Where in the World?

I started off my business travel week with a less than wonderful stay at the Holiday Inn near the Helsinki Airport. The room was small, but I can manage that. The problem was that the temperature was in the 80’s. It was quite warm and humid. I called reception to ask for an air conditioned room.

“All are occupied,” says the clerk. She asks, “Are you using the fan?”

“Yes, but it is only blowing the hot air around in the room,” I say with a big smile on my face. (I’m trying to keep my attitude up). I ask for a bigger fan. It takes 5 calls and 7 hours to finally get a new one.

Next, I open up the bathroom and I’m greeted with the smell of sewer. Oh my! Can you guess? All the rooms were booked. In fact all hotels in Helsinki were full. The final problem was that the internet and T.V. couldn’t work at the same time. Not enough plugs. I’m a multi-tasker so I can do both. This was a minor inconvenience. I was working on the more serious problem of how to take a shower without using the bathroom.

I leave Helsinki for Germany on Wednesday. There were a total of 2 1/2 hours of delays. Here they are in order of occurrence: weather related flow control in Munich, baggage stuck on the lift belt into the plane, baggage door stuck open on plane, flow control delay again, thunderstorms in Munich delay.

I arrive in the Munich airport. Everything is closed except for the Lufthansa Service Center. They will pay for a hotel room, dinner and breakfast. Fantastic! I’m thinking things are turning around. The agent then says, but we have a small problem. I’m amused at this point.

“What’s the issue?” I say.

“Well, there are no hotel rooms left in Munich. In fact the nearest one is a one hour taxi ride,” says the agent.

“I’ll take it,” I say. I calculate that I’ll get about 4 hours of sleep by the time I get to the hotel before having to wake up to ride back to the Munich airport.

I find a taxi outside. The driver was fantastic. He was very nice, very accommodating, and drove incredibly fast. It seems to be common here. Nearing the hotel I see that the area was really nice. I could just barely see a lake and some mountains. We turn into the hotel area and I’m astonished at what I’m looking at. The Seehotel Uberhafrt Tegernsee hotel was luxury at its finest. The service and room were on very high standards. This was quite the change from the Holiday Inn in Helsinki.

The overall moral here is simple. Keep your attitude up. Laugh at the situation. Go with the flow.

It was a great trip plus I got a good story out of it.

Michael

One of my favorite things to do is try different foods and go to new restaurants. It brings out the explorer/adventurer in me. Sometimes I will try new places without getting any recommendations. But really, it’s the joy of discovering new tastes and flavor combinations that I find quite appealing. The world we live in has an almost infinite variety of foods and food combinations to savor or sample. I have a long way to go before I experience all of them.

In the past I was quite rigid in my food preferences, but over the years as I have traveled extensively, my palette has expanded. I very rarely go somewhere that I can’t find something that I like or would like to try. It really is a sense of freedom to not have to stick to a particular food all the time.

Tonight’s dinner in Leipzig was at a very nice restaurant called Escados Steak House. It’s located on the southern end of the town center in the basement of the Deutsche Bank building. I highly recommend it. The food quality is excellent as is the service. The atmosphere is cozy and casual. I had some tapas dishes; shrimp, croquettes more shrimp in conjunction with a nice wine and garlic bread. Oh, did I mention I like shrimp or prawns. As I was with some colleagues from work, the evening was filled with some good stories and lots of laughter. Great combination; friends, good food, laughter, and drinks.

Michael

West of the Leipzig, Germany Marriott are three 10-story buildings that are abandoned and must have been for years. As you can see from the photos, they have been turned into a fine example of urban art.The artwork is on a type of canvas that is draped over all four sides of these buildings. Each building’s art cover is slightly different. There are literally hundreds of images on each and it would take quite some time to see them all. The photo on the left was the view from my hotel window. In the morning, the sunrise hits the building and all the colors come to life.

I don’t know what prompted the original decision to do this, but effectively it turned a potential urban eye-sore into a three block work of art. It’s a fantastic example of creative innovation and what a community committed to solving a problem can do.

The model that Leipzig has employed could be an inspiration for other cities trying to resolve similar challenges. The other amazing thing is that I couldn’t see any graffiti anywhere on these buildings. That’s a testament to the townspeople and their respect for this project.

Michael

I finally arrived home, 46 hours after leaving London Heathrow airport on Friday, March 16th. I wrote about the first part of that saga yesterday. At that time I had no idea how today would play out in this adventure I was wrapped up in. The snow fell thick and heavy during the night. There were two foot snow drifts up against my hotel window when I woke up this morning.

Since my return was so full of craziness and adventure, I’ve summed up the events below:

March 16th

• Woke up at 3:00 a.m. in London on March 16th.
• Travel to Heathrow. No traffic at 4:00 a.m. in the morning.
• Relatively easy check-in with Lufthansa.
• Arrived in Frankfurt around 8:30 a.m.
• The 747 developed a fuel leak before we board. Flight delay of 2 hours.
• Left Frankfurt around 12:30 p.m.
• Toddler began screaming right before take-off and continues to scream for almost 7 hours. The flight to Boston was 7 1/2 hours.
• 60 miles out from Boston, we started flying in a holding pattern due to the snow fall at Logan. Total time = 45 minutes.
• We began our approach to land and at 1800 feet elevation, the captain aborts the landing due to a low breaking coefficient on the runway (e.g. ice and snow).
• We circle north and west of Boston for 45 minutes. As we began the approach again, the captain got the call that Logan is closed.
• Toddler was still screaming.
• Someone made a decision to fly us to Bangor, Maine where we land around 6:00 p.m.
• We waited on the tarmac for about an hour. The plan was to fly back to Boston as soon as possible. Unfortunately the weather keeps Logan closed.
• Still sitting on the tarmac, we learned that the crew cannot fly anymore due to the fact that they have reached their flying limit for the day.
• We were told that a fresh crew will be flown up from Boston. The plan was to fly back to Boston in the evening.
• The captain informed us that the fresh crew cannot leave Boston because of the weather. 350 of us had already figured that out.
• The toddler screams some more.
• We exit the plane at 8:30 p.m. and sat in a holding area for one hour so that the one baggage worker can unload our 747 in the snow storm.
• At 9:30 we got through customs, grabbed our backs and fought each other (not really) to get on the bus to take us to the hotel.
• I walked in the snow about a block to a convenience store to grab snacks for dinner.
• Sleep overtook me at 11:30, some 24 hours since I woke up in London.

