible, so I will get better pics later. I also enjoyed walking through some of the residential areas... there were some very nice houses lining the narrow European streets. Other than walking around, I have very little to do. The grad student who I'm working with has been gone this week, but I'll be diving into work full time come Monday, which should alleviate a good portion of my excess time.

Partying in Stuttgart:

I spent yesterday afternoon hanging out with Mani. He plays guitar, so I was able to relieve those itching guitar fingers for a while. For those that don't know, I was fully planning on bringing my recently finished guitar here to Europe, but British Airways was going to make me check it. Not a chance!

Last night, we went to a birthday party for one of his friends in downtown Stuttgart. It was a good time to practice my German. My three years of German in high school have given me a basic understanding of the language, but left me nowhere near fluent (not to mention I hadn't practiced since then). I can carry on a basic conversation though, and people here are more than willing to help me learn. But as soon as the talk turns technical, I am lost. Lots of learning to do.

Turns out I met a guy (Tim) who lived in Marysville for a year as part of an exchange program when he was in high school. We didn't connect on any names, but its truly a small world!

Tschüs für jetzt!

Day 2... A Holiday!

Today is a state holiday (Corpus Christi I believe), so no work today! Nothing is even open. Again I woke up early and did some exploring of Pfaffenwald (the forest) around sunrise. This time I made it my goal to find Schloss Solitude, a palace towards the north edge of Pfaffenwald, maybe 5km away. I was able to find it without much difficulty after reviewing the satellite view [Here].

The castle (a former palace, really) was built around 1750 by Duke Karl Eugen. Today, it houses an art academy. However, it is owned by the city, so (like the rest of the forest) I was free to roam. For more info and history, here is the Wikipedia article.



Front view of Schloss Solitude at sunrise


Column detail

When the castle was built, a dead-straight road went north to Ludwigsberg, about 13 km away. For the most part, this road is still intact and was visible heading off into the distance.


View facing north

I plan to get out to see downtown Stuttgart later today or tomorrow. Keep you posted...

Random observations:

One of the most interesting things about a new country is all those little things that are different. Here are some I've observed so far:

-German keyboards are laid out differently that US. Z and Y are switched, and all the symbols are in different spots. Fortunately you can set up windows to the US layout, but a glance at the keys is still confusing. (Like the parentheses are on the 8 and 9 keys instead of the 9 and 0)

-As in most of Europe, cars here are all small. A Geo Metro is about the average size. German cars abound (of course!), but most of the major brands (Audi, BMW, Mercedes) have smaller cars we don't see in the US. Other common cars we don't see in the US are Opel, Fiat, Seat, and Peugot.

-Stores are required by law to close before 8pm on weekdays.

-There are bars amidst the dorms, but here drinking is less of a problem that in the US.

-Germans sing happy birthday in English.

-I will add more as I come across odd things

First day in Stuttgart:

Today started early. For some reason I was wide awake at 3:30 am, which makes no sense because that is still 6:30 pm Pacific time. Whatever the peculiarities of my internal clock, I began exploring the forest to the north in the pre-dawn.


Pond right below my room in the predawn light

There are a series of small lakes about 1 km into the woods to the north [Here]. On the shores of the western-most lake is Barenschlössle, a small "castle" which appeared to house a wine & dine type eatery [Here]. (Note: you can of course navigate the satellite maps in the links by clicking and dragging to explore a little yourself.)



Barenschlössle

The rest of the morning was occupied with running around doing errands to get settled in, such as opening a bank account, exchanging currency, groceries, etc. After a long nap in the afternoon, I was going to go rock climbing with Mani, but he got stuck in a 3 hour traffic jam and could not make it.

The World Cup (soccer championships) began in Germany last week, and 8 of the 64 games will be played in Stuttgart over the next 3 weeks. For the record, all the rumors are true. Europeans are CRAZY about football (soccer). Germany plays Poland tonight, and there are people all over in red, black, and gold with flags and face paint. Since the US team is probably no good, go Deutschland! [Revision, 16/6: As I recently learned, the correct phrase in German is "Deutschland für Weldmeister!"]

Tomorrow is a holiday, so I should have time to explore my surroundings some more.

All for now...

The adventure begins...with jetlag. Four hours of sleep in the last 48 hours has not helped negotiating the über-complicated German beaurocracy to get settled in here. Turns out I even need to register as a citizen of Stuttgart to stay here for the summer.

I'll spare you all the details of the 17 hours of travel. It all went smoothly except delays in and out of London/Heathrow AP. I arrived in Stuttgart around 20:00 Tuesday evening and was met by Mani, a student who works in my lab. After a short trip on the S-bahn (underground train), we popped up right in the center of campus. He took some time to show me around the lab and to my room. Universität Stuttgart (University of Stuttgart) is a large university (25,000 students) with emphasis on the technical side of things. The Mechanical Engineering department is huge and very well-equipped.

My room is nice enough. Certainly big enough for the one piece of luggage I brought. Here is a satellite view of my residence. (Google maps link). I am in the last cluster of 4 buildings at the center of the view. To the north is Pfaffenwald, a fairly extensive forest laced with hiking and biking trials... and some history. More on this later.


View of Pfaffenwald from my room

Enough for now. Time for a nap.