The last week in Ulm...?

After one week in France, ‘twas time to head to Ulm again for a week of hard work, and perhaps a bit of fun too (not so much fun, as it turned out!).

The fun started with the Nokia summer party, which strangely enough took place on a Monday evening. I was quite happy to find out it was taking place at one of my favourite places in Ulm, Barfusser. However, not to the one I normally go to – this one was located in the middle of a big part in Neu-Ulm (a more modern town than Ulm, located on the Bavarian side of the Danube river) – rather well hidden I must say (the taxi driver, who’s been driving taxi for 10 years, didn’t even know it!). Anyway, no matter, we found it, and got down to essentials (chatting away, drinking beer and eating loads of “hearty, healthy, German food”).

It was rather good fun – all the team was there. And I also ran into Sami, who was on rather excellent beer-drinking form. And for once, the weather was also good – until it started pouring down seriously! After the party finished, we made our way into the time center for some more fun. All in all, a rather excellent night out!

On Tuesday, things were a bit quiet in the office, I suppose a few people were suffering from hangovers and the like. We naturally worked very hard indeed! We didn’t really feel like a big night out after Monday’s summer party, so I just headed out for a quiet dinner with Sakari and David to Zur Lochmühle, a rather nice and cozy Swabian restaurant me and Sakari had discovered during our last visit to Ulm, in the Fischerviertel (the historic fisher’s and tanner’s quarter of Ulm).

On Wednesday, we took it quite easily again, I went for dinner with David to my favorite Italian restaurant in Ulm (Da Franco) – well, actually, it’s the only Italian restaurant in Ulm I’ve been to. But it’s a really excellent and actually rather authentic place (all the waiters speak Italian). After the meal, I decided to check out the Germany-Netherlands football game on the main square. Quite a good atmosphere there, and the beer flowed freely (especially after the final whistle – Germany won 2-1). The downside of the German win was that it meant less sleep for me (my hotel is facing the main square, so I now had to contend with not only the Ulm Munster clocks ringing every 15 minutes, but also the football fans going crazy)

The next day, the big news came… We all knew something bad was going to happen, since everybody had been called up for a “strategy sharing” meeting at 9 in the morning – that’s never good news. But we were hoping it wouldn’t be as bad as it turned out to be – basically our project was cancelled, and with it, the Ulm site closure was announced. There was a rather stunned silence for a while, and then came the questions (some reasonable, others less so…).

After we all spent a couple of hours on-site to absorb the news, we decided to go to Barfusser to continue absorbing the news. Which we did for the rest of the day… Whilst drinking quite a few beers. For me it was quite emotional, since I suppose it was the last time I was seeing my colleagues (I was leaving Ulm the next day). But, at the end of the day, we all knew what we were getting into was very risky, and today we paid the price. At least I was glad to be in Ulm when this happened. And kind of appropriate to have the last night out at Barfusser as well ;).

The next day, I woke up with a surprisingly mild headache. I had a train to catch to Basel (where I was spending the weekend) at around noon. I didn’t really fancy going to the office after the previous days’ news, so I decided to have one last walk around Ulm instead. I guess the likelihood is quite big I will never come back, and I do like this town a lot. So I spent a couple of hours in the morning strolling around aimlessly. Took the opportunity to visit Ulm Munster properly, walked along the Danube, walked around Fischerviertel. And then it was time to board my train, and say my goodbyes to Ulm.

If any of my Ulm colleagues happen to read this blog – thanks guys for a brilliant year, and see you around ;-)