标签: norway

I don't know why, but I had the tune and lyrics from Dreamer by Supertramp rattling around in my head last 15 February– especially the line that goes "Far out, – What a day, a year, a laugh it is!" ( Click here to see the full lyrics for the song). As an aside, I saw Supertramp live in London way back in the mists of time – circa the late 1970s – they performed Crime of the Century (plus a bunch of other songs) and all I can say is "Wow!" But we digress... I think the reason I hummed "What a day, a year, a laugh it is!"   was that I was then having a good time. Following my previous blog , my 17-year-old son, Joseph, and I had an absolutely amazing evening at the official conference dinner, and we've also had an incredible day last Wednesday. Let's start with the conference dinner. Everyone attending the conference stayed in the Britannia Hotel in Trondheim, which is where the conference itself was held. The Britannia is a fantastic hotel. I bet it's not cheap, although I'm sure there was a special rate for the conference, but my room was covered by the conference itself, so I never saw a bill (no wonder I'm having such a good time :-) All of the food in the hotel has been really tremendous, but I have to say that they outdid themselves for the dinner last 14 February. Joseph and I were invited to sit at the head table with the committee, which made both of us feel very special. As great as the food was, however, it was overshadowed by the entertainment. Earlier in the day, someone had mentioned to me that "The students will be providing some entertainment." Since there were a few students attending the conference, I had vaguely assumed that these were the ones we were talking about, but this was not the case. Following the fabulous fish course (just before the mouth-watering steak course), the doors to the dining room were flung open and a line of male students dressed in traditional garb and singing at the top of their voices threaded their way between the tables up to a small stage.     It turned out that this was the male choir from the University of Trondheim. I understand that this choir has been in existence since time began (or at least since the university was founded) and it has a famous tradition. Their voices were incredible – it reminded me of a Welsh Male Voice Choir – but all in Norwegian. All I can say is that the entire show was amazing – a mix of acting and singing – it was almost like watching a musical – I only wish I could understand the words, because several times the lyrics caused the native speakers sitting at our table to cry with laughter. In the speeches following the meal, I was delighted to hear that this year's attendance was one of the highest ever (just one person shy of the all-time record); also that there were more exhibiters than ever (personally I put this down to the fact that everyone had heard I was to give the keynote ). Joseph and I elected to skip the second day of the conference, because there's only so much you can do when the presentations are in Norwegian. Thus, after breakfast this morning, we took a cab to the Trondheim Train Station and caught a train to Oslo. This was a six-hour journey through the heart of Norway.   The scenery was magnificent. Sad to relate, however, my pictures don't do it justice. As you can see below, most of what we saw was mountains covered in trees which were themselves covered in snow. When you see these things in the real world they are breathtaking; my photos offer only a pale reflection...     When we arrived in Oslo, I dumped our bags at the hotel and then took a walk around the town center – grabbed a bite to eat – wandered up to the Royal Palace – meandered around some interesting side streets – and eventually blundered across our hotel again. Last Thursday, we visited the engineering department at the University of Oslo where I gave my guest lecture. Then, last Friday, we visited the Kon-Tike Museum. Life is good... more soon... watch this space...  

As you will remember, my 17-year-old son, Joseph, and I went to Trondheim, Norway to attend the annual FPGA Forum. I gave the kickoff presentation last 14 February. If only you could have seen the rapturous applause and standing ovation and heard the chanting "Max, Max, Oy-Oy-Oy... Max, Max, Oy-Oy-Oy..." Actually, I would have liked to have seen and heard that myself, but the Norwegians tend to be a little more reserved than this. However, I could see the desire to start chanting twinkling in their eyes, so that was alright (grin). All joking aside, I flatter myself that my talk went rather well – several people have come up to me afterwards and said they enjoyed it, and they didn't have their fingers crossed behind their backs (I checked), so I think we will have to take them at their word. After a while we bumped into Jan Anders (see my previous blog ), who was also scheduled to present that afternoon. The first words out of his mouth were "Max, I thought I was going to faint!" My initial reaction was that he'd had some form of epiphany that had been triggered by something I'd said in my talk ... but it turned out that he'd lost his presentation, which had become corrupted on his computer (he managed to recover it later). Joseph and I stayed for a while listening to the talks, but since they were all in Norwegian things were a little difficult to follow. Thus, following an amazing lunch, we went for a stroll around Trondheim. Once again we were really grateful for our warm coats and waterproof boots, because it was a bit of a blustery day. First we wandered across the street to the post office to get some cash from the ATM. It always amazes me when you are in a strange country and one of these machines asks if you want instructions in the local language or in English. Then we hiked down a street called Munkegata to the Nidaros Cathedral.   We took lots of pictures. I would like to say that the image above was one of them, but we were actually being buffeted by driving snow and gale-force winds, so I think my photos will turn out to be a little different to this one, which I snagged off the Wikipedia. Work on the cathedral started in 1070 and was finished sometime around 1300, which means it is 700 years old. This is an absolutely beautiful creation. You have to stand in front of it and see the detail in the stone sculptures to believe it. Following the cathedral we walked (actually, it was more like we were blown) around the corner and travelled along the side of the river until we crossed the street with our hotel. We went back in our room and recovered from the icy cold winds. That evening we had the official conference dinner, and the next day we caught the train for a six-hour ride down to Oslo, which is the capital of Norway. More later... watch this space...