Well, arrived in a very wet Hamburg. The directions from the Airport to the Hotel seemed very complicated and almost drove me to get a Taxi. But I don't think you learn as much that way, so I took a look at the map at the station, worked out where I was going and after missing the first bus, managed to get all the way here. Observation: The locals must walk slow (the blurb said 5 minute walk from the station and it was actually 2 minutes), a lot of people were drinking beer at 15:30 and a lot of people smoke. The beer idea is good, but I think I'll be taking it easy until I have completed the first day of talks.
Briefly met Holger and Paul Beach and had a quick dinner before talking to wife and kids on Skype (excellent DSL access in the hotel rooms - kind of what you might expect from T Mobile's training facility).
More of what I am talking about in Hamburg etc to follow. Just wanted to kick the blog off before going to have a "speakers meeting" at 20:00.