Revision as of 20:18, 26 September 2024

IFIP Working Group 2.11, Twenty-fourth Meeting

December 3rd (Tues) - 6th (Fri) in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

The meeting will be hosted by Ohad Kammar, who will write in the first person in the remainder. If you want to know anything, please email me. This page is not yet finished, I'll try to add the missing information as soon as possible.

The meeting will last 3.5 days; the first three days (Tues-Thur) will be full-day whereas the last day (Fri) will be a half-day session.

Venue

Althaus-Reid Room, 1.07 (named after the theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid)

New College
School of Divinity
The University of Edinburgh
Central Campus
1 Mound Place
Edinburgh EH1 2LU

This is unfortunately not the School of Informatics, which is about 15 minutes walk south from this venue.

I'll include a Google map soon with the venue, and populate it with other relevant locations closer to the event.

WiFi Access

If you have eduroam credentials, you may use them to access the eduroam network while at Edinburgh.

I'm looking into setting up guest accounts for participants without eduroam credentials, and will put the information here closer to the date.

Workspace

A quiet area for shared use is available in the Porteous Room 1.09 (you can read more about it here) on the same floor as the main room.

Travel

Travel to Edinburgh

Air

Edinburgh Airport is located approximately 8 miles away from the city centre.

The Edinburgh tram runs from the airport every 7 minutes, the last tram from the airport leaves after 22:30 (see tram webpage).

The Airlink bus (service 100) runs between the airport and the city centre, reaching Waverley Bridge railway station in 25 minutes. The route to and from the airport runs 24 hours a day every 10 minutes approximately during the day.

Most advance hire taxi companies will offer an airport pick-up service. Here's one, but any will do. There's also a taxi hailing stand at the airport, follow the signs.

You can also fly into another main UK city and continue to Edinburgh by train.

Train

Edinburgh is well-connected to most other main UK cities. There are a few faster trains from London (about 4h25min) every day. You can use National Rail to plan your trip and link you to the appropriate provider.

I have enjoyed taking the Eurostar from the main continent to London. There is also the Caledonian Sleeper that can get you to Edinburgh or London by 7am very slowly overnight.

Travel around Edinburgh

Edinburgh is somewhat hilly and the venue is located up a slope. If that is not a problem, then Edinburgh is quite walkable.

Public transportation is available. Check out Transport for Edinburgh for all the details.

• Buses. Lothian buses operates many of the relevant buses. You can pay contactless with a card or app and there's a capped pay program ('TapTapCap'). Here's the map, but I usually use Google maps for directions.

• Taxis. You can usually just a black cab from anywhere in the centre, see their webpage for advance bookings. Your favourite search engine will provide other taxi companies.

• Tram. The Edinburgh tram stops fairly close to the venue, so can be an easy way to the venue.

• Uber operates in Edinburgh.

Accommodation

The venue is located quite centrally, with many hotels nearby. I'll filter out some 3-star and 4-star suggestions nearby soon, but you'll probably find somewhere charming by your own (just watch out for scams). The tram and buses make it easy to also stay somewhere away from the centre and commute in if you prefer.

Weather

Edinburgh has temperate (and temperamental) climate, and in December it will likely be close to zero degrees centrigade, typically above. It will be windy, and potentially rainy, so make sure you dress appropriately. Umbrellas tend to be rather useless due to the wind, one typically recognises the tourists by their futile struggles to turn inside-out umbrellas i while getting soaked.

The days are quite short in December, and you might be able to catch the sunrise heading into the venue in the morning. I recommend avoiding missing most of the daylight completely, e.g., make sure you go for a short walk outside during the lunch break.

Tourism

Edinburgh offers many tourist attractions and museums, and many are located centrally and close to the venue. Entrance to museums and galleries is free, although requires buying a ticket.

The meeting takes place just after Saint Andrew's Day weekend, and Monday will be a public holiday in Scotland. That should not affect travel, although the airport and railway might be busier than usual.

Historic Environment Scotland offer free tickets to visit some Historic Scotland attractions on Saint Andrew's day, such as the Edinburgh Castle. Registration for free tourism tickets opens Tuesday 12 November 10am UK time until Thursday 28 November.

If you go to the Castle, try to get there before 1pm to see them fire the Canon.

Very near the venue is Scott Monument which you can climb, for a fee, during the day for a stunning view. There will be a German Christmas Market nearby I believe.

There are several hills within the city and you can easily climb up. The easiest (and closest to the venue) is Carlton Hill and has a road and steps leading all the way up.

Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags are most visible from the centre. It takes about 1.5 hours roundtrip to get to the top. The grass can be slippery after a rain, and people can slip to their death, so wear good shoes and only climb during the day.

You can sometimes take a daytrip on a guided tour to the highlands or a whisky distillery. If you have the time, I recommend spending a few days in the former, and maybe visiting some of the latter.

I'll try to add more stuff here, especially if people send me recommendations or ask questions.

Registration

Working on it, I'll put up more details soon.