As of 2024-02-07: I now know the dates, Nov. 18-23; and there are some conferences or other meetings, one in Wrocław the week before and one in Berlin the week after, but I don’t yet know the details for those.
There don’t seem to be any QM2 transatlantic sailings on dates that would work for me, so I’ll probably do what I’ve done many times before: Amtrak between St. Louis and Boston, and Icelandair across the Pond.
What I do in Europe is still unknown. I could fly to or from any of London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Berlin and take trains to/from there. It depends on what the before and after meetings are all about and what the actual dates for those will be.
Possibilities:
If those guesses turn out to be correct, a reasonably simple itinerary could be:
| Day | Date | What |
|---|---|---|
| (Tu) | (Nov 5) | (Election day in the U.S. Don’t forget.) |
| Fr | Nov 8 | Get ready |
| Sa | Nov 9 | Texas Eagle to Chicago |
| Lake Shore Limited to New York (overnight) | ||
| Su | Nov 10 | Spend the night |
| Mo | Nov 11 | Northeast regional train to Boston |
| Icelandair to Berlin (overnight) | ||
| Tu | Nov 12 | Spend the night |
| We | Nov 13 | S-Bahn to Ostbanhoff |
| Train to Wrocław | ||
| Th | Nov 14 | Allow an extra day for things to get messed up |
| Fr | Nov 15 | code::dive |
| Sa – Su | Be a tourist | |
| Mo – Sa | WG21 | |
| Sa | Nov 23 | Afternoon or evening train to Berlin |
| Su | Nov 24 | Be a tourist |
| Mo – We | Meeting C++ | |
| Th | Nov 28 | S-Bahn to airport |
| Icelandair to Boston | ||
| Spend the night | ||
| Fr | Nov 29 | Northeast regional train to New York |
| Lake Shore Limited to Chicago (overnight) | ||
| Sa | Nov 30 | Texas Eagle to St. Louis |
| Su | Dec 1 | Recover |
Eastbound, I could also take the Capitol Limited to D.C., spend the night there, and then take a regional train to Boston.
Westbound, I could spend the 28th on the ground in Berlin. That would get me back to Boston a day later, and I could get a less expensive weekend first class fare on the Acela Express to New York. (Business class on a northeast regional train is OK, though.) That’s the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., but I don’t get invited to family get-togethers any more, which is OK with me because my extended family are mostly Trumpistas; so I don’t have any reason that I need to be at home then.
I see that there’s also an overnight train between Brussels and Berlin which might be an interesting possibility, e.g., Icelandair to Heathrow, Eurostar to Brussels, train to Berlin Hbf. I could spend one night in the fancy hotel in St. Pancras Chambers just to say that I did. 😁