A few days in Germany

It's been a while since my last business trip, but this week, I was off to Germany. The plan was to visit clients in Stuttgart and Munich. Kind of nice to be back in Germany, it's been a while. Finding a hotel room turned out to be quite a challenge, due to the fact that there was a beer festival and a conference at the same time.


So I ended up in the not-so-glamorous Hotel Espenlaub. Let me put it like this, the only place cheaper available was a youth hostel. Anyway, I was expecting a bit more than what I got, considering I paid 130 Euros per night! The room was noisy (due to the non-existent noise isolation, and location next to one of the main thoroughfares in Stuttgart - I could hear the buses, trains, tramways and drunken beer-festival goers all through the night!), the bed was hard and creak, and I didn't have a private shower/toilet!

Oh well, I'm not one to complain about such details. We were, anyway, very busy working most of the time, so I spent very little time in the hotel room. I did get up one morning to visit Stuttgart for a bit with my camera. I started off by checking out the Altes Schloss, the old castle, dating back all the way to the 10th century. The castle in its current form dates back to the 16th century, when the dukes living there converted the castle into a renaissance castle. These dates, it's a museum.

From there, I headed off to the nearby imposing Schlossplatz (the Castle Square). It's the home of the new castle (Neues Schloss), which was built during the 18th century. A former parade ground, it was opened to the public in 1918, and much revamped after world war 2 (when this area, like most of downtown Stuttgart, was heavily damaged by Allied bombings).

All in all, a nice little walk, before heading into the office, in nearby Leonberg (a small town, which is heavily associated with the mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler). One evening, after a long day in the office, I did decide to head out again with my camera to do some nigh-time shots. After redoing a couple of shots of the old castle, I headed to nearby Schillerplatz (named after the famous poet and philosopher). It's a nice little historic square, with the principal buildings being the old castle, the main lutheran church in Stuttgart as well as the old chancellery. This is the spot where the yearly Christmas market also takes place.

I then redid quite a few photos at Schlossplatz, also checking out the new castle - built in baroque style. I must say, I rather prefer the old castle. I'm not a big fan of baroque, as a general rule. But the square on the whole is rather impressive. I also like the fountains in front of the castle, especially lit up as they are at night-time.

I finished my nocturnal walk by crossing the castle gardens, heading over to the city theatre and opera.

The next day it was time to head off to Munich, so we had to get up rather early in the morning. Unfortunately, our work schedule didn't allow us any time to visit Munich, as it was time to catch the plane in the evening. Maybe next time ;)

Oktoberfest again!

As some of your readers may have noted, I appreciate a pint or two of beer every now and then. So, since our good friend Sami is now living near Munich, I figured it would be the perfect timing to visit Sami during that Bavarian festival dedicated to this wonderful beverage.

Happy to find reasonably-priced Lufthansa tickets relatively last-minute, I hopped on the flight, and arrived in Munich after a relatively hassle-free trip. I then jumped on a train and headed off to where Sami lives, Rosenheim (which actually turned out to be an hours train journey from Munich, actually, towards Saltzburg. Happy to see Sami again, we chatted away into the night over a couple of beers in his nice flat (which I eventually in spite of my nearly non-existent sense of observation, realized he was sharing with a lady - mind you it did take rather a few non-too subtle hints from Sami for that to happen...).

The next day, we jumped on the train and headed into Munich, where we headed  straight away for Theresienwiese (the fairgrounds where the madness takes place). Dodging drunken Germans and foreigners (mostly the latter), we tried to get into one of the tents, but unfortunately failed miserably (and this was 9 in the morning!). But hey, no problem, we did find a nice table outside one of the tents, where we could commence the beer drinking ;-)

Since getting into a tent was basically mission impossible, we decided to head off to Englisher Garten instead, where some of my ex-colleagues form Ulm where hanging out. Quite a crowd had made their way down from Ulm: Scott, Mina, the mad Dane Jens, Meli, Vanessa, Emanuel, Steffi and Katrin. A nice mix of expats & locals, mostly all dressed in traditional Octoberfest wear though! Great to catch up with everybody again (hmm, thinking about it, the last time was pretty much exactly one year ago - at Octoberfest!).

