Friday, June 10, 2005
Austria in May...

I just got back from a quick trip to Europe. I was invited to speak at the Software Developer Conference 2005 (www.sdc.nl) in the Netherlands (in a little town called Arnhem, which is probably most remarkable for it's world war 2 "appearance"). This was a welcome opportunity to "stop by in Austria" real quick, since we were practically in the neighborhood (globally speaking), and that is a good enough excuse for a quick trip home.

Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to truly enjoy the trip, due to conference preparations and other work, but the weather was just awesome! The hottest (and nicest) May on record! We took a few hours to go on mountain bike tours, and even 2 short hikes (more like walks actually). It was great! It would have even been easily warm enough to swim in the lakes (which is generally done there in May, but usually not all that comfortable). Too bad we didn't bring our camera (although you can check out the photo album for pictures from previous trips to Austria if you are interested: http://www.markusegger.com/Photos/Index.aspx).

Arnhem on the other hand was cold and rainy (I've really never been to the Netherlands when the weather was nice...). We decided to drive there by car, which was a 7 to 8 hour trip from Austria. We left early enough to avoid most of the traffic (Tip: In many areas of Germany, school breaks end at the end of May, which makes for a LOT of traffic!), and had a rather uneventful trip. Just around noon, we passed by the Nuerburgring, which hosted the Formula One Grand Prix of Europe that weekend, which broke my heart. I even considered getting tickets, but really didn't have enough time (and tickets were hellishly expensive on short notice!). Oh well, we will have other opportunities to mingle with the European high society (this is no Nascar race, you know). And after the disaster at the Brasilian race last year...

After the conference, we had just enough time to go back to Austria, had a nice BBQ, visited a beer tent (you can't go to Austria in the summer and not go to a beer tent!), and finally returned home to our "other" home in the US, just when we had adjusted to the time difference.