If you are interested to go through the full travelogue, you are most welcome. If you are feeling impatient/short on time, please feel free to just go through the pictures and their captions. If you are even more short of time, then you may want to flip through the Google Photos Album.
Context
Sometime
around July 2025, Barbara Sprick, who teaches in university here (Aschaffenburg), visited IIIT
Bangalore looking for a visiting lecture. I volunteered and the whole thing
worked out well. So, here I am.
Beginning
I started from home exactly at midnight. Even before we left Electronics City, the taxi driver got into an angry exchange of words with another person on a two-wheeler. I reached airport at 1.20am. Soon, I realised that I had arrived way too early. I could easily have delayed my departure by another 2 hours.
At
the check-in counter, I met with a minor hiccup. My cabin baggage was too heavy
by about 2kg. So, I had to shift some of my stuff into the large check-in bag.
After
checking in, I reached the boarding between 2–2.30am. I tried to catch a nap on
the chairs. But it was a bit cold and noisy. Probably, my mind was a bit
excited too. So, couldn't sleep at all.
The
flight started on time. I was served vegetarian breakfast in the flight. I
gathered that all the fine-grained meal-preference inputs they have on the
website doesn't closely correspond to the reality on board. On board, they just
gave us a different set of choices. For me, a vegetarian option was the best
match.
There
in the Bangalore-Bombay flight, they upgraded me to premium economy. A girl
named Swathi was sitting beside me. It turned out that she too was travelling
to Frankfurt to join her husband who was already there for work.
Bombay
airport is a busier, messier place. There was some confusion, and three long
queues. The first one, I am not quite sure why it was there. The second was the
security check. The presiding officer was taking his duty very seriously. He
was singling out many passengers. He did it to me too. I had to put my luggage
back for scanning after readjusting as per his directions. Finally, I stood in a really long queue for immigration check. All this got done comfortably within
the time I had (which was about 3 hours).
The
Bombay-Frankfurt flight took off on time as well. Here too, my seat was changed
from 51C to 34H. Again, I had vegetarian meals. I watched two movies. One was 'One Battle
after Another' starring Leonardo De Caprio. It was a nice movie, but I don't
think I understood everything. The other was a Japanese anime named 'Look
Back'. It was about two young manga artists. It was nice too, but I felt that
the story didn't get any closure.
In
this flight I shared the aisle with a couple who were travelling to Germany to
meet their son who is doing his PhD here.
The
flight reached nearly 45 minutes before schedule. Earlier I had found out that
the sunset here is at 9.30pm. So, I would definitely reach my hotel before
sundown.
The
immigration queue was very long. It took us 1.5 hours to get done with it. In
the queue I met one Rohith, an employee of Bosch. He turned out to be very
helpful. He guided me to the airport railway station. We exchanged numbers and
said good bye. I intended to use the vending machines for purchasing my ticket,
but couldn't do that immediately as they were all in German. I took help from
an old lady to get the English UI. Another Indian, again a Bosch employee,
happened to be around. He helped me select the ticket. The ticket costed me 19
Euros, which was very pricey for me.
Anyway,
I caught the train around 7.20pm. There was a brief moment of anxiety that I
had caught the wrong train. But that wasn't the case.
I
reached Aschaffenburg at around 8.10pm. I walked all the way to Milchhof
Apartments. It was drizzling, the distance was non-trivial, place unknown, and
I had three pieces of luggage. All the way from the station to Milchhof, I
hardly saw any human face. There's an annex building of Milchhof right on the
main road. I saw a man standing at its doorway. I asked him about Milchhof and
immediately it turned out that he didn't know English. We somehow communicated
through gestures. He pointed me to the adjacent building. I could find the
letterbox from where I picked up my sign in packet. However, that building turned
out (after I had explored all its 3 floors) to not have my room. I explored a
bit more and found my room in the second floor of this other building.
The
room has some really convenient features. A double bed. A kitchen space, a
microwave, a coffee maker, a 2-plate induction stove. A nice bathroom, a
wardrobe with huge mirror, plenty of utensils, a dining table, a 3-seater
sofa, a tea-table, a one-seater sofa, a TV. It took me quite a while to explore
and figure out the amenities in the room. I asked Barbara, AI and just
fooled around a bit with things. By that night I had setup most things and had operated the microwave.