After drinking far too much beer, we stumbled along to Steffi's flat, which was conveniently located in the centre of Munich, where we hanged out for a while, after which we found a nice little late-night bar where we continued. Me and Sami had a last train to catch to Rosenheim though, so we sadly bid everybody farewell and headed off (and nearly missed the train!). Interesting train journey - worse then the last train in Helsinki on a Saturday night - and that's saying something ;-)

The next day, both of us in surprisingly good shape, me and Sami decided to head off on a tour of Rosenheim. It's a decent-sized town (61,000 citizens according to wikipedia), and seems to be a pretty decent place to live in. The surroundings seem pretty nice, with a lot of parks and the Inn river flowing past the town. The town centre is pretty picturesque as well, with a surprisingly intact historical central, considering the heavy bombings the city suffered during World War II. Another interesting detail - apparently Rosenheim has the highest amount of bordellos per capita ;-)

And I did get to meet Sami's better half as well, as she got back from her trip to Brussels just before I had to catch my train to the airport! Hope to see them both in Nice soon ;-)

Oktoberfest!

Today was the big day – time to head to the real Oktoberfest. Some motivation was required, as we were catching a train at 6 AM In the morning, to make it to Munich in time to get a table in one of the tents.

I was approaching the event with a mixture of anticipation and slight feat – as I recall my last participation at the beerfest required rather considerable stamina, in the beer drinking compartment. We decided to start it easily and stick to having a solid, rather than liquid, breakfast on the train (unlike the majority of people, who went for the liquid option). After all, we were, for the most part, a bunch of responsible adults, right? ;) The brave group heading towards Munich was composed of: yours truly, David, Guenther, Jose, Olli, Scott, Felipe and Mira.

Upon arrival at Munich, we bunched the crowds of drunken punters (at 8 AM in the morning – what is the world coming to??), and headed down to the venue, Theresienwiese. And then started the queuing for the tent – we headed for the most famous of tents – the Paulaner one (if memory serves me right, that is were we went for the last Oktoberfest as well...). Scott's mad Danish team mate Jens, and his nearly equally mad fellow danes had thankfully managed to grab a table, so we were able to get in pretty quickly.

The madness then kicked off. Beer after beer, interrupted by the odd pretzel and schnitzel, and plenty of singing (thankfully the songs are quite easy - “ein prosit, ein prosit, Gemütlichkeit!” - that's even easy enough for a tone deaf bloke like me). All in all, I have to say, Oktoberfest is just brilliant. What is incredible is that in spite of all that beer consumed, there is basically no violence at all. The atmosphere is rowdy, sure, but very positive, all in all. And the atmosphere really is something – watching a bunch of drunken folks in Lederhosen dancing and singing on tables might not sound like a particularly memorable experience (at least in the positive sense), but trust me – it really is!

My good mate Magaye was also participating at Oktoberfest with some of his mates, and we did make a brave effort to meet up – but didn't succeed in the end. All that beer got in the way, I suppose ;)

Several hours and quite a few beers later, we stumbled back to the train station, to catch the train back to Ulm. Amazingly, we didn't loose anybody on the way, and everybody was in a rather civilized state. The journey back was rather spirited and entertaining as well (the few sober people on the train might disagree, sure...), I even got to practice my Italian with some exchange students!

At the train station it was time to say our tear-filled good byes. Somehow Oktoberfest seems like a rather appropriate way to end my association with Ulm! Or who knows, maybe I will be back – it's not the first time I've said this was my last time in Ulm (if that makes any sense??).

I was rather pleased that Andi could take me to the airport the next day! Auf wiedersen, Ulm!

The last visit to Ulm (again!)

So, one more visit to Ulm then, the first (and last?) one since that fateful visit that ended rather painfully on the 14^th of June, with some bad news announced by my employer... The reason for my visit was a course given by the Linux Foundation, and of course it was a good opportunity to say bye to all my great colleagues (best of all, there was an “Octoberfest style” party planned for Thursday).

Andi, an Italian chap who worked on the same project as me, was kind enough to put up myself and David. After picking up at the train station, and deposing our stuff at his flat, we headed down to Zum Shatten, a rather nice typical German eatery. We helped ourselves to the most massive Wiener Schnizels I've ever seen – that is no exaggeration. A good start to the trip, then ;)

The rest of the week was, apart from the training course, a kind of series of “deja vu” experiences, as we headed down to our favourite eating/drinking holes. Naturally, most importantly, a visit to Barfusser (or rather, two), was called for. I was rather shocked/flattered, when the waitress was shocked at me not ordering the Sweineshaxe! (I mean I'm not that much of regular!). Apart from that, we checked out the Drei Kannen, another nice little eatery where the food portions are, let's say, generous.

