March 1988 - To NCR Europe

1988 Our lives in America
Boy executive corporate photo. Bluh! March 17, 1988  NCR SESD have new products coming out and I get to travel to Belgium, UK and Germany to conduct a few seminars. This is the Ramada in Brussels, my first stop. I'm surprised when I have to hand over my passport which they lock in their safe. That's one way of getting people to pay their bill I suppose. I could have chosen France as well but I decide to spend the weekend in London instead. Really weird the way it works out. These are the Law Courts in Brussels. The Palais de Justice de Bruxelles, is the most important court building in Belgium, seat of the judicial arrondissement of Brussels, as well as of several courts and tribunals, including the Court of Cassation, the Court of Assizes, the Court of Appeal of Brussels, the Tribunal of First Instance of Brussels, and the Bar Association of Brussels. It is located on the Grand Place in the southern part of Brussels' city centre.
The Palais de Justice de Bruxelles was built between 1866 and 1883 and is reputed to be the largest constructed in the 19th century; it remains one of the largest of its kind. The building suffered heavy damage during World War II, during which the cupola was destroyed, and later rebuilt higher than the original. The building has been under renovation since 1984. This is the Manneken Pis (Dutch for 'Little Pissing Man'). It is a landmark bronze fountain sculpture in central Brussels, depicting a puer mingens or naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin. The current statue is a replica which dates from 1965. The original is kept in the Brussels City Museum. Manneken Pis is approximately five minutes' walk from the Grand Place (Brussels' main square), Grand buildings at Grand Place in the centre of Brussels.
This is what it looks like in daytime but I don't get to see it like this. This is the Brussels City Museum. The buildings that face the plaza are very impressive, March 19, 1998   After Brussels, I fly to London. This is Marks and Spencer in Oxford Street. This is a tube station of the London Underground, possibly Oxford Circus.
Admiralty Arch at the entrance to The Mall. St James' Park is through the arch on the left side of The Mall. Looking down The Mall to Buckingham Palace. Changing of the the Life Guards in Light Horse Parade. The Old Admiralty Building with a statue of Lord Wolseley
The Queen's Life Guard is the mounted guard at the entrance to Horse Guards. Horse Guards is the official main entrance to both St Jamess's Palace and Buckingham Palace (a tradition that stems from the time when the Mall was closed at both ends); The Queen's Life Guard is the mounted guard at the entrance to Horse Guards. 1988 Early1988 0046 a The Queen's Life Guard is an operational posting, with the primary purpose of protecting the Sovereign.
The guard is usually provided by the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, with the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals alternating. Black coat, red tail or red coat white tail. I don't think there is a difference Standing in Horse Guards Rd looking across at Horse Guards Parade. Number 10 Downing Street is just out of picture behind me. I stand in Parliament Square and look at St Margaret's Church. Westminster Abbey is behind St Margaret's. That's a statue of Winston Churchill in front of the Australian Flag.
One of the world's most recognisable icons (nearly as well known as the Sydney Opera House) - Big Ben at the Palace of Westminster The Houses of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster on the River Thames. The House of Commons and the House of Lords run behind the Houses of Parliament from a line drawn down the centre from Big Ben Westminster Bridge connects Waterloo Station in the south, across the Thames, to the Palace of Westminster. From here I take a ferry down the Thames to Greenwich.
This is the National Theatre on the southside. Our ferry has just gone under Waterloo Bridge The current Anchor pub was built between 1770-75 on the site of an earlier inn named the Castell on the Hoop, which dates back a cool 800 years. The pub is the sole survivor of the riverside inns that existed here in Shakespeare's time when this district was at the heart of theatreland and the Thames was London's principal highway. HMS Belfast is a Town-class light cruiser that was built for the Royal Navy. She is now permanently moored as a museum ship on the River Thames in London and is operated by the Imperial War Museum. London Bridge City Pier is to the right; it connects with the London Bridge rail station. Tower Bridge comes into view. It is a Grade I listed combined bascule and suspension bridge built between 1886 and 1894. It connects with the Tower of London on the north side.
