• Shared today on Twitter

    RT @LaurenBeldi: My birthday yesterday was a strange day, because my dad died the night before. It was sudden, likely painless, & after a w…


    Thanks to a very generous colleague, we scored free last minute tickets to see Bill Bailey tonight!! 😍 https://t.co/szelBeXMcm


    @094459 He was very good! Incredibly talented musician. I liked his stand-up show better than Manny from Black Books.



  • Photo Post

    Thanks to a very generous colleague, we scored free last minute tickets to see Bill Bailey tonight!!

    Thanks to a very generous colleague, we scored free last minute tickets to see Bill Bailey tonight!!

    Thanks to a very generous colleague, we scored free last minute tickets to see Bill Bailey tonight!!


  • Shared today on Twitter

    @the_nathanjones Wow – I would’ve thought you’d have a lot more!


    RT @Handarbeitszirk: Alle Strukturmuster basieren im Grunde auf rechten und linken Maschen, die immer neu kombiniert, verschränkt, verzopft…


    RT @8sunnycas8: What’s happening? THIS is fucking happening 👇 https://t.co/M8eYGe2SsR


    RT @Spaceyeurotrash: Italians: there’s nothing more disgusting than pineapple on pizza
    Germans: hold my Fischstäbchen https://t.co/job2crm…



  • Shared today on Twitter

    RT @Vel12171: ‘Missed out on life because of production outages? 😭🤗 This year I’ll be at @devconfza to talk about how you can architect you…


    🤔 I still remain unconvinced that Bielefeld actually exists, but @alexbdebrie apparently spoke *somewhere*, so you should check it out if you’re into NoSQL and single-table design… https://t.co/kO8zdoT7s5


    @alexbdebrie And for those who don’t get the joke… (which @dtraub had to explain to me last year!): https://t.co/pM4cAgsemq


    Me: 22, with several more expected this year… 😳 https://t.co/MU4zoRnajb


    @AU_JohnDw20 Rodd just pointed out that I completely forgot hosting a conference in Auckland, so I’ve actually got 23. 😂



  • Shared today on Twitter

    Congrats to Jimmy Orsag for taking the 🏆 in this year’s Web-Goddess Orscar Contest! Jimmy (along with Patricia Mistric and Megan Miller) got all 13 predictions correct, but Jimmy’s guess for the In Memoriam segment was closest to the actual number. See you all next year… ❤️


    And commiserations to @minxdragon and @anshumalis for sharing the wooden spoon… 😂❤️


    Meetings all day, but I still made it out for a quick sunset ride in Westpark to catch the cherry blossoms in bloom (along with everything else)! 🌸 https://t.co/RyeseKFVNN


    @knit_to_code @ohsummit Congrats Senja!!



  • Photo Post

    Meetings all day, but I still made it out for a quick sunset ride in Westpark to catch the cherry blossoms in bloom (along with everything else)! 🌸

    Meetings all day, but I still made it out for a quick sunset ride in Westpark to catch the cherry blossoms in bloom (along with everything else)! 🌸

    Meetings all day, but I still made it out for a quick sunset ride in Westpark to catch the cherry blossoms in bloom (along with everything else)! 🌸

    Meetings all day, but I still made it out for a quick sunset ride in Westpark to catch the cherry blossoms in bloom (along with everything else)! 🌸

    Meetings all day, but I still made it out for a quick sunset ride in Westpark to catch the cherry blossoms in bloom (along with everything else)! 🌸

    Meetings all day, but I still made it out for a quick sunset ride in Westpark to catch the cherry blossoms in bloom (along with everything else)! 🌸

    Meetings all day, but I still made it out for a quick sunset ride in Westpark to catch the cherry blossoms in bloom (along with everything else)! 🌸

    Meetings all day, but I still made it out for a quick sunset ride in Westpark to catch the cherry blossoms in bloom (along with everything else)! 🌸


  • A personal tour of Nürnberg…

    A personal tour of Nürnberg…

    Last year I attended the AWS Nürnberg Meetup Group (via Zoom) and learned a couple things: 1) Nürnberg = Nuremberg, which I had previously naively thought was an entirely separate city 😂; 2) despite being technically located in Bavaria, Nürnbergers do NOT think of themselves as Bavarian but rather Franconian; and 3) the folks there are incredibly friendly. The organiser of the AWS group is Frank, and when I mentioned that I’d like to visit his city someday, he said to let him know and he’d give us a personal tour. But nobody actually means things like that when they say it, right?

    Train to Nürnberg

    At any rate, two weeks after we got home from Vienna we boarded a Friday evening train to Nürnberg. It’s a very fast trip from Munich (less than 90min) so we were there well before the sun set.

    Willkommen Familie Snook

    Um, how cute is that? We had booked a room at Hotel Elch (Elk), which looked to be pretty centrally located to everything we wanted to see. Our room was on the very top floor, right underneath the roof, and without an elevator it was a decent hike up maybe 4 flights of stairs. That’s what you get when you stay in a heritage building.

    Nürnberg

    Frank had given us a tip to make sure to come on a weekend with nice weather. We’d timed it well and the forecast was nothing but blue skies. We dropped our stuff and went for a wander. The center of Nürnberg feels very medieval with its cobbled streets, city walls, and castle looming up on the ridge. Our first destination was the Hausbrauerei Altstadthof, which is the starting point of the Historische Felsengänge tour.

    On the tour

    There were only a few of us on the tour. The guide was a friendly older local guy who spoke only German, so the Snook and I were offered electronic devices where we could punch in numbers at each stop and hear an explanation in English.

    Entry to the Felsengänge

    Felsengänge means “rock passages” and refers to the extensive system of tunnels and cellars carved into the rock beneath Nürnberg. While there are many access points around the city, the main tourist entrance is in Albrecht-Dürer-Platz, right next to the statue of the famous local artist and facing St. Sebaldus Church. We went down the stairs and our guide unlocked the heavy door and ushered us inside.

