So it seems for work I end up in Germany allot. Most recently I have been to Berlin for a media event and Düsseldorf for some testing with an external partner.
The Berlin trip was first and it started with my team lead asking if anyone in our team had a driving licence, well I did and said I quite enjoy driving and have recently been driving as well so not a problem for me. The next week this found me having to pick up a few things from the office and a colleague, catch the train to Eindhoven and pick up a car from our office there. Then we started the 6.5hr drive to Berlin! Only it wasn’t so short, unfortunately. A part of a 3 lane autobahn was shut and the only way to avoid the closed road was everyone getting off and going through 1 small town. It was a nightmare, even with a TomTom trying to help us out there was just no way to avoid that many people with out going so far round that it took longer than just sitting there in SO much traffic. So anyway about 8-8.5hrs later we arrived at our hotel. The next day was spent in the Berlin office apart from taking the car out to clean it ourselves as no one had though a head that that needed to be arranged. Then in the evening there was a dinner on a boat that took us all around Berlin’s canal system (that I had no idea existed) which was pretty good fun, and there was free wine which made it even better! Then in the morning, quick visit to the office to pick a few things up then the long drive back (at least no major roads were closed in that direction. It was a long 3 days, but was ok, although I will not be doing such along car journey as the only driver in one day for a long while if every!
The next trip was much less eventful, Düsseldorf, just a 2 and a bit hours train trip, then into the test centre of the company I was visiting, only to find they had not actually set up the testing yet. So we waited for them to set up, then of course the first test failed (as you would expect setting something up for the first time) so we called it lunch! Then back in the afternoon to find yet more problems, as it wasn’t going so well we headed off to the hotel, then a nice walk along the river front and some dinner and a few beers in the bar that some locals had taken me to on my last trip. They have their own regional beer, Altbier, which was pretty good, although you couldn’t drink too much of it, probably for the best anyway. The next day was much more productive with some tests actually working! Hurrah! So we bashed through what needed to be done, finishing early. Another wander around the town and getting rained on allot ended the trip, then the lovely train again (I may have had a little snooze) arriving back in Amsterdam for about 21:00, meeting up with some French friends for some beers in an Irish bar until the wee hours of the morning, not a bad end to the week I think.
