Last week’s work trip was yet another two day trip to Germany.
It all started with an early morning flight from London City to Düsseldorf, a fairly straight forward affair with no notable story to share.
After visiting two showrooms in the area and a brief sweat getting stuck in traffic during rush hour on the way back to the airport, I eventually made it back to Düsseldorf just in time to board my onward flight to Berlin for the night.
Doing more than one meeting a week isn’t new. The record here is seven in a week, if I remember rightly, however these were usually done as part of one big tour stretching several days. Going back and forth several times in one week – and actually travelling three countries within that one week – is a novelty… even for me. And not one I am eager to repeat anytime soon I hope.
Despite flying on a very regular basis, somehow I have never had the luxury of flying Club Europe. Well I did fly Club World last time from New York back to London.
But to be honest, I struggle to see the point of spending extra cash for the upgrade to Club Europe on a 1-2 hour short-haul flight within Europe (neither can I see my client voluntarily splashing out for it).
Last week’s travel was a rather lengthy one (being away for a total of six days), although not all (or actually almost none) of it work related.
The original plan was to go home just for the weekend to attend my school reunion (still struggle to get my head around the fact that it is 20 years since we graduated), however as plans changed, so did my travel itinerary. So instead my colleague and I flew out on Tuesday to attend the IAA (Internationale Automobil Ausstellung, aka Frankfurt Motor Show) the day after, courtesy of our German automotive client.
Well into my big batch of travels, last week saw me travelling to Sweden for a change. No, I don’t speak any Swedish (unless ‘Hej’ and ‘Tack’ counts as language knowledge), but luckily most Swedes speak really decent English, so communication isn’t too difficult.
Apart from a weekend in Stockholm many moons ago, I have never been to Sweden before I started working in my current job. In the past year I have had a few trips, however have not always had a chance to actually see anything. But what I have seen is very pretty and makes me want to go and see more of this country… so maybe a road trip at some point? We’ll see.
Everyone keeps telling me how beautiful Rome is. And I am not doubting this. But I can’t really comment on it. I have never been (yes I can’t quite believe I am saying that either)… well actually not true. I have been twice(ish).
I took a flight to and from Rome last year for a meeting nearby, however other than the airport and train station I have not seen a thing, so it does not count.
The other time I was just two years old… so again, probably not really worth counting…Since I can’t remember a thing (although some faded photos exist as proof).
As I already mentioned in last week’s post, I currently have a whole batch of weekly trips coming up. So it might not come as a huge surprise that this week started with another packed suitcase.
Compared to some of my other trips, this Monday morning did not start too bad. I had a relatively late flight (9.30 that is) from City Airport to Düsseldorf, so rather than getting a cab at the crack of dawn I opted for the train / DLR. Meaning I only had to get up around half an hour earlier than usual (as opposed to a 7 o’clock flight from Heathrow to Copenhagen next week that will see me get into a cab around 4am).
After weeks of hardly travelling, I am back to travelling hard with trips lined up every single week for the next six weeks (and counting). So to kick things off I had a trip to Germany, more specific Erfurt and Weimar.
Ever so often you find yourself in the right place at the right time. Such as last January. We had a 2 day trip to the vicinity of Hamburg and decided to take the opportunity visiting the newly opened Elbphilharmonie, which after years of delay finally opened three weeks prior.
So we booked ourselves into a hotel near the harbour, at the top end of the Reeperbahn. Within walking distance so to say.
The original plan was to walk along the harbour to the Elbphilharmonie, have a look around, see if we could get tickets for the viewing gallery and go for dinner afterwards. But what are plans, if not to change?
