Hi Ron,
ron minnich wrote:
I arrive berlin 10:42 or so. I do want to see the brandenberg gate at some point in the day.
After the expo on Thursday there is the LinuxNacht social event. Want to get there not too late to get some food from the buffet. :)
I guess maybe do sightseeing first, or sometime during the day. Time usually goes by pretty quickly while at the expo.
If someone has instructions on how to get from hbf to the conference, that would help.
Berlin is very easy to get around using public transport. I recommend buying an A+B zone day ticket, which lets you go all around the city via subway (U-bahn) and streetcar (S-bahn). Remember to validate the ticket (stamped by a second little machine near the ticket vending machine) or you still have to pay a fine if they come check you. Not so common, but still good to be safe. The day ticket is 6 something EUR IIRC.
LinuxTag is at Messe Berlin which has it's own S-bahn station (two actually). Check out this map of the Berlin S- and U-bahn:
http://www.bvg.de/index.php/de/Common/Document/field/file/id/2597/filename/S...
One S-bahn runs around the city and two others run north/south and west/east. Hbf is roughly in the middle of the west/east line.
Best stop for LinuxTag is the Messe Süd station, at 9 o'clock, one stop "outside" the ring S-bahn intersection at Westkreuz.
So, from Hbf go on S-bahn S75/S9 towards Spandau or S1/S7 towards Wannsee or Potsadam Hbf, and exit train at Messe Süd station. Up from the station the expo is the large entrance across the street.
This is also described at http://wiki.linuxtag.org/w/Travel
Previous years, Sven Guckes who is very active in the Berlin community organized a sightseeing tour during LinuxTag, but I don't know what the situation is for this year. Maybe shoot him an email?
Bringing a Plan 9 guy too.
I'm looking forward to meeting you guys!
//Peter