Thursday was the night – time for the big Ulm closure party. And quite a party it was. They'd put up a big tent, in proper Octoberfest fashion, with long tables and benches. After the boring speeches, we got down to business – food and beer. Great to catch up with all the old team mater, and Sami as well of course! It was all rather good fun – I even ended up dancing on a table at one point, believe it or not! And the highlight of the night – some pretty darn impressive fireworks (wonder how much that cost...). So, I think it's fair to say the Ulm site rampdown was done in style!

The next day at the training course was rather painful for most of the participants, I'll tell you that... We took it rather easy, since on Saturday, it was time to head to the REAL Octoberfest. A visit to Barfusser was called for, though (and this time I did have the Schweineshaxe!).

Quick visit @ Stuttgart

Time for one more visit to Ulm! After mulling over various flight options, I decided to fly to Stuttgart (Munich being a wee bit expensive due to the ongoing Octoberfest – more about that fest later!). I was arriving rather early on Sunday, so I decided to meet up with David (who was also coming to Ulm, from London) and have a walk around Stuttgart before heading down to Ulm.

Stuttgart is the capital of the Baden-Wurtenberg state, and one of the biggest (the 7^th biggest, to be more accurate) and most prosperous cities in Germany. It is also known as the “cradle of the automobile” – Stuttgart being the place where both the automobile and motorcycle were born. Stuttgart is also where Porche and Mercedes are based. What’s rather surprising about Stuttgart though, is the fact that it’s a rather green city, surrounded by rolling hills and vineyards, and blessed with quite a generous amount of parks and gardens.

It has to be said that Stuttgart was rather badly damaged during World War II, so the town center is a kind of weird mixture of rather ugly post-war constructions, and well restored historic buildings. The overall impression I got was of a prosperous and dynamic place, with people chilling out in the numerous bars, cafes and beer gardens.
Our exploration covered most of the main sights in the town center. We started at the impressive and lively Schlossplatz, the largest square in the town center, and also where the new castle is located. From there, we headed on to the other well-known square in the town centre, Schillerplatz, where the Stiftkirche and old castle are located (which dates back all the way to the 10^th century).

Our quick tour of the town center done, we made our way to the castle garden beer garden, for a well-deserved schnitzel and pint of hefeweisse. The food and drink bit done, we then headed to the train station. Before taking the train back to Ulm, we climbed up to the 12-floor tower that dominates the train stations (with, quite appropriately, the Mercedez-Bentz insignia at the top), to take in some rather nice views of Stuttgart and the surrounding countryside.
All in all, quite a nice and pleasant afternoon!

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 ;-)

A few days in Ulm

It's been a while since my last trip to visit my team in Ulm, so time to prepare myself for a few days of Scwhabian food, culture and perhaps the odd Hefeweisse.

I arrived in Munich late Monday evening, and much to my surprise, ran into Tony (who works in my team) at the airport! Nice surprise, so I didn't need to drive down to Ulm on my own...

My Ulm visit started properly with a night out at Zur Zill, a rather nice little bar/restaurant by the canal. This time, thankfully, the weather was also suitably warm (the sun rarely seems to come out during my visits to Ulm for some odd reason). Most of the usual suspects were there – Olli, Jose, William, Sakari? David; and my good mate Sami from my days in Southwood. Things proceeded as they usually do in Ulm; a couple of hefeweisse, some Schwabian food (which normally means pig and potato), followed by Eisbock (an evil and strong potion masquerading as beer) at Zunfthaus der Schiffleute (one of my favourite eating/drinking establishments in Ulm). The predictable headache materialised the next day, yes thank you very much... ;)

On Wednesday, we had a rather nice team lunch at a Chinese restaurant near the office. Pretty good value food, and tasty too! In the evening, I had a rather calm evening, dining at Restaurant zur Lochmuhle, a very nice little eaterie by the canal. A sort of slightly higher class version of Zur Zill, where we'd gone the night before. Excellent food, for a rather reasonable price!