The southern tower. The walkway across the top is open to the public. The Tower of London. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new ruling elite. the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under kings Richard I, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries. The general layout established by the late 13th century remains despite later activity on the site. This is the Old Royal Observatory at Greenwich. It played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and because the Prime Meridian passes through it, it gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time, the precursor to today's Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
A time ball sits atop the Octagon Room of Flamsteed House. The observatory was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II, with the foundation stone being laid on 10 August. The site was chosen by Sir Christopher Wren, a former Savilian Professor of Astronomy; as Greenwich Park was a royal estate, no new land needed to be bought. The prime meridian was first established by Sir George Airy in 1851, and by 1884, over two-thirds of all ships and tonnage used it as the reference meridian on their charts and maps. In 1675 King Charles II also created the position of Astronomer Royal, to serve as the director of the observatory and to "apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting of the art of navigation." The King appointed John Flamsteed as the first Astronomer Royal. The building was completed in the summer of 1676. The building was often called "Flamsteed House", in reference to its first occupant. This is the Queens House which is a former royal residence built between 1616 and 1635 . Its architect was Inigo Jones, for whom it was a crucial early commission, for Anne of Denmark, the queen of King James I. The walkway to the left leads to the National Maritime Museum. King George VI formally opened the museum on 27 April 1937 when his daughter Princess Elizabeth accompanied him for the journey along the Thames from London..
Standard lengths on the wall of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London – 1 yard (3 feet), 2 feet, 1 foot, 6 inches (1/2-foot), and 3 inches. The separation of the inside faces of the marks is exact at an ambient temperature of 60 °F (16 °C) and a rod of the correct measure, resting on the pins, will fit snugly between them. The village of Greenwich with the Cutty Sark moored on land in the distance. This is St Alfege Church. It is dedicated to Alfege, Archbishop of Canterbury, and reputedly marks the place where he was martyred on 19 April 1012, having been taken prisoner during the sack of Canterbury by Danish raiders the previous year. The Danes took him to their camp at Greenwich and killed him when the large ransom they demanded was not forthcoming. The church was rebuilt in 1712–1714. Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. Built at Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development for this type of vessel, which halted as steamships took over their routes.
I leave Greenwich with a view of (L to R) Queen Anne Court, University of Greenwich; The tower of the University of Greenwich; and the Admiral's House, also part of the University. At the time of my visit, these buildings are part of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. On the way back, I get off the ferry at the Tower of London. This is the The Tower of London's outer curtain wall, with the curtain wall of the inner ward just visible behind. In the centre is the Brass Mount added by Edward I in the late 13th Century. Crap photo of The Monument to the 1666 Great Fire of London situated near the northern end of London Bridge. Commemorating the Great Fire of London, it stands at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, 202 feet (62 m) in height and 202 feet west of the spot in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire started on 2 September 1666. Constructed between 1671 and 1677, it was built on the site of St Margaret, New Fish Street, the first church to be destroyed by the Great Fire. Details about the monument - designed by Christopher Wren.
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London. As the seat of the Bishop of London, the cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It sits on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grade I listed building. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in BCE 604. The present structure, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its construction, completed in Wren's lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding programme in the city after the Great Fire of London. From a postcard: The earlier Gothic cathedral (Old St Paul's Cathedral), largely destroyed in the Great Fire, was a central focus for medieval and early modern London, including Paul's walk and St Paul's Churchyard being the site of St Paul's Cross. When I return on Sunday, a service is being held with choir boys and the organ playing. The sound is glorious. The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London. The street outside follows the route of the ancient wall around the City of London, which was part of the fortification's bailey, hence the metonymic name. Metonymic: figure of speech in which the name of an object or concept is replaced with a word closely related to or suggested by the original, as “crown” to mean “king”
The Old Bailey has been housed in a succession of court buildings on the street since the sixteenth century, when it was attached to the medieval Newgate Jail. The current main building block was completed in 1902and its architecture is recognised and protected as a Grade II* listed building. An extension South Block was constructed in 1972, over the former site of Newgate Jail which was demolished in 1904. Sunday March 20, 1988   This is the Albert Hall. The hall was to have been called the Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed to the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences by Queen Victoria upon laying the Hall's foundation stone in 1867, in memory of her husband, Prince Albert, who had died six years earlier. A story from my childhood: After WWII had ended, pommies flooded into Australia. A pommy friend of my Mum described Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory" playing in Albert Hall and said "There wasn't a dry eye in the house". Kensington Palace, Queen Victoria's home. Kensington Gardens was originally the western section of Hyde Park, which had been created by Henry VIII in 1536 to use as a hunting ground. It was separated from the remainder of Hyde Park in 1728 at the request of Queen Caroline and designed to form a landscape garden, with fashionable features including the Round Pond, formal avenues and a sunken Dutch garden. Rotten Row in Hyde Park, popular for horse riding with the gentry. Rotten Row was established by William III at the end of the 17th century. Having moved court to Kensington Palace, William wanted a safer way to travel to St. James's Palace. He created the broad avenue through Hyde Park, lit with 300 oil lamps in 1690– the first artificially lit highway in Britain. The lighting was a precaution against highwaymen, who lurked in Hyde Park at the time. The track was called Route du Roi, French for King's Road, which was eventually corrupted into "Rotten Row".
