This was no typical work trip though, the reason we were going was to celebrate the 10th Anniversay of BBC then take part in the festivities of the Gallimarkt festival in Leer, Germany. The country proud of their beer-drinking sure did not disappoint!
After flying 13 hours from Singapore, we landed in Frankfurt, Germany. By luck, we had Guenther and Tine on our same flight. I'm going off-track for a second...Guenther and Tine both work for BBC, the company Rob worked for in Houston. We have known them for years, oddly enough...never expecting we would also live in the same city with them half way around the world! They came to Singapore about a month before I did and have been good friends ever since. Guenther is German and Tine is Danish - we left them with plenty of tips in mind and set off to explore...
We lucked out and got a Mercedes as our rental car! It had a GPS...which was of no help to us when we realized it was in German!
After driving lost around Frankfurt for 40 minutes, we finally got on the correct road to Hamburg. You can imagine the typical husband/wife banter when lost in a non-english-speaking foreign country. We finally got on the right track, then stopped for breakfast and my wonderful husband was able to change our GPS to English!!!
I am told that the drive from Frankfurt to Hamburg is only 4 and 1/2 hours...well, we made it in 7. Mostly because we took a few breaks, ate twice and enjoyed the countryside. Our GPS led us right to the front step of our hotel in city center of Hamburg. We named her "Frau Cedes" and thanked her for saving our marriage! :D
Hamburg was awesome! It's such a beautiful city that doesn't even feel like a city. The buildings are old and unique and rivers slice throughout the city. We lucked out with perfect sunny weather in the 50-60's. After running for an hour the first morning, I don't think Rob and I were even sweating.
One story to add here...we sought out the red-light district in Hamburg. It's just as you would expect...dirty, grungy and all types of people walking around. We stopped for an outside drink to "people-watch". We saw guys stumbling around, a punk-dude puked right in front of us and another guy stop and point and say something to me...not sure what he was saying since it was German but I am going to pretend it was something nice. This is at 3 in the afternoon!
Keep in mind...it's not all crazy...there were plenty of regular folks walking around too and a few baby strollers. So don't let your imaginations run too wild. Normal life takes place here too, next to the XXX shops were grocery stores and cafes. In fact, we saw one guy taking his invalid wife/gf(?) to the grocery store, it was sweet until we saw them come back by only to see her holding a case of beer on her lap. I guess they only needed the essentials and he was making use of her situation.
Moving on...the city was absolutely gorgeous and most major European cities seem have a red-light district. Heck, even Singapore has a red-light district! I would go back to Hamburg any day and suggest the same to anyone that travels Germany.
On to another city I enjoyed...we drove 3 and 1/2 hours to Copenhagen where Rob's "work" began. The first night we met up with Rob's colleagues for a traditional Danish evening. We started out first to the Absolut Vodka Ice Bar (well, this part's not traditional). The entire Bar is made of ice!!! The chairs, the bar, the cups, the walls...EVERYTHING. It's the coldest temp I have ever experienced in my life and the novelty wore off after about 10 minutes when my hands were aching! It was -23 degrees F!!! Holy Schnikees!!! Here is a pic before, they provided us with coats/gloves:
This is one of the APC Danish guys...a pic just to show you the inside of the bar and the ice walls.
We later moved on to having pork, potatoes and Aquavit, traditional Danish schnapps. Are you seeing a theme here?? Rob and I have been on a health kick for the last 6 months...we were not used to this!
While Rob worked the next day, I walked around and explored the city and snapped pics.
After that, we headed another 5 and 1/2 hours on the autobahn to Leer, Germany...headquarters of BBC. The first night we attended the anniversary party and it was so much fun. I got to see people from the Houston office I knew so it was nice to meet up with familiar faces.
The next night was the Gallimarkt party...the whole city celebrates Gallimarkt. The city center is full of carnival games, carnival food and make-shift pubs. Leer was such a cute city and we went when it was lively and also great weather.
The last day - Rob and I had enough of sleep deprivation, too much jager and cognac (ughhh!), the cold weather and jetlag. Plus we still exercised I and think our systems got overwhelmed. Rob was sick the last day and I started getting sick on the plane ride home. As you probably know by now, it wouldn't be a trip if we didn't cause harm to ourselves in one way or another.
I am so happy we got the experience to go to Europe together. Everyone I met with the different offices and all the visitors that flew in were so nice and hospitable. Even some inviting us into their homes and showing us traditional things about their home country. We had a blast and feel very lucky to have gotten the chance to go together.
"Auf Wiedersehen!"
2 comments:
Sounds like another fun trip,and I didn't get to go,but glad you two did.A day early but "Happy B'day Trish."
It's not a day early on the Birthday which is great.Enjoy your day Trish,Love you both.
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