Low
Charge and Anxiety
Around
that time, it hit me that not having brought the power bank and/or the universal
adapter had been a mistake. The charging plugs of none of my devices were
compatible with the sockets here. My phone was rapidly dropping charge.
I ran to the railway station first thing the next morning and got the universal adapter from the station shop.
Sunday in Frankfurt
Around
noon time I set out for Frankfurt to meet Shamit Bagchi. I met him at 1.30pm at
the Frankfurt Hbf railway station. We walked around for some time. Had pasta
and wine for lunch. Then we walked some more. We said good-bye around 4.30. I
took the 5.30 train back to Aschaffenburg. I bought eggs, butter, milk and
bread at the station. Night, I cooked Dalma and rice. It was good for more than
two meals.
08-06-2026
Monday
Morning, I made bread-omelette and chai.
We
attended the inauguration of one of the university buildings by the chief
minister of Bavaria. I made acquaintance with the student music band. I had
some snacks which more than sufficed as lunch. I didn't quite enjoy it.
I
also attended a department tour of the Applied AI department. There, I suddenly
had to go to the toilet. Probably, the function snacks did not agree with my
tummy. It was too cheesy.
Meanwhile, Barbara was gone as she had a lecture. We again met her at 3.15pm at her office. I also attended Barbara's lecture on Theoretical computer science. She taught universal Turing machines.
I returned shortly afterwards to my room. I had the dalma-rice again.
09-06-2026, Tuesday
I
decided to spend the morning at the hotel to prepare my lecture. It was a
productive and slightly depressing morning. My Wednesday lecture got prepared.
I
took a walk at around 11am. I found a nearby store and bought some coriander
leaves.
For breakfast
I had moori. Lunch I finished the remaining dalma along with three theplas.
Afternoon, I walked to the university. I sat at the cafe and worked. I purchased a
cappuccino. It was both productive workwise and fun watching the young
students. Some were working, some were partying, some were just hanging out.
And all of them were smoking.
Barbara came around 4.30pm, I think. She left again shortly for something. I called home and was in a video call with Shilpi when Jóakim arrived.
Three
of us left shortly afterward for the city centre where they were going to treat
me to dinner. City Centre area was extremely beautiful. Cobbled streets, street
side cafe, old beautiful buildings, medieval and ancient structure, e.g.
churches, castle. There was the river and at its banks these food trucks.
We
walked around a lot and finally chose a restaurant. I had a dish that had
mushrooms and potatoes and of course cheese. It was nice
and filling.
We
walked back to the university. Barbara dropped me at Milchhof in her car.
I don't think I could do anything much after coming back to Milchhof.
10-06-2026
Wednesday
First
lecture day.
I
made some egg bhurji, packed the cup-noodles and bhurji and left pretty much as
soon as I could for the university. I had my lecture at the second campus which is a bit further away from Milchhof. I was under the impression that I was late. It turned
out that I was an hour too early. But I walked quite fast by my standard and
was quite sweaty when I arrived.
My
lecture was at 11.30am. There were about 15 students. I spoke about
event-driven architecture. Many students seemed pretty distracted/busy with
their devices. In this university, they neither take attendance nor say
anything to the students for not paying attendance. This is a bit strange and
difficult for me. Nonetheless, I think, the lecture went off pretty well. Only
six students returned for the afternoon practical class. They were interested
and it was nice.
In
between I had my noodles and egg bhurji for lunch.
After
the lecture, I returned to the hotel. I purchased some eggs, a hat and a room
perfume for Shilpi from this large store which is on the way.
I
prepared khichdi which came really delicious. I am looking forward to have the
rest of it in dinner tonight after I return from Bamberg.
The
day's lecture was part of the Software Architecture course that Jóakim teaches
the second-year students.
11-06-2026 Thursday
Thursday.
I woke at 5 am. My research lecture wasn’t prepared yet. I spent the next two
hours working on the slides.
