Barcelona

Together with Giovanni and Alessio, I made a quick (2 day, 1 night) visit to Barcelona for a project meeting. Although we went straight from the airport to meetings, and spent most of the time indoors, we did get a chance for a walk around before our flight out on Friday.







Barcelona is in Spain, but don't assume they speak Spanish. In fact, by local reckoning, “Spanish” is a language spoken in Latin America. In Spain, the main languages are Castillian, Catalan, and Basque. People in Barcelona can speak Castillian, the language of Madrid, but their language is Catalan. This airport sign is bilingual. One sees both languages on signs around town, but signs by and for the locals are mainly in Catalan.



We stopped at a market so Giovanni could buy some jambon to bring back to friends. The good Spanish jambon is eaten thinly sliced, like prosciutto crudo. The flavor is a bit more robust and maybe a bit saltier. Both are wonderful, but distinct.



Then we walked up to Parque Güell, which features several sculptures/buildings/whims by Gaudi. Although rain threatened and then briefly made good on the threat, we managed to get back to the hotel without getting soaked.

Airolo

Sunday, June 1, I rode from Lugano to Airolo and back. This is roughly the same route I took three weeks ago, but instead of turning around at Fiesso I continued on to Airolo, at the base of the San Gottardo pass. San Gottardo is also know as the Gothard pass. It divides German-speaking Switzerland from Italian-speaking Switzerland, and is also a continental divide with respect to rivers; to the north of San Gottardo they drain to the Atlantic, to the south they drain to the Mediterranean.







Gottardo is a prime example of the Swiss penchant for going through mountains instead of over them ... there is a 17km tunnel in operation, and the tunnel currently under construction will be 57km long, the world's longest. Meanwhile, the older highway snaking up and over the pass still exists. Across the valley on stilts is also an option for the freeway ... this bridge connects directly to a tunnel. I shot it from the older highway snaking along under it and then up and around the side of the mountain that the freeway pops through.

While planning this ride last week I briefly entertained the idea of trying to climb the pass, but when I looked at the altitude gain it became clear that I'd never make it up and back in a day, if I made it up at all. And by the time I got to Airolo, it was clear to me that there was no way I'd make it up. I was thoroughly cooked. I stopped for a coffee and an ice cream cone and started back.







There are a handful of older Swiss-style buildings along the way. Most building is in the modern Italian style, although there are still lots of older stone buildings as well.




I don't snap a lot of photos when I ride, because photos require stopping. Besides, there is really no way for static snapshots to convey what I see out on the road. Maybe in a few years when helmet-mounted video cams are cheap and high resolution, it could make sense to try to capture a ride that way, but I'm not sure even that would do it. Anyway, it was a fantastic ride.

Physically it was right at my limits. I made it home fine, but I was really crawling up Monte Ceneri (below 4mph at times). A knee was bothering me a bit, so I took some Advil as an anti-inflammatory (not so much for pain as to prevent injury) and was extra careful with it on the way home. Upper and lower back and neck pain got pretty bad at points, but were helped by stopping to stretch ... basically my body was telling me that I was not trained up for this length and intensity of ride, with just 50 miles the previous week and none the week before that. My back is fine today (the day after), my knee is a little tender but will be fine with a couple days of rest.

Stats: 200km (125 miles), from 8:19am to a little before 7pm, with 9 hours 34 minutes moving time (which means about an hour or so of time stopped to eat, stretch, etc). 6544 feet of climbing, with the lowest point being 708feet in the plain of Bellinzona (below my starting point of 970 feet in Lugano) and the highest point being 3877 feet near Airolo.

ICSE in Leipzig

The International Conference on Software Engineering was held in Leipzig, Germany. I went Tuesday (catching the 5am shuttle to Malpensa) and returned Saturday.

One evening we attended a concert at the Gewandhaus.

I flew to and from Berlin, and used the train system to get to Leipzig.

Haifa, Israel

I spent last week in Haifa, Israel for a research project kickoff meeting at the IBM labs there.





One of the first things you notice in Israel is a lot of young people with guns. They are doing their compulsory military service, and so of course they're in uniform, but basically they are young people with guns. Often bored, often talking on cell phones, looking like they don't sleep enough, and carrying around big guns. Maybe you get used to it after a while, like you get used to being looked over by guards when you enter a supermarket, or wanded at the entry to a mall.




As many of you know, I'm interested in different ways of preparing coffee. This is one I hadn't encountered before: Spoon grounds into cup, optionally add sugar, and poor hot water over them. It's obviously a variant on the middle eastern / Mediterranean preparation (often referred to as “Turkish” coffee) in an ibrik, adapted to cafeteria dining. Not bad, actually.




We toured the German colony, which borders the Bahai gardens. I knew a little about Bahai, but didn't know about the garden where the Báb's bones are buried. The picture doesn't do it justice.





My favorite food by far was at this little hummous joint about a block from the hotel. I ate dinner here Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, missing only Wednesday when the whole meeting group went out for steak. Hummous with mushrooms; hummous with Egyption beans; humous with grilled or baked eggplant. Wonderful hummous. I already liked hummous, but this was way better than what I've had before, and now I want to experiment in the kitchen to see how close I can come to that smooth texture and those flavors.