After our enjoyable Christmas market in Lux on Friday, we decided to drive the 40 minute trip over the border to Trier, Germany tonight (Sunday). The weather wasn't great, (it drizzled for most of the night), but we were able to check out all the market stalls selling xmas goodies and enjoy the festive atmosphere.
Tonight (Friday night), Julie and I met Gab and her school friend Paulina in the city to check out the Luxembourg Christmas market. Christmas markets are simply a good excuse to get together and drink warm Gluhwein, (mulled wine). It was a fun night but rather chilly at 3 degrees. The Lux xmas markets are small compared to the German Christmas markets so we plan to drive to Trier (probably tomorrow night) to check out how the Germans do it…
This week I was back in Willich Germany, from Wednesday for our year end sales meeting and finishing with our staff xmas party for 2009. It was held at a cooking school in Dusseldorf and turned out to be a fantastic night, one of the best parties I have attended. The staff were put into teams of 6 people and each team was responsible for one of the 5 courses. All courses were cooked simultaneously so there were 35 people in the huge kitchen all chopping & stirring and of course drinking. This process took well over an hour so by the time we were ready to eat the first course most people were rather "happy". Jesse kindly provided me the above pictures (unfortunately from his crappy iphone camera, sorry mate), but you can see how much fun everyone was having. It was a great night, and an excellent way to get everyone involved. For the record, my job was to stir the mousse for dessert, (even I couldn't get that too wrong).
This has been one of the busiest week in Europe since I arrived. Sunday I drove to Belgium for 2 days of dealer conference with our business partner, then on Thursday I flew to Italy to more meetings, this time with the dozen reps of our Italian business partner. I arrived home today (Saturday) around lunchtime, and feeling rather tired… I took the first photo of the fog on the 3 hour drive from Rome to Porto Recanati and I took the mountain photos today from the little Luxair plane as we flew over the swiss alps on the way home to Lux.
The day after the Saints disappointing Grand Final loss I was on a train to Nantes in France. It was a 5 1/2 hour train journey from Lux. 2 hours from Lux to Paris, then a metro train to change from Paris Est and then another TGV fast train from Paris to Nantes. Our distribution partner in France is a very professional company. It is well run by great people, and there were over 600 people at this trade show event. In attendance (from Sunday to Tuesday) from BEHRINGER was our French NAM Veronique, myself, and CEO Michael Deeb.
Typically, in the year I leave Australia, my football team makes the Grand Final. Well done to the Saints for getting there, now come on Saturday. I will be up at 6am on Saturday morning to watch the game live streaming over the internet. Let's hope we can win our first flag since 1966. Come on the Saints.
I would love to fly home for the game, but I must be in France on Sunday for a 2 day trade show. It's probably better I'm not at the game. They have been winning all year without me at the games, and if I turn up to watch the Final, I could be a bad luck charm… I will settle for watching on the internet. Tough to enjoy a beer at 6am though 🙂
I am now on a weeks holiday starting on Wednesday (Sep 9th) so Julie, Gabby and I drove to Brugge in Belgium, a drive of just under 3 hours from our place in Luxembourg. Brugge is sometimes referred to as the Venice of the North, with winding canals and lovely big squares in the centre of this old city. It is just magnificent and we really enjoyed our time there. It has multiple chocolate stores in every street and the smell of fresh waffles everywhere.
Brugge is a must visit for everyone coming to Europe. Click on my photos above to see large versions and I will add a video of us cruising down the canal when I finish editing it in the next few days. You can find more info on Brugge and some great panoramic photos at this wiki address: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruges
Last Thursday I drove back to Willich for a sales meeting with our complete team. We also had our summer party on Friday evening which Julie and Gabby attended with me. Here's a short video (taken by Gabby) from the early evening session with everyone looking very relaxed. (Sorry Jesse, it's posted on Vox) !!!
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