I
didn’t get any time to prepare for the morning lecture in the Software
Engineering course.
I
reached around 9.35 am. The lecture began at 9.45 am. I taught software design
using the calendar program example. We continued after the 15 minute coffee
break. Most students disappeared after that. Those who stayed back were the
interested ones. So, it was nice again.
After
the morning lecture, we three went to the nearby bakery and had our lunch. I
paid for it. Barbara had brought a box full of cherries from the tree in her
yard. We kept having them along the way. For lunch, I had a egg sandwich like
thing. It was nice!
We
returned to the same room (127) for my research talk. There were 7 people in
all. I spoke for 45 minutes. The dean was there. Barbara, Jóakim, two senior
students and two junior ones. The talk happened uneventfully. I discussed our
work on CRV detection. Incidentally, around the same time when I gave my talk,
Ganesha was giving an identical talk in Morocco as a part of NETYS conference.
After
the talk we sat in the same faculty room for quite some time. The dean was
there too.
After this Barbara and I walked to her place. She gave me her bicycle. But instead of letting me go home, she took another bicycle and came along. Probably she wanted to see it for herself if I was able to ride the bicycle or not. And may be she wanted to ensure that I got trained to ride the bicycle in her supervision. I think, she was extremely kind!
We rode for a long time. My estimate is 10 km or more.
We went to a restaurant and had our dinner. Barbara paid. I had a pizza and iced tea. She had french fries and non-alcoholic beer. It rained for some time and the temperature dropped sharply. It became shivering cold when we started on our way back.
We rode together till a point, then parted ways. I reached Milchhof with some help from Google Maps.
I
was very tired and it was later than I had planned. I dropped the plan of
washing clothes and relaxed. In time, I took up the task of booking my train
ticket to and from Freiburg for my Saturday trip to meet Ivan. I realised that
my card was not being recognized by the DB Navigator app. Finally, I requested
Ivan to help me with the ticket booking. It took quite a long time and was
nearly midnight by the time it got done.
I
slept well and woke up around 2.30 am to some alarm sound. It turned out to be the
induction heater which didn't like my putting the cleaning cloth on it to dry.
It took another hour for me to get back to sleep.
13-06-2026
Friday
Today
was the trip to Bamberg and I haven't reached back home. Already enough
adventure. I am not looking for any more.
I
woke by 7.30 am and left bed at around 8. Made tea. Got ready. Cleaned
utensils, and clothes.
Left
Milchhof at around 9.45 am. Went to the station on the bicycle. Bumped into Jóakim on the platform. Parked the bicycle in a parking space on platform 1.
Took
a direct train to Bamberg. It dropped me there a few minutes after 12.30 pm.
I
was quite hungry. So, I found a cafe to have my lunch. Got a nice vegetable
sandwich and coffee. Then started walking to the town hall.
Bamberg
proved to be incredibly beautiful! Old European vibes. Medieval architecture.
Cobbled streets. Street side cafés. A beautiful river cutting through the city.
Everything was mind-blowingly beautiful. The town hall, Library, Rose garden,
the old court, the churches and the red-tiled rooftops. I went berserk clicking pictures.
Suddenly around 3.45 pm I noticed that the charge in my phone was down to 18%. I immediately decided to start my return journey.
The
charge in phone kept dropping rapidly. While, I wanted desperately to get back
to Aschaffenburg as early as possible, it also got clear that the charge in my
phone wouldn't last till I reached under any condition.
I
thought what conditions might arise and what information I may need to deal
with that. I could think of my Deutschland-Ticket number and phone numbers of
Barbara and Ivan. I noted these down in my small notebook.
I
got into this train that was standing right there. I got down at Schweinfurt
Hbf. Took one to Würzburg, and from caught this one. Hopefully I will get
dropped at Aschaffenburg without any further incident.
As the train started, the DB app/Google Maps immediately removed the entry corresponding to this journey. As a result, I had lost all information about the further connections -- which stations to get down at and which trains to catch from there.