Thursday was the last night in Ulm, so we decided to have another “team meal” out – this time we had Mexican at a restaurant rather charmingly located on the Danube river, with rather nice views. Unfortunately, the famous Ulm rain assailed us rather quickly, so we ended up inside. Anyways, the food was pretty decent – I had a go at the famous Mole sauce (a chocolate sauce spiced with some chili – of course!) – not a bad choice. After the meal, we naturally ended up going to that famous Ulm institution, Barfusser. No visit to Ulm is complete with a hefeweisse or two at Barfusser. So an appropriate way to end a rather busy week in Ulm, then!

A week in Ulm

So, time for a week of pork, sausages and beer then. Yes, you guessed it, dear reader (?), another week in Ulm it is then!

As always, I jumped on the first plane to Munich, where I met up with my co-workers Tuukka and Mohammed at the airport, from where we made our way over to Ulm. This trip was rather different from my other trips to Ulm in the respect that Ulm was experiencing proper winter! The old town centre does indeed look quite charming, covered in snow. My hotel was conveniently located near the old Munster, so I was in good striking distance of the main sights (=eatiers/bars).

Monday night, after a hard night at the office, it was time for the team to get together at that Ulm institution, a visit to which no trip to Ulm is complete without: the Barfüßer. So yes, that means: weissbier, and Schweinshaxe – yummie... But no apfelstrudel for desert though – what's wrong with me ?

Tuesday night was, hmm, Valentine's Day. It did feel a bit sorry to spend it in Ulm, rather than at Cagnes with my darling, it has to be said. Since most of the locals seemed to prefer (for some odd reason??) spending Valentine's Day with their partners rather than go and have weissbier with me, I ended up going to have some Italian with Mohammed in Da Franco's. Good choice, actually, the food was really excellent – and believe it or not, authentically Italian as well! I even got to practice my Italian – good move since Tuesday night is when I normally have my Italian course. It was also quite interesting getting some insight into Egyptian post-Arabic spring politics from Mohammed (who hails from Cairo).

Wednesday was team meal night! Thomas, our boss, had chosen another Ulm institution for the occasion: Zunfthaus der Schiffleute. Not only do they have excellent Swabian food their – they also have a particularly tasty, if rather lethal, beer called Icebock. Unsurprisingly, after a couple of those, I had no objections to carrying on our nocturnal exploration of Ulm, which finished in Besitos – a Spanish Tapas bar (more famous for its drinks and late opening hours than its food, I reckon).

For our last night in Ulm, we headed to Pfannkuchenhaus – the pancake house. Can't go wrong with a name like that – especially considering the size of their pancakes! After our meal, we were treated to the spectacle of half of Ulm (it seemed to us, anyway?) dressed up and behaving like Finns on 1st of May (I believe this day marked the start of the 2012 carnival). A nice spectacle for our last night in Ulm...

All in all, it had been a rather exhausting week, both professionally and socially. But all good fun! ;)

A few days in Ulm

After a couple of months without business trips, it was time for me to spend some time with my dear colleagues in Ulm. This time of the year is quite a good time to go, actually, due to the great German tradition of Christmas markets.

So as a nice start for my trip, my team met up at the Christmas market on Monday evening (the Ulm chrsitmas market is rather nicely located on the square in front of Ulm Munster – the imposing cathedral). Thomas, my boss, was kind enough to buy drinks for everybody ;-). It was also a good opportunity to meet up with the new members of my team – Olli and Jose. My old mate David from Southwood was also there – he’s in Ulm on a three-month contract. It was all good fun – we tried quite a few versions of Glühwein, accompanied by some giant hot dogs for dinner. Afterwards, we ended up in Barfuser (where else,) for a few hefeweisses…

Tuesday night was a bit less intense – I went to John Benton’s with Jose and David to have those legendary John Benton ribs – even I struggle with those! Afterwards, me and Jose went for “one beer” (as the somewhat inaccurate expression goes)… By Wednesday evening, I was seriously in need of a quiet night, so I just had dinner with David in the Ratkeller (which is located in the historic town hall – unfortunately the food was a bit disappointing).

On Thursday night, I decided to head to Barfuser again – it is really getting to be a bit of a regular hang-out. I started out with a couple pints of hefeweisses with Jose (a hardy team-mate of mine). Later we were joined by my good friend Sami, who was on good beer-drinking form after some initial threats about drinking coke or water, or something absurd among those lines. Good to catch up with him as well.

