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Jan 20

Back To Normal

My trip to Germany concluded yesterday and I’m once again comfortably back in HMB. Other than the usual issues accompanying a long international flight, the journey home was “without incident” – which is to say my mostly uneventful.

Awaiting my connecting flight in Fankfurt

Once I arrived back to HMB, my first order of business was to make a visit to the auto collision repair shop and grab my truck. A few weeks ago I had a little incident which necessitated some repairs and I had been putting off that work to coincide with my travels since I would be away. The repairs were completed wonderfully, and the guys at the shop even washed my truck sparkly clean … which was nice of the given the $2,200 bill.

Repaired and once again looking good

Following a 12-hour night of sleep, this morning I took Lilly for a walk and noticed that someone did a bit of vandalism to the RV park signage. An online search will quickly reveal that the managers of our RV park are a surly crew – certainly not perceived to be a friendly bunch. The feedback is fair for sure, but the employees here (a family run place) have begun to warm-up to Kelly and me and we’ve not had any real issues to complain about.

Apparently however, others feel differently.

Park signage tagged with paint

True to form, I later saw the park manager who was definitely pissed-off about the vandalism.

Personally, I got pretty good laugh out of the incident.

Jan 17

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Authentically German

This week I’ve been spending a lot of time with one team in particular. Tonight, 12 of us went to dinner at Rheinische Republik, which I was told, is a real (ie – commoner) German restaurant … the type any visitor must make time for during a visit Hamburg.

Places like this are not only about the food – I took away much more than that tonight. The celebration, endlessly flowing beer, and old world charm, all combined to create a great atmosphere.

Of course it was a given that I would have the Schnitzel, my only real decision being what variety. The menu is strictly German language and as a joke, I was not offered guidance with menu translation. Purposely, my colleagues left me on my own to order, laughing jovially at my futile efforts to decipher and navigate the menu.

Veal Schnitzel

As it turns out, I ordered veal and it was quite good. Not as good as my meal last night, but I definitely appreciate and understand the rationale underlying their suggestion for dining here. I had a wonderful evening, but drank way too much Kölsch.

As I type this post, it’s nearly 11:30pm local time and I am a bit buzzed at the moment. Hopefully, my boss and company CEO will not notice my ‘comfortably numb’ state when I dial into a conference call a few minutes from now.

Jan 16

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Cats & Dogs

This evening I had a fantastic Austrian dinner at Tschebull near the city center. Apparently, this trendy restaurant is all the rave. I must say I now understand the hype, as everything was fantastic – the atmosphere, the presentation, the drinks, and most importantly … the food. It was just perfect, especially since someone else picked-up the tab.

Yes, just perfect.

Afterwards, I decided to walk back to my hotel. Winter is in the air here in Hamburg and the nighttime temperatures are brisk … very cool, but not quite cold. Conditions this evening just felt optimal for walking and I figured the 30-40 minute saunter back to my hotel would afford me an opportunity to observe more of this wonderful city.

Lucky for me I was walking – if not I may have missed the display below. I snapped the picture through a window which takes away from the image clarity a bit.

No matter, this is still very funny to me and I had a wonderful walk.

Jan 15

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Random Hamburg

I snapped a few pictures during my walk into the office this morning. Later, a colleague of mine brought me over to the town square for lunch, a section of Hamburg that is vibrant and full of energy. I’m definitely going back to the area tomorrow during daylight hours to shoot more pictures.