As
my phone was anyway out of charge and I wanted to minimize the likelihood of
making a mistake that would delay or create any other complication, I was
asking people for confirmation: from co-passengers and the station information
desks as well. I used 3 trains during the journey. The two intermediate stations were
At
Würzburg when I asked about the next train to Aschaffenburg, the lady at the
information counter, who wasn't comfortable with English told me that the next
train was due to leave in another 3 minutes from Platform 10. I ran to platform
10 only to find another train standing there. Initially, I thought that my
train would come in after this one left. I even started waiting for its
departure. However, accidentally on glancing around, I saw that my train was
already there, a little way down on the same platform. I ran to it and barely
made it in time to catch it. What an adventure!
So, the rest of the trip was peaceful. I reached Aschaffenburg, I think around 8 pm. My bicycle was safely locked where I had left it in the morning, and no one came to me asking for parking charges. I reached home (Milchhof) within 10 minutes of that. On getting back, I warmed the Khichdi and had it nicely.
13-06-2026
The day started early. I was headed to Freiburg to meet Ivan. The decision was to
travel to Frankfurt by 7.10 local and catch the 8.50 am ICE from there. On
reaching station I learned that the 7.10 local was cancelled. The next local
would reach Frankfurt at 8.40. Obviously, that was way too close to 8.50. Time
to spend some Euros! I purchased a 23-euro ticket and caught the 7.35 ICE. It
took me to Frankfurt with enough time to spare.
In
Aschaffenburg station, while waiting for the ICE to Frankfurt, I met a senior couple from Calgary, Canada who were here
to celebrate their 35th anniversary of marriage. We talked amicably for some
time. We all enjoyed the fact that they were finding the country very crowded (since they live in Canada which is anyway thinly populated; plus they were farmers living in the rural stretches of Calgary where you don't meet people for 100s of kilometres apparently) and I was finding it almost deserted, since there so many people in my country!
I
had a cappuccino at Frankfurt station. Figured out in time that the platform of
my train had changed.
The
train started in time and reached Freiburg in time. Ivan was on the platform
waiting.
We
settled all the gifts in his car's trunk and then started wandering aimlessly.
We
got into a beautiful old looking building that turned out to be a museum
showcasing relics from the prehistoric times to the medieval period of the
local history. It was very nice.
Thereafter
we saw two churches. One of them was really huge and enigmatic.
We
had very nice lunch at a place where the waiters happened to be mentally
challenged people. My lunch was quiche which is basically some salad with pie. And also, some
coffee—espresso but with milk and sugar. We also had a gelato later and iced tea (peach flavoured). All through the day we kept talking about variety of topics:
- parenting
- linguistic
jingoism
- about my
book on conversation
- about
importance of declarative programming in prompt engineering
- device addiction and social alienation among youngsters
- fashion
culture among Europeans.
The
day was quick to pass and it was time to say Good bye again.
The
train left Freiburg at 5.27 pm as per schedule. Journey till Frankfurt was
free of events. I was carrying all arrangements to keep my phone from getting
discharged. Discovered that there was free WiFi on the train. So, made a video
call home.
After
reaching Frankfurt I took a train that would take me to Aschaffenburg through
one change. As required, I changed at Hanau Hbf. I was chatting with Barbara and
somehow, I made a mistake in reading the announcements. I got down at a station
named Dettingen with '8 minutes to go!' I sensed my mistake as soon as I
stepped down from the train. But the train had already left by the time I could do
anything.
I
checked the DB app for the next train. It was RE55 due after half an hour on
the same platform. The station struck me with its tiny size and
desolation. I waited.
About
25 minutes down, a train arrived on the other platform – RE55! I will remember that moment as one of my most panicky moments! I started
running looking for the subway to get to that platform. I couldn't find one. I
even momentarily considered jumping across through the tracks. I waved at the driver, which
he didn't notice, of course. The train left! I called Barbara and said that I had missed
RE55 too and that I was in trouble.
Even
as I was talking with her, I saw the announcement of the upcoming arrival of
RE55. I realised that the one I had missed was going in the other direction —
towards Frankfurt. Phew!
I
got into RE55 alright and reached Aschaffenburg without further incident.
I
was tired and hungry. I made bread omelette and had nicely. I watched a movie (Transcendence) for some time and slept around midnight.
