The sad tale of Lake Intel related

GATHER AROUND children, and I will tell you the sad sad tale of Lake Intel. It is a beautiful Vista, pun intended, on the southern tip of Hall 2 in Hanover, and has all the amenities you would like from a German vacation spot.

It all started when Intel got two booths for CeBIT, one in Hall 23, another in Hall 2 between AMD/Logitech and a bunch of smaller guys. Intel pulled out of Hall 2 a long time ago, and both AMD and Intel decided to see if they could expand their booths.

The Messe said no, it was valuable, space was at a premium, and they had folk lined up for the area. In a shock to no one, they had no one lined up, and it looks like it was a case of greed that backfired. You take a risk, you get slapped every once in a while.

So, what happened to it? They turned it into a lakeside cafe, beach, massage spot and tourist information. There was a golf course across the way from the beach too. Really. They built a #*&# ing lake in the middle of the show.

You can see the people in the rows of massage chairs in the foreground, one of the two famous German white sand beaches behind them, and the cafe on the floating dock. To the left, there are stands where people are passing out fliers for German tourist destinations, and you can see some of the golf course behind the cafe.

The word surreal doesn't really begin to describe this, it was just odd. In case you hear rumors of several AMD personnel and a journalist or three having a 'terrorist' plot involving skinny dipping in Lake Intel foiled by the security guard with the thick glasses, it isn't true. At all. Honest.

So, in the end, you had a tourist resort and no Intel booth in Hall 2. You had swarms of blue haired Intel women passing out literature but none by the lake. That was quite a missed opportunity.µ