7th Max-Planck Advanced Course on the Foundations of Computer Science August 21 - August 25, 2006 Saarbrücken, Germany

Transport

Travelling to Saarbrücken:

You will probably try to reach Saarbrücken by train. If you have a flight to Frankfurt, this is extremely easy. There is a train station right in the terminal building. Trains run frequently. You have to buy a ticket before you board the train, and there you can also ask which trains to take.

If you are a group of people, note that there is a special offer called "Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket" (nice week-end ticket). If costs 32 Euros (or 30 at the machines) and entitles up to 5 people to travel a whole day on all local trains ("S-Bahn" (S), "Regional-Express" (RE), "Regional-Bahn" (RB)). Since most connections to Saarbrücken only use such trains, this is not a real limitation.

If you arrive at some other airport, things are not that simple, but still easy. From Frankfurt-Hahn, served by Ryanair and other cheap airlines, there is a quite regular bus-service. From Stuttgart, Cologne or Dortmund you would also take the train, but this might take a good three to four hours.

From the Train Station:

From the train station to your hotel you can use public transport: Buses and a tramway that is called "Saarbahn". A single ticket for 2 Euros (1,60 with a German "BahnCard") is valid for one ride in the city including all necessary changes.

If your hotel is one of "City Hotel", "Hotel Weller" and the youth hostel, you take the tramway from the train station to "Johanneskirche" (two stops). There you walk across the street to the bus stop "Rathaus" [map of city center, pdf, 900kB] For "Hotel Weller", you take bus 19 and get off at stop "An der Trift" (approx. 4 stops). For the youth hostel, you take the same bus 19 and get off at stop "Prinzenweiher/DJH" (approx. 5 stops). For the "City Hotel", you take any bus for one stop (get off at "Haus der Zukunft").

You might decide to walk, in particular, if you are living in the "City Hotel". For details consult the city map at http://sbserver.saarbruecken.de:4680/query. A plan of the bus lines can be found at http://www.saarbahn.de/fahrplan/liniennetz/index.php.

Getting to the MPI:

Take Bus 11, 19, or 49 to the University. All three buses serve "Haus der Zukunft" (City Hotel), though at two different platforms. "An der Trift" (Hotel Weller) and "Prinzenweiher/DJH" (youth hostel) are only served by bus 19. Don't go back to the city center, but use the same direction as on your way from the train station to the hotel.

Get of the bus at the first (and currently only) bus stop on the campus. This is a temporary stop for the time while the usual one "Universität Mensa" cannot be served due to construction works. It should still be called "Universität Campus", but is located between builings 7 and 43.6 on the map below. Ignore the fact that some streets are missing on this map and walk down the street to the southern end of the campus, where the MPI is located (building 46.1 on the map). Ignore also the fact that the building number change regularly, so the MPI currently has an E1.4 number, which only Arno knows.

Tickets: I suggest that you buy a weekly ticket. It costs 13.50 Euros and is valid for unlimited travel in Saarbrücken. The only catch is that you cannot buy this ticket on the bus or at the university. However, it is sold at quite a number of places, for example, at the youth hostel. Ask you hotel for the next spot. Warning: The ticket is valid Monday through Sunday, not seven consecutive days. So you may buy the ticket on Sunday at the train station, but its not valid then (and you have to make sure that you buy the ticket for the right week).