After
all these adventures I was feeling relieved for having survived them.
I
didn't know then that more adventures awaited me on the next day!
10
pm, 14-06-2026, Sunday
It's so dreamy to imagine that I have been living in Milchhof for more than a week. Last Sunday morning I was feeling so helpless because my devices were running out of power. From that little crisis to many more, not the least of which I am going to relate now.
Today morning, I woke up late, around 7.30 am. It was already 8 am before I left bed. Very soon, after making and having my morning chai, I was down to making egg curry. Cooking took a good amount of time. Interspersed with other tasks, it was already 11 am by the time I got done.
Then
I went to take bath. And while bathing, it struck me all of a sudden that my
hotel booking might not be till Tuesday morning but till Monday morning. When I
finally could come out of bathroom and check, my fears were confirmed! I had earlier made the booking till 16th, but later changed it to up to 15th, thinking that the latter date was the last night I spent at the hotel. So stupid!
PANIC!
So,
I called Stephen, the hotel guy, and asked him if he would give me a day's
extension. To this he straightaway refused quoting full booking as the reason.
I called both Barbara and Shamit. Both didn't pick. I informed both that there's a crisis (though not revealing what the crisis was) asking them to call back. Shamit was the first to call. I told him the situation and requested him if I could get shelter at his place tomorrow night, and also by the way, postpone tonight's dinner plan at his house to tomorrow. He readily agreed. I could hear his wife saying in the background that there was no problem. I was embarrassed and profusely apologetic. But given the situation, I had to make this request. So, that was decided. Staying the night at Shamit's place at Frankfurt also makes reaching the airport significantly easier. So practically also, this seems like a great idea, at least from my point of view.
A
while later, Barbara called up too. It was decided that, the next morning, she would come and pick
my luggage in her car, and drop it at her office, while I would follow on her
bicycle.
During
all this I also had my lunch – egg curry and rice. It was delicious!
Afternoon,
I wrote my travelogue and also had a video call with family.
I
tried to sleep for a while but couldn't sleep.
Around
4.30pm, I went out on the bicycle and cycled around in the city. I purchased
Tipu's gifts and also something for Shamit's two little ones.
I came back around 6.40, heated the remaining egg curry and rice and ate that up too. In the afternoon, I had already completed a large portion of my packing. I also completed watching the movie 'Transcendence' which I had started watching yesterday.
OK!
Pretty much caught up till now!
Hoping
that no more adventures await me now till I reach home.
Good
night!
June
15, 2026. – Monday 10.40 am
Morning,
I finalised the packing, had 4 toasted slices of bread with butter and finished
the left-over milk. I left the room around 9.30am. Barbara came at about 9.45am
and took away my luggage. I bicycled to the university main campus and had a
cappuccino.
Barbara came in some time. We sat and chatted for some time while she had her coffee. She had called this other professor Michael. So, we waited. Michael joined around 12pm. Barbara left as she had more lectures to give.
Michael and I had a very good discussion about possibly common regions of interest in research. He is into Applied AI. So, the primary theme that emerged was of using AI as an auxiliary engine to automatically derive formal specifications in variety of domains. Of course, in software engineering, but also in medicine, regulatory compliance, manufacturing and accessibility. We parted with a promise to follow up with a written concept note.
Thereafter,
I proceeded to city in search of a stationery shop. I wanted to buy some gifts
and souvenirs for various people.
In the mall, I purchased some gifts for Shamit's daughters, Barbara and Jóakim. I also couldn't resist the temptation to purchase one fountain pen and a painting brush for myself. The mall, by the way, took me a long time to find. It was possible to wander so much as I had Barbara's bicycle. Or maybe Google maps would have performed better in guiding me if I had walked. In any case, I later discovered that this mall was on the same road as the Railway station.
I
returned to campus 2. I sat in the staff room and completed the Ocaml code for
the hyphenate program. Also had a video call with Shilpi.
Barbara
finally came at around 5.25pm. We rushed to the railway station and said a
hasty good bye as I wanted to catch the 5.45 pm train to Frankfurt. I
comfortably made it to the platform as the train was late by 5 minutes.