    Tunnels

    The tunnels were built from the 14th century onwards and were mainly used in the brewing of beer. At one point, Nürnberg had more than 40 breweries based in the city, and each had a rock cellar for fermenting and storing their beer. The tunnels were eventually joined up and they were used during World War 2 as bomb shelters for the locals and to store precious art as well. Some of the connecting tunnels are pretty small (I had to hunch not to hit my head) so definitely this isn’t a tour for someone with claustrophobia.

    Rock cellars

    There were various stops along the way as we learned about the city, its history of beer making, and how the tunnels were used. We also learned about the Reinheitsgebot, the famous German beer purity law that was adopted across Bavaria in 1516.

    Tunnels

    There were also some informational exhibits along the way. Many showed medieval manuscripts with illustrations of monks brewing beer, often with a six-pointed star dangling above the pot. Our guide explained that it had nothing to do with Judaism, but instead was known as the Brewer’s Star meant to ward off fires and bad spirits.

    Brewer’s star

    The cellars were dug very deep, up to 4 stories in places. However over the years some of them were altered or destroyed, and so changes have been made to conserve them. Our guide told us how in this vault, there are columns, beams, and support rods holding the walls and ceiling to ensure they don’t collapse.

    Deep cellars

    We also learned how ice was cut from lakes and transported to the cellars in the winter, where it would slowly melt over the summer and keep the tunnels cool enough for the beer fermentation. The sandstone also filtered groundwater, and we saw examples of primitive “pipes” made from bored-out logs that were used to transport the water.

    Towards the end of the tour I jokingly asked the guide if there were any “Geister” (ghosts) down there. “Oh yes!” he answered. 😳

    Tunnel

    The tour ends back up at ground level where you are offered a sample of the famous local Rotbier (red beer) from the Altstadthof brewery.

    Rotbier

    There’s also a distillery associated with the brewery, so we heard a bit about the process of making whisky and got to step inside one of the storerooms full of barrels. It smelled amazing. Needless to say, the Snook was in heaven.

    After the tour, I had taken Frank’s advice and booked us in for dinner at the Brewery. We enjoyed some fine Franconian fare and sampled more of the beer…

    Dinner at Altstadthof Brauerei

    …and even a bit of their Bierbrand, which is distilled from beer itself. It’s similar to whisky but not exactly the same.

    Bierbrand

    We decided to burn off some of those calories with a nighttime stroll around the city. We headed first to the castle with its dramatically lit walls and battlements.

    From the castle we walked south down Burgstraße towards the Altes Rathaus (old city hall).

    Altes Rathaus

    It stands directly behind St. Sebaldus Church.

    St. Sebaldus Church

    We continued on to the Hauptmarkt, the big public square where the world famous Christkindlesmarkt (Christmas market) is held each year. One of the attractions in the square is the Schöner Brunnen (beautiful fountain).

    Schöner Brunnen

    Nearby is the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), which we would discover the next day has a very famous clock.

    Frauenkirche

    The river that flows through Nürnberg is the Pegnitz, and we crossed over the Museumsbrücke on our walk. From one side we could see the Fleischbrücke, a late Renaissance bridge that has stood for more than 400 years. On the other side we had a view of the Heilig-Geist-Spital built over the river. It was originally a hospital and now it’s an old folks’ home.

    We headed back towards our hotel. Along the way we passed by St. Sebaldus Church again, this time from the front. St. Sebaldus is the patron saint of Nürnberg.

    St. Sebaldus Church

    (more…)


  • Shared today on Twitter

    Last chance to get in your predictions for my Oscar Contest and potentially win a set of three Spider-Monkeys! 🕸🕷 https://t.co/7HjmsEUUYN https://t.co/lVjN2NkRen


    RT @debs_obrien: Here is what it is like to be an imposter in tech and why we shouldn’t compare ourselves to people of different levels.

    h…



  • Shared today on Twitter

    @TrebuchetOps Sydney’s got a “San Soo-see”. 😂


    What a wunderschöne day for sightseeing in Nürnberg! Thank you @FrankPrechtel for showing us your city. ❤️🏰 #beardtwins https://t.co/elJ2wWNiam


    RT @FrankPrechtel: @web_goddess Things escalated quickly with @web_goddess and @the_snook – and we serendipitously met @TechRania along the…


    @TechRania @FrankPrechtel @the_snook People kept recognising Frank! 😂 Worked out so well for us. Thank you for the warm welcome in Nürnberg. ❤️❤️❤️❤️


    We took 3hrs out of our sightseeing with @FrankPrechtel for a beautiful lunch and copious day drinking at Jøwåy. They customised the menu! They brought out 26yo Aussie wine for us! The “Arme Ritter” was the best thing I’ve eaten since the pandemic. An amazing experience. ❤️🍷 https://t.co/o9CyNJwBcF


    @TechRania @FrankPrechtel That’s why we were floating when you met us! 😂


    We ended the night at Die Blume von Hawaii tiki bar (which @FrankPrechtel recommended). My first drink came in a hollowed out pineapple, and the second was ON FIRE. 🍍🍹🔥 https://t.co/KOBVLDHFmX



  • Shared today on Twitter

    On our first double-decker train – the Munich-Nuremberg Express! 🚊 @ Munich, Germany https://t.co/fgiFqxKXpr


    RT @nezzko: Just seen Dune described as ‘Posh Tremors’ and that’s all I’m calling it from now on.




ABOUT

My name is Kris. I’ve been blogging since the 90’s. I live in Sydney, Australia, and I spent most of my career in the tech industry.

No AI used in writing this blog, ever. 100% human-generated.


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