That brought an end to my hectic week in Ulm. On Friday, ‘twas time to catch the train to Stuttgart, from where I continued my trans-European adventure to England…

A week in Ulm

Time for a trip to Ulm then, again. This time I flew into Munich, and bravely decided to use public transportation to get to Ulm. The good thing about this was that I was treated to the sight of plenty of blokes in lederhosen, and plenty of ladies in “traditional Bavarian ladies’ costume” – yes that’s right, it’s Octoberfest time.

The bad thing was that I spent about 4 hours getting to Ulm, instead of less than two had I taken the car (had to take a train into central Munich from the aiport, missed the train, had to go to another station, wait 40 minutes, catch another train, then take a bus to the office. Phew).

It was a pretty hard week work-wise, but it was good to see the old gang from the UK (including that incorrigible party maniac, Sinhung), and meet some new faces (like William, Sakari and Aida). Monday night was Barfüßer night – what else? The drinks and culinary fare was pretty much the usual – hefeweisse bear for the thirst, pork and potato for the hunger. We went for the big 5 litre keg of beer this time – there were plenty of eager folks to finnish it off.

My new boss Thomas was kind enough to take us all out for dinner on Tuesday night to Zu Forellen – one of the better restaurants we’ve been to in Ulm. They specialize in trout (obviously!), rather than pork and potato as is the case for most restaurants. They still had hefeweisse thankfully, so we weren’t completely out of our element. Afterwards, we headed down to next-doors’ Zunfthaus der Schiffleute, which is still probably our favourite restaurant in Ulm. The reason for our visit was the notorious Eisbock beer – with an awe-inspiring alcohol content of 12%. To be drunk in moderation.

The other highlight of the week was our visit to the Ulm Munster. We’ve gazed at this wonder of gothic architecture many a time from outside, but finally had the opportunity to visit the interior, as Thomas took us out there Thursday, after lunch. It is the tallest church in the world (must’ve been hard to build, since it took about 500 years to complete!), and funnily enough, doesn’t even classify as a cathedral (since it’s never been the seat of a bishop). After gaping at the sombre yet impressive interior, we naturally decided to climb up the 768 steps up to the top of the steeple. Well, nearly the top, it went on for a further 10 or 20 meters, but that part was (thankfully) inaccessible. That counts for this week’s exercise, methinks! I’d say it was worth the effort – the views from the top were rather magnificent. After the strenuous exercise of the week, we were treated to coffee and apfelstrudel. Yummie.

All in all, ‘twas a rather good week in Germany, both workwise and otherwise, I contemplated on the train back to Munich on Friday, together with Sakari and Tony (the mad bloke had to fly to Oslo to run a marathon!).

A couple of days in Ulm

After my “wild night in Bonson” it was time to head out to Ulm for a change. My flight was at about 7 in the morning, so I was a bit groggy in the plain, flying to Munich, from where I drove up to Ulm in my rental car (a Chevrolet Spark - not the kind of car Chevy has made their name producing – but good enough to make it from A to B I suppose).

After a day at the office, I met up with the usual crew from our UK office (we decided to unofficially call ourselves “Southwood’s finest” from now on – not sure whether that describes our achievements in the office or in the bierstube…); Sinhung, Cliff and Steve – this time reinforced by David. We made our way into Ulm town centre, and decided to show David (who hadn’t been to Ulm before) the sights before engaging in the obligatory beer drinking. So we showed him the old fisherman’s quarter (Fischerviertel) with its half-timber houses and canals as well as the imposing cathedral.

The obligatory “touristy stuff” out of the way, we made our way to Barfüßer (a nice little microbrewery that’s becoming a bit of a favorite haunt of ours). Matthias joined us as well for the feast – we all had the usual Swabian fare (which is basically pork and potato in various forms – it is indeed not very varied but hey, I like it!). All washed down with a couple of hefe weisses, and followed by an apfelstrudel for dessert, of course! We finished off with a couple of final drinks at the Piano bar in the Maritim hotel.

