Were to go in Sinsheim?
Sinsheim is a small city with around 35.000 citizens in Baden-Wurttemberg in the South-West of Germany. Sinsheim is a very old city. Earliest founds date back 600.000 years. From 400 BC the remains of an celtic ringwall was found. Today, it's in the heart of Germany's engineering and industry. Also, it is in the sunniest and warmest area of Germany, which in November might not be that relevant. It's also a region where wine is produced.
Sinsheim has an own website with some good information: http://www.sinsheim.de/servlet/PB/menu/1905529_l2/index.html
Greater Sinsheim area
The next bigger city is Heidelberg, which has a population of 147.000 and is known for its University, the tons of Students and uncountable number of Pubs. People who visit Apache Con EU should visit Heidelberg when time permits.
For those more interested in history, Speyer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer) with the largest remaining Romanesque cathedral is a great choice.
Other cities nearby:
- Karlsruhe, 300.000 inhabitants, very nice city, large university
- Mannheim, 325.000 inhabitants, train hub
SAP, the company sponsoring our venue, is located nearby with a few thousand employees.
The Venue
Bring your sporting gear - the venue is (in) a soccer stadium, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhein-Neckar_Arena or http://www.rheinneckararena.de/. The conference is held in the arena's "Business Club".
Getting there
The soccer arena has it's own train station ("Sinsheim-Museum/Arena") and is connected to nearby Autobahn A6 (exit "Sinsheim Süd").
Frankfurt Airport is 1:50h away by train. (For connections and tickets from the airport, see http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml, route is from "Frankfurt(M) Flughafen Fernbf" to "Sinsheim(Elsenz)", one way ticket price is 29 EUR, if you book well in advance, you probably get a discount.) You might also consider flying to Stuttgart. If you are coming from Germany, Swiss, France, Belgium or the Netherlands, consider taking the train (ICE/TGV) to Mannheim. All ICE trains have power plugs between seats and most have Wifi onboard (at ridiculous rates, though). See this map how to get from the station to the venue: http://www.achtzehn99.de/assets/downloads/PDF/Stadionanfahrtkomplett2012-05Wirsol.pdf
If you prefer traveling by car, there are good connections from all directions.
Accomodation
If you are looking for hotel rooms, please visit: http://www.hrs.de HRS is available in several languages (look top right of the website) and offers information on most hotels. In addition prices are usually a little better with than direct booking.
Unfortunately there are no hostels around.
If you are travelling by car, accommodation in Heidelberg (35 km, roundabout 35m driving time, highway mostly) or in Heilbronn / Neckarsulm (same distance, 30 minutes) is possible too.
Lists of hotels in Sinsheim:
- Hotel Sinsheim (4*, 108 EUR, 100 rooms) http://hotel-sinsheim.de/en/rooms-suites
- Hotel Bär (3*, 82 EUR, Sauna, Internet) http://www.hotel-baer.de/englisch/eng_index.php
- Wincent (?*, 59 EUR, fitness, free WLAN, free landline calls within Germany and some European countries) http://wincent-hotel.de/a
- Zum Prinzen (3* B&B, 80 EUR, 30 beds) http://www.sinsheim-hotel-prinzen.de/ (requires FLASH!)
Drinks and Food
- http://www.keltictavern.de/secondindex/drinks.html (offers huge bierglasses and tons of burgers)
Fun
If you travel by car and if you are looking for some adventure you might want to visit: http://heuhotel.cc/
This a nice hotel offers sleeping like in medieval times. In addition you can have a so called "knights meal" which is usually pretty funny. Probably this is nice closing event before traveling home.
The technique museum in Sinsheim (http://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en) has some legendary aircraft on display, for example a Concorde, locomotives, vintage cars.
If you are more into contemporary race cars, Hockenheimring race track (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockenheimring / http://www.hockenheimring.net) is for you.