Crowds gather at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. Mounted Police control the crowds. Changing of the guards takes place every morning at 11:00. Following a march by a detachment of the Old Guard, with musical support, from St. James's Palace and the New Guard led by a Regimental Band from Wellington Barracks the ceremony on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace lasts for approximately 45 minute. The Queen's Guard is normally provided by one of the five regiments of Foot Guards from the Household Division, instantly recognisable in their famous bearskin caps and red tunics. It's possible these may be Grenadier Guards, number one in the hierarchy.
These are probably the Scots Guards. It's hard to tell but bagpipes and their three stripes might signify their third place ranking. Tartan garters maybe? The badges seem to be the Thistle emblems. The Scots Guards is one of the five Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642, although it was only placed on the English Establishment (thus becoming part of what is now the British Army) in 1686. This is the Queen Victoria Monument situated outside of Buckingham Palace. At the top of the central pylon stands a gilded bronze Winged Victory, standing on a globe and with a victor's palm in one hand. Beneath her are personifications of Constancy, holding a compass with its needle pointing true north, and Courage, holding a club. Beneath these, on the eastern and western sides, are two eagles with wings outspread, representing Empire. Below these, statues of an enthroned Queen Victoria (facing The Mall) and of Motherhood (facing Buckingham Palace), with Justice (facing north-west towards Green Park) and Truth (facing south east). These were created from solid blocks of marble, with Truth being sculpted from a block weighing 40 tonnes Daffodils in St James's Park. St James Park is a 23-hectare park in the City of Westminster, central London. It is at the southernmost tip of the St James area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less. It is the most easterly of a near continuous chain of parks that includes (moving westward) Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens
The front of Buckingham Palace from St James's Park, St James's Park Lake in foreground. Buckingham House was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as The Queen's House. During the 19th century it was enlarged by constructing three wings around the central courtyard. Buckingham Palace became the London residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. On Guard at St James's Palace. St James's Palace is still a working palace, and the Royal Court is still formally based there. It is also the London residence of Princess Anne, Princess Beatrice, and Princess Alexandra. The palace complex includes York House, the former home of the Prince of Wales and his sons, Princes William and Harry. Lancaster House, located next door, is used by HM Government for official receptions, and the nearby Clarence House, the former home of the Queen Mother, is now the residence of Charles, the Prince of Wales. The gloomy black residences Numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street, homes of the PM Margaret Thatcher and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. When I was here in 1973, you could walk up to the front door. Number 10 is approximately 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km) from Buckingham Palace and near the Palace of Westminster, the meeting place of both Houses of Parliament. This is what Downing Street looks like in 2022. 1988 seems like the good old days now.
Whitehall is lined with Government offices. Entrance to the Horse Guards Parade ground I travel by foot to the West End, Chess is playing at the Prince Edward Theatre. They cater for all tastes here. Clearly, I'm in a part of London called Soho. Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. It was originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy and it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was developed from farmland by Henry VIII in 1536, when it became a royal park.
The famous Telecom (now BT) Tower. The BT Tower is a grade II listed communications tower located in Fitzrovia, London. It has been previously known as the GPO Tower, the Post Office Tower, and the British Telecom Tower. The main structure is 177 metres with a further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to 189 metres. Upon completion in 1964, it overtook the Millbank Tower to become the tallest structure in London until 1980, when it in turn was overtaken by the NatWest Tower. Monday March 21, 1988   I give my presentation to the people at NCR in London. That night, I meet up with old friends Bob Gray and Roy Sherratt. I did the Century 101 training in Dayton with Roy in 1973. I also stayed with him in Brighton on my first trip to England in 1973 I have a couple of funny stories to relate about Roy. 1. At his home in Brighton in 1973, his daughter Wendy is playing the piano. Roy asks me, "Can you play the piano?" Wendy immediately replies, "Of course he can't. He's Orstralian." 2. During training in Dayton, Roy tells me that our instructor, Mike, is worried about our poor relationship. We go immediately to Mike and assure him, "We only insult each other because we like each other." "If we had a problem, we'd just ignore each other." Mike never understands this. Roy remarried since I last saw him. This is his bride Pamela, she's Scottish and quite lovely.