The next evening proceeded more or less the same way, other than the fact that we ended up in Drei Kannen this time, instead of Barfüßer. The concept is pretty similar, though, beer, pork and potatoes (so right down our alley then). This time the concept was all about sharing – the food was brought on a big platter (sharing food apparently usually means I end up with more than most others?) and the beer was served from big bottles. Naturally, we had a superb time, and definitely ate and drank more than was good for us. It’s a good thing we didn’t find the rock bar Sami took us to last time we were visiting, otherwise it would’ve been a hard day at the office…

The next day, ‘twas time to head back to France – driving back directly to Munich airport followed by a direct flight to Nice. Ulm had once more left a good impression on me – it’s a pretty little town, with very friendly people (not your American “how do you do sir” kind of friendliness, more a hearty straightforward attitude I like). The food, from what we’ve experienced so far, doesn’t seem terribly varied, but perhaps that is since we tend to go to “traditional Bavarian/Swabian” places. There are plenty of Italian restaurants to choose from, too, from what we’ve seen…

A week in Ulm

Normally, my business trips are to sunny Southwood. But this time, the destination was Ulm, in the midst of the Swabian Alb. I already went there once this year, and quite liked it. I was again joined by Cliff, as well as Steve from my team in Southwood. I joined up with Steve and Cliff at Stuttgart airport, from where we headed down to Ulm in our Hyundai rental car (once we figured out how to start it – the clutch did the trick!). We eventually even managed to find our hotel - not so easy, since we had neither map nor GPS – thankfully we had the address at least (I even tried to ask for directions in my very limited German – and obviously led us astray).

After checking in, after asking for advice about local restaurants, we headed out across the Danube (next to which our hotel was located) down to the Barfüßer restaurant/bar/brewery. A pretty decent place for having a few hefeweisse beers (shockingly cheap compared to the Cote d’Azur, I’ll tell you that!) and a nice schnitzel ;-).

The next day, we were joined by our colleague Dmytro at the office, who works in our Brisbane office (didn’t even know until quite recently we had an office there!). After a day of hard work (honestly – we finished around 7 PM!), we made our way back to the hotel, dropped off our things, and made our way for dinner again. After a nice stroll along the Danube, we ended up in the historic Fischerviertel quarter, with its cobble-stone streets and half-timbered houses. Rather picturesque… We ended up dining in a rather nice, cozy little restaurant called Zur Forelle. I had fish, for a chance (since I figured the diet would be a bit meat-oriented this week…). And some of that Hefeweisse beer, naturlich!

On Wednesday, we were joined by Sinhung, who unfortunately couldn’t join us from the start due to a training course he was planning to attend (which , worst of all, was cancelled!). Matthias, our German host, also joined us for our “Ulm by Night Tour Mark 3”. This time, I had done my restaurant research on Tripadvisor – so we ended up in the Nr. 1 rated restaurant in Ulm, “Zunfthaus der Schiffleute”. It’s also located in the Fischerviertel, and has the added bonus of having a nice beer garden out on a courtyard (handy, since it was rather a nice evening). The usual rounds of Hefeweisse ensued, food-wise I decided to go for a bit of an exotic choice this time – Bison steak. And what an excellent choice it was, I think it might’ve been the best steak I’ve had this year. As a nice “digestif”, we decided to have the strongest beer on the menu, the Eisbeer, after which it all went a bit downhill (according to this site , “A rich Eisbock is best sipped like a Sherry, Port, or Madeira; it is never guzzled.” – that’s where we went wrong I think!). Don’t get me wrong, we had an excellent time, even managing a couple of hours in a late-night bar, but the next day in the office was pretty tough, I tell you that!

So, the Thursday was quite a hard day in the office, then. And I feared the worst for the evening too, since Sami (the older half, I believe, of the notorious Mikkola twins) was coming out finally. Things kicked off with an “aperitif” (a hefweisse, what else?) in the Barfüßer bar (same chain as where we went on Monday, but this one is in the town centre), after which we decided to have a “light dinner” at John Benton. Not so light, you should’ve seen the size of the starters. And as for main course, there is only one realistic option, apparently, which is spare ribs… Oh dear… No beer this time though, we decided to go all sophisticated and have some Rieslig white wine. Excellent choice, actually! Probably the 1st German wine I’ve ever had?

That brought an end to my Ulm trip. I did have time to explore Ulm a bit Friday morning (including admiring the very impressive cathedral in sunshine), before driving down to Stuttgart to catch my flight. All in all, a very nice week! And we got a fair bit of work done as well, believe it or not!