Monkey at Image Engineering
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I got some good sleep, but woke up very early, as well as waking up a few times in the night, each time I rolled over, as my back hurt when I moved. We got up about 6:30 to get ready for breakfast at 07:00. My back had seized up overnight, and I was very stiff and unable to bend to put my socks on, so M. had to help me.
We went down to breakfast, and the buffet was very comprehensive for such a small hotel (only 16 rooms), with pretty much all the stuff you'd expect from a German breakfast buffet, including a cook making eggs to order, as well as a selection of Thai items including money bags, fish in pastry, and noodles. We had muesli with yoghurt, then bread with various toppings, croissants, and so on. I also grabbed a small glass which had chocolate custard, vanilla sauce, and crunchy chocolate muesli on top.
Back in the room I packed my backpack and rugged up for the walk to the station and to catch the train to Horrem for the second day of the meeting. I met Udogawa-san and another Japanese delegate whose name I hadn't caught on the platform, and we rode together, chatting about various things. We got to Horrem about 09:40.
When we arrived at Image Engineering, a few others were there at the door, together with Dietmar, who had arrived with his two dogs. He opened the door and ushered them into the office, and the rest of us followed.
Monkey at Image Engineering |
Today the meeting was all technical sessions, discussing HDR, light sources for testing colour reproduction, image stabilisation, depth sensor accuracy measurement, autofocus repeatability, lens flare, noise measurement, DNG, and JPEG topics. Lunch was a bit nicer today, with spätzle, mixed vegetables, and a Thai curry sauce, which combined to make a decent dish. There was also beef goulash, which I avoided. The meeting ended a bit after 17:00, because several items on the agenda for tomorrow got pushed into today, to minimise what we need to do in the administrative session tomorrow. We couldn't quite get it all done today, so we'll need maybe an hour or two tomorrow morning to finish off, and should be done well before lunchtime.
After the meeting I walked to the station, but had trouble finding a ticket validation machine that worked, and ran across to a different platform to use one there. When I came back, Scott and Nicolas had arrived. Nicolas was trying to get back to Cologne in time for a connecting train to Düsseldorf, but the train was a few minutes late and he said he'd miss his connection. But the regional train we caught was going to Düsseldorf as well, so he decided to just stay on it and plead ignorance if a ticket inspector questioned him.
Back at the hotel, M. had found a place for dinner that did flammkuchen. It was over in the Belgian quarter, which Apple Maps said was a 13 minute walk away. In fact the place was called Belgischer Hof. M. suggested we get the hotel receptionist to phone and make a booking for us. The guy was happy to do it, but he said it was a long way away and we should catch a U-bahn there. I said Apple Maps had said it was a 13 minute walk, but he shook his head and said it was wrong, it was more like half an hour or more. So we took his advice and got the U-bahn from the Dom station.
It was only two stops away to Friesenplatz, but then we still had to walk a few blocks, and we arrived ten minutes late for the 18:30 booking, but still faster than if we'd walked. When we entered, two of the staff seemed to have some sort of argument over our booking, and I feared they wouldn't honour it, but eventually the guy said we could have a table in the corner. The place looked very nice, and as we settled in another group came in with a large black dog, getting it to sit beside their table.
 Belgischer Hof |
We ordered flammkuchen each. M.'s was Reblochon cheese, cauliflower, zucchini, pesto, and shiitake, while mine had Roquefort, pear, fig jam, and fennel. For a starter I got the goat cheese brûlée with dried figs, which also came with a green salad with vinaigrette. It was very interesting and delicious, as were the flammkuchen. They also gave us sliced baguette and a herbed cream cheese. And we had wine, a Syrah for M., and some French wine for me that I don't remember the name of, which was robust and full bodied.
 Roquefort, pear, fig jam, and fennel flammkuchen, Belgischer Hof |
After eating, we paid up and headed back to the hotel. At first we agreed to walk, but it was so cold that we decided to take the train to shortcut the walk. We had to ask some security guards in the station where the ticket machine was, and they said they were down on the platforms. Tickets purchased, we had quite a wait for the next train, about 15 minutes. We got back to the hotel and had showers before bed.
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