WG5 Meeting in Dresden, Germany, July 28 - August 1, 2003 --------------------------------------------------------- Travel and hotel information and local organization --------------------------------------------------- PLACE: The meeting will be held at the Technical University of Dresden ----- in a building called "WILLERSBAU" which houses the Mathematics Department, the University Computing Center (URZ), and the Center for High-Performance Computing (ZHR). The building Willersbau is located about 1 kilometer south of the main train station (Hauptbahnhof, not Dresden Neustadt or other train stations). The main station is located at the southern edge of the inner city (Altstadt). TIME: The meeting will run from Monday, July 28 through Friday, August 1. ---- An excursion to one of the nearby castles and possibly to the Meissen porcelain factory will be organized on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. Some of you asked about the possibility of organizing a trip to Prague or Berlin immediately after the conference. !!! Please tell me if you are interested in going to PRAGUE or !!! BERLIN right after the conference!!! My first impression from !!! the few responses I got to my last message (a long time ago) was !!! that there is some interest in going to Prague for about 3 days. !!! Do you want me to organize such a trip, or one to Berlin??? HOTEL: 25 double rooms have been reserved at the new university guest house ----- Gaestehaus Am Weberplatz tel: + 49 (351) 467-9300 Weberplatz 3 fax: + 49 (351) 467-9394 01217 Dresden email: gha@rcs.urz.tu-dresden.de http://www.tu-dresden.de/gaestehaus !!! Reservation number: 40350 (mention FORTRAN) ------------------------------------------- !!! UNTIL APRIL 28. We may be able to hold a small number of rooms !!! for a short time after this date, but !!! Please make your reservation soon!!! Our new guest house is a nice 3-star hotel with 60 double rooms, a restaurant that is open for breakfast (included in price of room), lunch and dinner, and enough parking space in front (for free) and in their garage (2.50 Euros/night). Their rates per room (including breakfast) are: !!! 50 Euros/night --- single occupancy !!! 65 Euros/night --- double occupancy !!! They prefer EC cards (very common in Germany), but they will also !!! accept VISA, Euro/Mastercard, and AMEX. !!! Please, when you book a room at the guest house (or any other !!! hotel), send me a short message with your arrival and departure !!! dates and the hotel you booked!!! Based on our experience with many other guests and because of their excellent rates, I recommend that you book a room there, but there are of course plenty of hotels in Dresden, some more central (for example the IBIS where most of you stayed 7 years ago - only slightly more expensive, but lower quality), some more luxurious (but quite a bit more expensive). The guest house is easily reached from the main train station (Hauptbahnhof) by public transportation (3 stops by bus or tram). It takes about 10 to 15 minutes on foot from the guest house to our meeting place (it is the closest hotel). One can catch a bus or a tram almost directly from the guest house (or from our meeting location) and make it to downtown Dresden in about 10 to 15 minutes as well. Dresden is not that big and has pretty good public transportation, so it should be easy to get by without a car. TRAVEL: BY AIR: You can fly directly to Dresden Airport, located at the -------------- northern edge of Dresden (Klotzsche). Lufthansa offers about 5 (one hour) flights per day between Frankfurt and Dresden (at no extra charge, I believe, if you are flying transatlantic with Lufthansa or United Airlines). There is now a fairly rapid local train link (S-Bahn) between the airport and the main train station (Hauptbahnhof), but you sometimes have to CHANGE TRAINS at the NEUSTADT train station. There should be at least two connections per hour. (The shuttle bus service was discontinued.) If you decide to take the train from Frankfurt, you will probably have to take a train or S-Bahn (municipal train) to Frankfurt main station and then a regular train (usually ICE = intercity express) to Dresden (count on 4.5 to 6 hours). If you want to drive by car from Frankfurt, expect anywhere from 5 to 7 hours on the Autobahn, depending on traffic. It is possible to fly into Berlin, but most Western flights arrive at Berlin-Tegel which makes it rather inconvenient to get to Dresden (typically by bus, S-Bahn, then 2 more hours by train) - unless you want to spend some time in Berlin anyway. TRAVEL: BY TRAIN: Note that Dresden has SEVERAL large train stations! ---------------- You want to arrive at DRESDEN HAUPTBAHNHOF (main station) which is located at the southern edge of the inner city. If your train arrives at the Dresden NEUSTADT station, but does not go to Dresden HAUPTBAHNHOF, then you can take a local train (S-Bahn) to the Hauptbahnhof, or a taxi directly to the hotel. TRAVEL: BY CAR: Cars can be rented at all German airports. -------------- In Dresden, you can rent cars from many companies. SIXT (formerly associated with BUDGET) seems to have some of the lowest rates. You can get a car from them directly at the airport, at the main train station, or at the Hilton Hotel in the city center (right next to the Frauenkirche). Their phone number is: +49-351 / 490-5781 . !!! If you plan to rent a car to go to Prague, SIXT is the only !!! company (I didn't check the veracity of their claim) that will !!! let you take a car into the Czech republic and still provide !!! full insurance. Because the danger of theft is pretty high !!! there, it is required that you tell them beforehand and they !!! will then only give you a small car (typically smaller than a !!! VW rabbit = Golf). City traffic is regularly heavy during rush hour, and there are still quite a number of really inefficient intersections in Dresden. Also, parking is somewhat costly downtown (0.50 or 1 Euro/hour). Virtually the whole East-German Autobahn system has now been redone or newly built, so the connections to other big cities are now much better than 7 years ago. If you arrive in Dresden by train or plane, it is probably better to use public transportation during your stay unless you or your spouse want to drive to more remote sightseeing places. MONEY: The Euro (EUR) is fairly strong at the moment, close to 1.10 US$. ----- Major credit cards are accepted in most hotels and many stores and restaurants, but don't expect it in small shops, cafes, and restaurants. EC cards are accepted almost everywhere in Germany, but are less common in other European countries and almost unknown (?) outside Europe, so you probably don't have one. In any case, you should keep some cash handy! WEATHER: The weather in July is usually sunny and warm, and there is ------- little chance of rain. Expect daytime temperatures between 25 and 35 degress Celsius, and between 15 and 25 degrees at night. HOST: This WG5 meeting is hosted by DIN, with Wolfgang Walter as ---- local organizer. Mrs Heinisch will help with the organization. ADDRESS: Technische Universitaet Dresden ------- Inst. f. Wissenschaftliches Rechnen Fachrichtung Mathematik Building: Willersbau Room: B 218 (secretary's office) Zellescher Weg 12 D - 01062 Dresden Germany PHONE: Frau Gudrun Heinisch (secretary) Tel: + 49 (351) 463-34266 ----- Wolfgang Walter Tel: + 49 (351) 463-33996 (Mrs Heinisch does not speak English fluently.) FAX: To Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Walter Fax: + 49 (351) 463-37096 --- E-MAIL: heinisch@math.tu-dresden.de (Gudrun Heinisch) ------ wwalter@math.tu-dresden.de (Wolfgang Walter) WWW: http://www.tu-dresden.de (university) --- http://www.dresden.de (city of Dresden) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I am looking forward to welcoming you in Dresden in July. Wolfgang Walter