Base Camp 2008 - Europe?

[Frederik]

Csaba, I also suffer from a knee injurie i got many years ago on a ski holiday in France, but if I'm going skiing, I use my DonJoy...
Might also be a solution for you...

[Gaieus]

Hehe... How about the slivovica solution instead? (I DOinsist at least a shot of it after skiing).

[Stinkie]

As I recently blew almost all my money on hardware and software, I really must insist the EU Base Camp takes place in either Antwerp or Ghent.

[JasonWD]

Come to the most expensive city in Europe!

[plot-paris]

Ghent sounds great (I am currently living in London).

and skying is a bad idea - I never did that in my live. the only thing I will probably be doing is play biathlon on a Wii

[Edit]

@unknownuser said:

Come to the most expensive city in Europe!

if you refer to London (it is rahter expensive after all), you have my vote

[JasonWD]

I am referring to London, but I am still keen on somewhere in Europe, maybe somewhere warm .

[dylan]

Yes London is expensive, but I guess most major Cities are.
The beauty about London is the accessibility.

[plot-paris]

and most people speak english...

perhaps it is possible to find something a bit outside of London (still within reach of the tube).
accomodations would get much cheeper there. and if you go far enough it isn't necesarrily too dirty anymore

[solo]

Is there a time of the year when it's NOT raining? and maybe the sun makes an appearance?

[plot-paris]

SUNSHINE IN LONDON at the moment!
there is definitely a lot of sunshine here (but a lot of rain too )

last month we had a whole week of complete sunshine without a single raindrop.

it is very unfortunate that weather forecast isn't for the next six months - that would be cool

[solo]

Well it is Wimbelton time (the best time for an outdoor event) even though the weather normally does not conform during the finals.

[Archi Rag]

I'd second that, im moving up to newcastle to start a placement and stopped off there for a few hours and was pretty impressed by how much it had changed (i hadnt been there for a few years) although newcastle is a favourite for me (in terms of a good looking city)

[linea]

Dylan will probably back me up here: in Yorkshire we laugh at the rain! We have to. Although today it has been sunny. Today I went to Dylan's town of Sheffield for a meeting. I hadn't been there for years and I was amazed by all the fantastic looking new contemporary architecture. I would like to nominate Sheffield as a possible Base Camp venue, as yorkshire is quite a surprising place these days.

[Mike Lucey]

I can't sleep, still in Mid Atlantic time zone but getting
closer to Europe.

I had a long chat with Ross about what he thought might be
a good location and he suggested a Cruise Ship. At first I
thought, no way, but the more we discussed it the more it
made some sense for the following reasons.

a. Its an ALL IN PACKAGE i.e. no extras.
b. Spouses, Partners, Girlfriends, Boyfriend could also tag
along and enjoy the gig. Also the kids!
c. Most decent Cruise Ships have good facilities for meetings.
d. If we had a Med cruise it might even be possible to arrange
a hop on at various ports.
e. It would be nice to get some of the Google SU Guys ALSO some
of the Regular SketchUp Members from the USA and others areas
and as Ross says 'it could be swing-able from a monitory point
of view when it also combines a nice holiday for all'. BTW Ross
is Scottish! So, we have to give this serious thought, only kidding
Ross

I have been looking up what's available on the Mediterranean and
see some great cruises there. I have some contacts in the business
and will (just for the fun of it) check out what kind of a deal
might be had.

Mike

[Gaieus]

Mike don't forget that we need a bunch of power computers and broadband internet connection for such an event (though I can imagine some of the more modern ships have these facilities).

[mateo soletic]

A month or so ago Me and My wife were invited aboard MSC Poesia
during its first visit to my town .. It’s their newes ship and it great.
Have a look here.

http://www.msckrstarenja.com/flotta/multimedia_ship/infoship.asp?ship_id=261
and the company:
http://www.msccruises.com/cruises.asp

I don’t know if this would be the greatest choice for such a meeting .
Too much going on over there , sightseeings other events but if all
majority are for it why not.
I also have good connections there.

[Mike Lucey]

I notice that the Costa Concordia have a week's Med Cruise
for under $500 €322 £253

It seems that these ships do not have broadband connection
but again is this really essential? I only need to check
my emails once a day and answer same while travelling. I
prefer to spend as much time with people not computers. I
don't need to do any up / downloads. More importantly would
be a good sized meeting room for presentations / discussions
and these ships have these facilities plus dozens of Bars

A thought has just popped into my head about he various excursions
that would be involved. These are mostly to historic areas /
places that may not have yet been Skoogled! Could this be an
opportunity for the SUC Cruisers to do some useful work that
could be uploaded to Google Earth? And maybe even get some form
of subsidy from Google for this professional work, just a thought
and one that I will investigate further.

We would have the expertise 'on-board' (pun intended ) headed
up by our esteemed Csaba If successful this could be an annual
event and we could cover all the Med and its historic treasures

---

[kwistenbiebel]

I wanted to sit this thread out until a place was chosen, so I can see if it fits the time schedule and the budget.

But I just have to react on this:
A cruise? Isn't that expensive?

[solo]

Funny enough Chris they really are not expensive, I have been on a few (Mostly Caribbean) 4 day cruises that were less expensive than going to a hotel by the beach for the same amount of time.

[Mike Lucey]

I don't think €322 (sharing) for 7 nights full board is
expensive. There are some quite good deals to be had
and I imagine better if there are some numbers involved.