I reached Frankfurt at around 6.30pm. Encountered a bit of minor issue in locating the M46 bus stop for Shamit's place. A short video call with Shamit fixed that issue. I got into the M46 bus within another 2 minutes. I almost repeated my previous day's mistake by getting down one stop too soon, but I self-corrected in time. Shamit came to the bus stop to receive me.
I
will remember my evening and night and morning at Shamit's house for their
warmth. I spent the most time with Madhumanti,
Shamit's 10-year-old elder daughter who is interested in art and dance. I also
chatted a lot with Shamit's mother-in-law who seemed to be an intelligent and
knowledgeable woman.
They
had prepared a fairly elaborate Bengali meal for dinner and gave me a separate
room to sleep in. The realisation of how I had inconvenienced my hosts was very
embarrassing for me, but this time I just avoided mentioning.
That night, I faced some difficulty in sleeping primarily as the dinner was very heavy. Next day, I got up at 6.45am.
Tanuka
(Shamit's wife) made nice cheese omelette toast. Shamit booked an Uber for me.
Again, I tried to convince that I should pay, but the entire family came down
on me to say how that was a bad idea. I didn't argue.
The way to the airport was 15-20 minutes. The taxi was running at 130+ kmph on the highway. Shamit had erroneously booked the taxi for terminal 3. Luckily I casually mentioned to the taxi driver that I was supposed to go to terminal 1. He changed course and probably added a few minutes to the ride.
The process in the airport involved all the usual drills: check-in, security, immigration, boarding... nothing significant enough to be remembered and documented.
The
flight took off punctually at 12.10 pm and I saw through the window the German
landscape receding, and like all travels coming to an end, I experienced mixed
emotions -- a sense of achievement for having made it to the end safely, a touch of nostalgia for the good times that had come to an end, and the excitement of going back home.
The flight was comfortable. I had a window seat. The two adjacent seats were unoccupied. So, I could use more space in doing things. My infotainment display wasn't working. One of the air hostesses suggested that I shift to the adjacent seat. I didn't accept this. Later, round faced air hostess connected me to the Wifi network. It worked for some time then the connection broke. I didn't try anymore partly because I didn't want to be a bothersome passenger. Further, I knew that this would drain my phone battery. Unfortunately, I didn't have the phone charger with me. So, I shifted to the middle seat and watched two movies. One was Deva starring Shahid Kapoor and Pooja Hegde. It wasn't a good movie. The second one I watched was Laapataa Ladies. This was a fantastic movie with feminist themes.
There were two meals. The first one had a
quinoa salad and rice, daal and gobi sabji. The second had a bun-like thing and
a brownie something. Both meals were quite good.
We landed at Delhi at around 1.20am today morning. Usual airport drills followed. Long walks. Baggage claim. Recheck-in. Customs. Immigration. The 3-hour layover at Delhi airport was more than enough to make good a relaxed transport.
I
caught the 4.30am flight to Bangalore, which touched down around 7 am.
I
came out of airport after picking up my luggage and took an airport taxi. I was
conscious that I may be going for a more expensive option. But I was feeling
quite tired and eager to get back home. Also, the two suitcases were not easy to
handle together.
I
caught the taxi at around 8 am and got back home at around 10.15 am. The taxi
ride costed me around 2500 rupees, nearly thrice how much I had paid on my way
to the airport.
The
first familiar person I met was Sinthia, downstairs. The second was Jhuma from
whose place I collected the house key. She offered me tea, but I was too tired
even for that. There was no one present at home when I came. I found a bowl of
Jamun kept for me and a beautiful homemade pin board affixed above the study
table.
This
brings my travel to its conclusion.
APPENDIX
Feedback points for Air India.
Meals
- The detailed meal options available on the website are actually not available on the flights. For example, 'Lacto-ovo' vegetarian meal was available on the website but no such options were there on the flight. Actual options were coarse-grained: veg, non-veg, Jain and such.
- There is provided an option on the website to modify the selected meal option. How this feature doesn't work.
- In the Frankfurt-Delhi flight they were offering a special meal, but there seemed to be nothing lacto-ovo in it.
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