Today we went for a walk into the centre of the city (only about 10 minutes from our apartment) and walked through the city gardens. It was 25 degrees today, so beautiful summer weather. Check out some of the pics I took of the gardens that include fountains and a huge childrens playground in the heart of the city.
This week I spent 3 days in Scandinavia visiting Copenhagen in Denmark, Oslo in Norway and Stockholm in Sweden. I went with Mike Van Der Logt to visit our business partners in that region. It was a quick trip so we didn't have much time for sight seeing, but we did see the two amazing Opera House buildings in Copenhagen and Oslo. Meantime, Julie and Gabby spent the week with Mike Van Der Logts family at the beach in Den Haag Holland.
Tonight (Saturday night) Julie, Gab & I drove 30kms to a pretty lake district in the North East part of Luxembourg to witness a World Ballooning Championship event. It was quite graceful really, watching them appear over the horizon and slowly make their way to the finish line.
Gab & I got took some good photos and video of the event (which of course had commentary in French and German).
Mat stayed for 2 days and we visited a war museum and the Casemates (which are the underground tunnels created centuries ago as part of the fortification of the city).
Here's our new Luxembourg kitchen. The oven and cooktop are electric as there is no gas in the building at all. The heating is oil and water. I know this because the owner dropped in tonight whilst I was there. That was handy as he was also able to show me where the car parks are.
The apartment looks great. They have done a good job of the renovations and it's a lot lighter with the new paint job and new wall paper. It does need a good clean however as the workers have been walking around in dirty boots and it seems I'll spend the weekend cleaning it. There are only a few lights so I have a lot of work to do fitting 12 light fittings.
Tonight I enjoyed one of my favourite musical journeys all over again. Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds album is now 30 years old, and I was fortunate enough to see the first live on stage tour in 2007 in Melbourne. Tonight I was able to relive it all again in Germany.
Tonight was the last show of the 2009 tour. It was in Oberhausen (about a 40 minute drive from Willich). The show was great, a little different to the 2007 tour, but still fantastic. Unfortunately the venue was only half full, so not sure if they didn't promote it well enough, or it just wasn't a big selling album in Germany, but the promoter would've been disappointed with the crowd.
This week I was back in France for 2 days. In Nantes, meeting our new distribution partner. It was a long trip (6 hours from our German office in Willich) to the office in Nantes, planes, trains, buses and automobiles.
It was the most tiring trip I've done so far. Enjoyable, but tiring. I took this pic from the Air France plane as it left Dusseldorf airport.
Summer has arrived here in Europe. It' quite humid and muggy. Not hot, mid 20's usually in Germany, (although it was 30 degrees in France this week). Yesterday (Saturday) it poured rain in the afternoon, huge thumderstorm and I got drowned. I went shopping in Dusseldorf and didn't quite get back to the car before it hammered down…
Above, I have added four of my favourite music videos from my You Tube collection. The songs are from Neil Finn, Natalie Imbriglia, Tears For Fears and Augie March. The Neil Finn track is another great Finn melody. He is a fantastic songwriter and this clip shows his talent live. Tears for Fears live video is Woman in Chains with Oleta Adams amazing vocals. The Augie March track is also a catchy melody and is a funny / quirky video clip. Enjoy.
On Thursday (June 18th), I was back in London joining our CEO for a meeting with a potential new business partner. I stayed at a furnished apartment in Mayfair for a reasonable price of £109-.
Just a short walk down Piccadilly and I was in the heart of the city at Piccadilly Circus and the statue of Eros. I had dinner at a nice traditional pub in town on Thursday night and was back in Germany late on Friday night
(Yes, I wish I was on the Corona bus too)…
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