We go to a Chineses restaurant and I convince everyone to eat their meals with chopsticks. We make a mess and have a great time. Wednesday March 23, 1988 I fly to Hanover in Germany for the NCR announcement of SESD's newest product: new dual processor hardware and updated operating system (ITX) that can use Microsoft Windows and a PC as an interface. 32 bit processor. Woohoo! It is NCR's own proprietary chip set. I don't remember if it is a sales success.
One thing that stands out though is an exhibit by the Graphics Group that has a bouncing desk lamp that later becomes the signature of Pixar. Pixar began in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer division, known as the Graphics Group, before its spin-off as a corporation in 1986, with funding from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder . At this time in history of computers, commercial computers are "Data Processors", not "Graphics Computers". We are all gobsmacked. In 1986, Digital is big in an area called "mini-computers" - the same as the NCR ITX systems. Both are defunct now but Oracle is bigger than ever. This stack of painted pallets is in the art section. This is the NCR stand in Hanover's CeBIT. The CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo until 2018. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of current trends and a measure of the state of the art in information technology.
CeBIT: Centrum für Büroautomation, Informationstechnologie und Telekommunikation, which translates as "Center for Office Automation, Information Technology and Telecommunication". I tarted up and wore me suit to look the part. Wednesday March 23,1988   Public transport in Hanover. Hanover is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its ~500,000 inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the third-largest city in Northern Germany after Hamburg and Bremen.
Deutsche Bahn train station in Hanover. The tower behind is the Deutsche Bundespost Tower that began operations in April 1960. In 2000, Volkswagen AG acquired the tower for a symbolic price. The purchase was made because the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWN) division is based in Hanover and, with around 15,000 employees, it is one of the largest employers in the region. Nowadays this is called the VW Tower. I meet Fred Lincke in Hanover and he accompanies me to NCR Augsburg, the final stop on my European tour. I'd met Fred earlier this year when he visited NCR SESD in San Diego with a group of international managers. For 650kms from Hanover to Augsburg, the countryside is flooded. This is a very enjoyable experience. The train travels at 160 kmh and is very smooth and quiet. We have brunch in the dining car.
1988 Early1988 0124 a 1988 Early1988 0125 a Inside the train. This is an Opel Senator, similar to the Australian Commodore of 1986.
Friday March 25, 1988 I conduct my seminar on Thursday, tour the production facilities in NCR Augsburg and wander around looking for a gift for my much adored wife. NCR Augsburg produces the PC910, an Intel based 286 Personal Computer. I believe Taiwan killed the PC industry for American Computer manufacturers because the PC910 never sold well being overpriced in comparison. Downtown Augsburg. How nice are these pedestrian plazas? NCR Augsburg is still alive in 2022; it focuses on software and does not manufacture hardware any more. The Basilica of SS. Ulrich and Afra, a gothic Catholic church, is in the distance on Maximilianstrasse. Somewhere in here, I buy a plate featuring Gustav Klimpt's "The Kiss." What I find weird is that shops shut at 18:00 and only open for a few hours on Saturday mornings. So, I'm rushing to buy.
The Town Hall and Clock Tower in Maximilianstrasse, Augsburg. Saturday March 26, 1988 Fred meets me and we do a quick tour of the Augsburg Cathedral The Cathedral of Augsburg is a Roman Catholic church founded in the 11th century in Romanesque style, but with 14th-century Gothic additions. Together with the Basilica of St. Ulrich and Afra, it is one of the city's main attractions. It measures 113 x 40 m, and its towers are 62 m high. The current structure was constructed by Bishop Henry III in 1043 and took 22 years to build. The towers took a further 10 years to complete. Over the years, many additions and modifications were made to the church in different contrasting styles, giving the building its unique character.
Most of the stained glass was destroyed during WWII but this one survived. The cathedral is known for its incredible stained glass windows and worth a visit for that alone. It offers an unusual mix of 1920s art nouveau stained glass windows, alongside gothic ornamentation. The most famous windows, located in the northern end of the nave, were designed by painter Alfons Mucha, a Bohemian and Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, Outside of the Cathedral. Behind me in the courtyard are some Roman ruins which I do not see at the time. These buildings are to the rear of the cathedral and form a part of it. The Bishop's residence is probably here somewhere. The very impressive Augsburg Town Hall (Rathaus). The Town Hall is the administrative centre of Augsburg and one of the most significant secular buildings of the Renaissance style north of the Alps. It was designed and built by Elias Holl in 1615–1624. Due to its historic and cultural importance, it is protected by the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. To me, this classification identifies suitable targets for extremists.
