Touchdown Europe!

Above: Our hotel in Benrath Dusseldorf Germany

Guten Tag from Germany! Dave and I departed San Antonio on Friday evening with a nonstop connection through Chicago. We then flew from Chicago to London's Heathrow Airport. We had a bit of a layover at Heathrow coupled with a delay in flight departure so we arrived in Dusseldorf Saturday evening slightly behind schedule. We cleared customs fairly quickly. For those of you reading, this trip is a business trip for Dave as he is attending EuroShop in Dusseldorf. There are 7 other H-E-Bers attending this program as well and from Dusseldorf we are scheduled for a day in Cologne followed by 2 more days in Berlin. After Berlin we head to London for three days and will be back on Sunday, March 2.

After clearing customs, Dave, Zack and I took a cab to our hotel. The remaining H-E-Bers had a room elsewhere and the three of us had previously committed to a vendor dinner. We are staying at the Hotel Rheinterrasse Benrath. "Rhein" is river in German and "Terrasse" is walk so obviously our hotel overlooks the Rhein River. Benrath is a town in Dusseldorf. We felt as if we were duped slightly as the internet stated the hotel was just a few kilometers from the airport but it was much more than a few. The hotel is quaint and authentic; however if you're wheelchair bound or crutch bound; you're in a world of hurt; many stairs and no elevator or escalator.

We hurried to the hotel and dumped our bags just to run back out and cab it over to dinner. We dined at the top of the tower; the Rheinturm Dusseldorf. The dining room was called the 180 degree yet we still managed to make a full rotation so we couldn't figure out the nature of naming it as such. I guess because it was on the 180th floor or it's 180 meters high? We're still not so sure. We had great company as our hosts were from HillPhoenix and it was us from H-E-B and some attendees from Wegman's (Rochester, NY). After a nice dinner we made our way over to a bar call Il Molo. It was a small, intimate bar with distinctive metal art work hanging from the ceiling reminiscent of space, planets, etc. We thought perhaps "molo" meant earth or planet. I said maybe it meant mole as in a mole on your face. All kinds of theories were thrown out until we finally asked our server, whom by the way was Italian and he said that "molo" was Italian for the dock tie off or mooring point. Not sure of the exact name of a boat tie down but that's what we're going with. He spoke fluent Italian and Spanish but no German. When I asked if he spoke German he said, "I'm Italian!" I asked if he spoke French and he replied again with, "I'm Italian" but more vehemently. It was pretty entertaining to get his responses.

After a very long day of traveling, eating and drinking we finally made our way back to the hotel.

Today we started our day with breakfast at the hotel; YEAH German bread and Nutella spread! We took a cab to the Benrath Bahnhof (bus or train station) and then a bus to the Hauptbanof (main train station) and took a train to the expo hall. WHEW! The show here in Dusseldorf encompasses over 15 halls of space! It's a massive, extensive trade show and goes all week; all day. This show convenes here every three years.

Still in debate as to what to do with my day tomorrow as I may return to the trade show with Dave or try to hoof it around Benrath and check out my surroundings. Dusseldof is a pretty big schlep from Benrath so we'll see. We leave on Tuesday for Cologne so check back for my write up of my day tomorrow.

Auf Wiedersehen! Pin It Now!