Couldn't have done this 5 years ago...

Even 5 years ago, it would have been very difficult indeed to work out how to use the public buses in an unfamiliar city. But with the wonders of Google maps, it was really easy today. Just put in the starting point and destination and click on the bus symbol and "hey presto": an idiot's guide to crossing Baltimore. Perfect directions, except for the bus timetable, which turned out to be precise but not accurate.

The final walk was a bit more of a challenge. Who would have guessed that to get to the Armstrong Institute of Patient Safety, you have to go into Miss Shirley's Cafe? I was aiming for number 750. I realised I'd gone wrong when I passed 830 and the next building was 834. With the wonderful order of numbers, this meant I had over-shot. Doh! Time to retrace steps...

I've had an interesting day. No life-changing insights, but promising early discussions. The Institute is a wonderfully welcoming place, with an interdisciplinary mix of people... and some very comfortable sofas and excellent views over the harbour.

Baltimore: first impressions

Journey: long but uneventful. It still surprises me that a major international airport like Dulles can be devoid of pubic transport links, but a shared van to Washington Union Station worked fine (even if the windows were steamed up so that I think we went past the White House, but I'm not really sure).

It was difficult to locate the ticket sellers for the MARC trains since everything was labelled Amtrak. Eventually I found a machine that was labelled as selling MARC tickets, but when I requested a single to Baltimore the list it returned was only of (expensive) Amtrak tickets, and it didn't actually seem to offer the cheaper MARC ones. So I resorted to asking a human being, even though the sign above her indicated that she only sold Acela Express tickets. And that worked fine. So there's some strange disconnect that I don't pretend to understand between tickets ostensibly sold and tickets actually sold. And people still work better than machines.

The MARC train was very crowded – more like a rattly old bus on tracks than a train as I would recognise one. And their attitude to safety was relaxed: for about half the journey between Washington and Baltimore, one of the train doors was open. When an official passed and noticed it, he raised an eyebrow, shrugged, and pulled it closed. No big deal.

When planning a journey, it is (for me, at least) natural to start with the big steps then consider the smaller ones after. I had assumed that it would be really easy to get from Dulles to the place I'm staying in Baltimore. It would have been if I'd hired a car or a taxi, but public transport was a three stage, three hour transfer. And the place I'm staying is really close to Johns Hopkins University... but not so close to the Armstrong Institute, which is where I'm actually working this week. So today's adventure is going to be working out the local bus network.

Plan for my US trip (overview)

I'm looking forward to a month in the USA and Canada, finding out more about developments in the safety of interactive medical devices (funded by the Royal Society and linked to our CHI+MED project). Here's the basic itinerary (though travel will be by air, not road...):

26th Feb: arrive Baltimore
27th Feb - 1st March @ JHU (working with Ayse Gurses, Ant Ozok and others)
   1st March: Informatics Grand Rounds talk

3rd March: travel to Boston
4th - 5th March with David Bates, Kumiko Ohashi & colleagues
   5th March: presentation at Brigham & Women's Hospital
   5th March: meeting with Helena Mentis (Harvard Medical School)

6th March: travel to Chicago
7th - 8th March visiting Baxter Healthcare (Pat Baird and colleagues)

9th March: travel to Baltimore
11th-13th @ HFES healthcare symposium and AI Grand Rounds
14th - 15th @ JHU

16th March: travel to Toronto
18th - 19th with various healthcare technology groups (Joe Cafazzo, Tony Easty, Svetlena Taneva, Patricia Trbovich & colleagues)

20th March: travel to Baltimore (again!)
21st - 22nd @ JHU

22nd March: leave for London (evening)

I realise this is a crazy itinerary, but I'm counting on adrenalin, interest, and lots of engaging interactions to see me through!
More details of each event in due course...