Augsburg Town Hall, the ceiling restoration has recently been completed. During the devastating British bombing of Augsburg in World War II, the Rathaus was hit a number of times by high explosive and incendiary bombs, completely burning the exterior of the building. The Rathaus was rebuilt after the war, the exterior according to its historic appearance but the interior much simplified, and from 1955 was again used as the administrative centre of the city. Between 1980 and 1984, the façade of the building was restored to its original colours, according to historical records. What had been damaged in the Golden Hall during the war was restored to its original splendour, and on 9 January 1985, the Rathaus was reopened as part of the city's two-thousandth anniversary celebrations. The 70-metre-tall Perlachturm is a belltower in front of the church of St. Peter am Perlach in the central district of Augsburg. It originated as a watchtower in the 10th century. The existing Renaissance structure was built in the 1610s by Elias Holl, who also designed the neighbouring Town Hall.
To the south of the Basilica, Fred takes me to an early Roman wall that surrounds the old part of Augsburg. This is the entry gate to the city. This part of the wall is called Aqueduct at the Red Gate. On the left side, behind the aqueduct, is an amphitheatre where rock and music concerts are held. Fred and I head south. On the way we stop at a neat little town called Landsberg am Lech (Landsberg on Lech River) I've never seen anything like this before; it's like a scene from a Disney fairy story except that this is real
The church in Landsberg. Approaching the Bavarian Alps. Fortunately the weather improves. I never see snow in Australia and this looks like magic to me. Here we are, Neuschwanstein Castle (pronounced noy-svan-stine)
From this angle, Neuschswanstein looks alone in the mountains. This is the Hohenschwangau residence of the Bavarian monarchs. It was built in the 19th-century and was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It was built by his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria. The sky clears a little. I made a full description of this castle in our 2009 visit.
It would be too much to repeat all of that here. Click here to detour. or continue as you were. The exterior is finished but the interior is not. Apart from the Throne Room, the Hall of the Singers and a few other bits and pieces, the interior is unfinished. The Throne Hall. I'm lucky to get these pictures. Nowadays, photography is banned in all German Museums. Apparently, photographers were completely indifferent to others around them, set up tripods, ordered people to get out of their picture and so forth. The Study Room. Shame that the technology of the time was so awful. The 35mm film was OK but the prints lacked detail.
Entering the Hall of the Singers. Hall of the Singers Hall of the Singers Queen Mary's Bridge with Tegelberg behind it (berg=mountain)
Disney used this building for ideas about Sleeping Beauty's Castle in Disneyland. Forgensee to the north 1988 Early1988 0166 a Alpsee (L) and Schwansee (R) to the SW of Neuschwanstein still in Germany. The Austrian Alps are in the background.
View of Hohenschwangau from Neuschswanstein. The Schwansee behind it is frozen over. The Austrian Alps From a postcard The quaint little village of Schwangau sits below both castles.
I got the red jacket from Nordstrom Rack (the discount area) so that people whom I'd never met before could identify me. View of the castle from Queen Mary's Bridge. The bridge is about 15 minutes walk from the castle and is named after Queen Marie of Bavaria, the mother of King Ludwig II. King Ludwig II was the Bavarian king who built the castle; he purportedly bankrupted Bavaria in the process. I take the next series of pictures from Queen Mary's Bridge. Forgensee (the lake) can be seen to the north-west.
The rear end of Neuschswanstein. This is probably the Alpsee, still in Germany, to the west. Possibly the Pöllat River. We leave Neuschwanstein and head east through the Bavarian countryside.
We go to a village called Oberammergau. I never learn why some houses in Bavaria have rocks on their roofs. Note the ornate decoration around the windows, especially at the front. It is a quaint, beautiful village nestled in the Ammergau Mountains behind it. Oberammergau is famous for the artwork on its buildings. Fred and I have coffee and Strudel in one of the Guest Houses.
A few years later, we visit Oberammergau with Bonnie and Dennis. After Oberammagau, Fred and I return to Augsburg. The next morning Sunday March 27,1988 I catch a train to Munich and fly back to San Diego where my love awaits me. End of this segment