March 17th

• Leisure morning while on hold for 1 1/4 hours to find out when our plane will fly to Boston.
• ETA was 4:00 p.m.
• Got to the airport at 12:30 p.m. and checked in. New time for flight to Boston was 2:30. Excitement was in the air.
• Grabbed some lunch and stood in the security line for 30 minutes.
• We were now back in our holding area from last night where we got to wait until 2:35. Apparently a 2:30 take-off was optimistic.
• The toddler began screaming again
• Everyone rushed to get on the plane
• We sit for quite some time. Finally the captain gets on and tells us how the baggage handlers don’t have experience loading a 747 and are taking longer than usual.
• 3 (Three) hours later the last piece of luggage was loaded.
• Toddler screams for about 2 hours during this time.
• Next step was de-icing. The engines were shut off and the crew (2 people) began spraying the hot chemical on the wings.
• It took them 40 minutes to de-ice the plane because 1 of the 2 de-icing machines broke.
• The temperature continues to climb to sauna levels which puts everyone on edge and makes the toddler scream some more.
• Finally we take off and land about 7:00 p.m.
• Our luggage literally dribbles out of the carosel because of a jam.
• It took an hour for me to get my luggage. It was now 8:00 p.m.
• The toddler stopped crying.
• I drove home and arrived about 9:30 p.m.
• The entire adventure had taken 46 hours since I left London the previous day.

I would say that 98% of the time, I was quite calm and took everything in stride. It made the whole affair much easier to deal with. Several things fascinated me about this entire event. #1- The majority of the people were in really good spirits. They accepted the adventure and just went with the flow. #2 – As I mentioned yesterday, a wonderful camaraderie developed that “glued” everyone together. #3 – The flight attendants were fantastic. This could have been a really stressful occasion for them. #4 – Everyone tried to help each other either by talking or giving a hand with the luggage.

But most importantly, as we were waiting for our luggage, lots of people were talking to each other as new friendships had been formed. Business cards and contact information were being shared. People were actually saying what a great adventure they’d had. I’d never seen anything quite like it. I really enjoyed watching the interactions unfold. The people on this flight will be telling the stories of their adventure for quite some time.

It’s good to be home though.

Michael

Flying back from Frankfurt turned into quite an adventure. The first problem was that our 747 encountered a technical malfunction before take off. Translation – technical malfunction means jet fuel leaking out of the plane.

We waited two hours for another 747 from Los Angeles to land. Luggage and passengers were safely moved to the new plane. After a 7 ½ hour flight we neared Boston only to be told that there was snowy weather, so we flew in a holding pattern for 30 minutes while ground crews cleared the runway.

The pilot began the approach to land. Around 1800 foot elevation, the captain aborted the landing with the engines gunning hard. Quite an interesting experience! The captain put us in another holding pattern as the ground crews tried to clear the runway of snow and put down a chemical to increase the braking coefficient, which was too low on the first attempt.

After flying in circles for another 45 minutes, Boston airport officially shut down and we were directed to Bangor, Maine. The airport is small there except for the exceptionally long runway on the adjoining Air Force base. Several other flights were directed here as Boston was still closed. We were to wait on the plane until we could fly back to Boston.

Unfortunately, the flight crew was informed that they had reached their flying limit for a 24 hour period. So, the plan was for us to wait on the tarmac until they could fly a fresh crew up from Boston to pilot the 747. The new crew never arrived as Boston Logan Airport never re-opened.

We sat on the plane for another hour and then we were herded into a large waiting room in the Bangor Airport to wait for our luggage to be unloaded. That took 45 minutes. Next was a quick run through customs, then find our luggage and get on a bus to the Fairfield Inn. I had reserved a room three hours early. Overall I had been up for 25 hours and 5 minutes. It felt like 26 hours!

I kept my spirits up by laughing at the entire situation. It was a much better choice then what others were making, but generally most people on the flight were upbeat which was great. A kind of camaraderie happened since we were all sharing the saga, which is good since we felt like we had been packed into a can of sardines.

I’m in Leipzig, Germany today. One of the many things that makes me happy is to try the local food wherever I go. I’m continually fascinated by the seemingly infinite variety of choices, tastes, combinations and culture that comprise local cuisine.

Leipzig is average size city in eastern Germany. The people here are very nice and laid back. There are a large number of restaurants and shops in the city center area. I really love how most European cities are designed to support a large amount of walking. It’s quite different than the majority of U.S. cities where driving is the main mode of access.

After taking a walk, we stopped at Coffe Braum to try some of the local dishes. Each of us picked different entrees. I must say the starter of potato soup with sausage was excellent. The main course for each of us was quite tasty. The food had a lot of subtle flavors that combined quite well.

It’s important for our growth to continually try new things. See my post on teaching old dogs new tricks. You don’t have to go out of the country to do this. Go to a different area of the city you live in. Try a restaurant you haven’t tried before. It doesn’t really matter whether you end up liking it or not. The point is that you are stepping out of your daily routine, opening your perspective to new things and generating a little bit of adventure in your life.

Have a great day!

Michael