Europe Trip: Dortmund

Fall storm "Xavier" caused on Thursday afternoon total chaos in Northern Germany, including the capital city. The wind speeds were up to a 100 kmh, which caused lots of trees falling on to roads, power lines, killing 7 people and the shut down of major public transportation systems. I barely landed from my trip in Helsinki and made it home safely before the storm shut down the entire public transportation system in Berlin. This is what rush hour looked like on almost every train station:

So on Monday afternoon, the trains were still delayed and after spending an hour at the customer service desk, I was still able to make it to Dortmund that night. It was important that I get there as my co-workers and I had to set-up our booth and attend a work shop for the next three days at a trade fair there. This trade show was much smaller than expected; however, our company was one of the presenters and the people who did attend where very interested in learning about reliability. Also, there were people from all over the globe in attendance, ranging from Australia, India, America to Africa and Europe. One of the workshops was very interesting as it talked about Errorism and how error can be good.

After a successful first day, James, Brittany and I ventured to downtown Dortmund for a bite to eat. 

The next day, more work shops and presentations:

On Wednesday night, the fair hosted a participants dinner and quiz show. While we all were tired, it was a very fun evening. The food was good and with our Jack Daniels bottle, we were the most popular and loudest table.

Our Australian and Belgium friends

Despite our good moods, we even won 2nd place: a bottle of wine. The joke is that we each carried multiple bottles of Jack Daniels with us to Europe to give to our customers and for the trade show but we didn't expect that we would end up winning more alcohol. We were relieved when we were able to unload all the liquor from our luggage. 

The next day, the trade show finished at noon and by 2pm, I was sitting in the train back to Berlin. While the business trip was very interesting and I learned something new, after three weeks I was also exhausted. I definitely was looking forward to spending our last day in Germany with my family before we had to say our goodbyes.

Family Weekend

On Friday afternoon, the children and I went to spend the night with my brother and his family. We have done that during our summer vacation last year and it was so much fun that we did it again. Both Amelia and Elliot love spending time with their cousins and playing with their toys while the adults chat. 

My big brother also serves as part-time splinter remover:

After a good night's sleep and a filling breakfast, my Sister-in-law, Yvonne, suggested that we put together some chestnut figurines. This brought back so many childhood memories...when I was little, we collected chestnuts every fall and then created with them animals or other figurines. I really enjoyed doing these figurines again and my children loved them too. Now, I need to plant a chestnut tree in our backyard.

In the afternoon, my Mom and Juergen had invited all their children with family for a late birthday celebration. It is very rare to get all of us together and the only one missing was Derrick. But all the 5 children and 9 grandchildren were there, totaling 21 people. 

 My mom, Juergen, my two brothers and their wives, myself and our 5 children:

 Every year, I try to take a picture of me and my brothers:

The gathering was very nice as we chatted with everyone, ate good food and the children enjoyed playing with each other.

Elliot and his godmother, Katharina:

Before my next business trip, I enjoyed spending some time on Monday morning with my mom, Amelia and Elliot. The fall weather was great and so we took the children on a walk thru the forest and to the playground.

We even found some mushrooms. Another childhood memory I now enjoy and my children loved too.

I love my Mom and I'm beyond happy that my job allowed me to see her twice this year. The time we had was very limited but it still meant so much to me.

Now, I'm off on another business trip: Dortmund here I come!

Europe Trip: Helsinki

My next business trip took me to Finland to visit one of our distributors there. It was a short trip and my co-worker, Brittany, and I were in Helsinki for less than 27 hours. 

Upon arrival at the airport we rented a car to drive the 2 hours to Turku to meet with the customer. The landscape in Finland was breathtaking and despite our limited time, we made a point to stop and take some pictures. Unfortunately, we did not see any Moose or Reindeer. 

We spent the night in Helsinki before flying out the next morning. We enjoyed a traditional Finnish dinner of Reindeer stew (it was ok but surely not my favorite - and no, I did not eat Rudolph) and then walked around town for a bit before calling it a night.

After a good breakfast, we decided to go and see downtown Helsinki before heading back to the airport. It was rainy and cool but that didn't bother us. The city of Helsinki and surrounding area is the most populated area in Finland. For my taste, downtown did not look much different than any other major European city and the countryside is so much prettier and vibrant than the city. 

I definitely would love to come back and spend more time in the Scandinavian countryside. Maybe during a family vacation in Europe in the next few years.

Friends and Family

While I was in Europe, I also had the chance to meet with my girls. Even though it was cheer coincidence that my best friends were in town at the same time, we arranged to meet for a couple of hour. Two hours are never long enough with these special friends but that was all I had in between driving back to my Mom's house, getting ready for a trip to Finland and working that day.  We might not see each other very often and our phone calls and texts are rather sporadic as everyone has a busy live of their own, but when we see each other it is so easy to just catch up were we left off. And this is what real friendship is made of. 

And our children love playing with each other:

That same day, we also saw my Bestie, Nadine, and her family. While time was also limited to only a couple of hours, we enjoyed catching up on things while the kids played. We even had time for a short walk in the breezy weather. 

While I had a brief business trip to Finland, the kids enjoyed having fun with Oma and Opa Juergen. They went to the playground, the swimming pool, visited friends and an indoor playground.

Only Oma lets you color eggs in October and reads you multiple good night stories every night:

On the weekend, my cousin had invited us to visit her horse. Amelia and Elliot were delighted as they love animals and riding a horse was a highlight of the trip. While the kids had fun with the horse, I enjoyed chatting with my cousin, Isabel, and her husband. And luckily, the rain had stopped and the sun came out, which made it a beautiful afternoon.

 Afterwards we stopped by to see my other cousin and Amelia's god mother, Julia, for a bit.

Time is always too limited to spent more than an hour or two with everyone but at least we got to see them at all. We enjoy visiting with everyone and looking already forward to the next time.