i summon one kim

Well, I had never spent a week in Frankfurt before. I thought there’s nothing there (sorry). However, I was somewhat wrong, I guess.

During the days, Mark — a colleague of mine from NYC — was helping me find my way around the offices of the mother bank and to communicate with the colleagues in Frankfurt. In the evenings he was showing me that there is something to the city of business. You just have to spend some time looking around (as he has in the past) and have friends like Kirk who know these esoteric venues that you wouldn’t think to visit just by looking at them from the street (yeah, what was that about the book and its cover).

We also visited Mainz and Mark introduced me to some very welcoming friends of his, Karen and Helmut, who took us to a small village restaurant with excellent food and wine. Maybe it should be counted as an advantage of Frankfurt that you don’t have to go far outside to find some really nice places…

After all the flying is over today, I should be in Helsinki.

I’ve had a wonderful week in Freiburg, visiting my brother and his family. I wish I could make these trips more often. I felt so welcome — the kids were so enthusiastic about meeting their uncle that they kept telling everyone. I visited their kindergarten and their teacher knew immediately who I was. I just need to learn more German…

It’s been great walking about the neighborhood where they live and on some of the hillsides around. The Black Forest region is really beautiful, and the weather has been excellent.

Yesterday was so uniquely (southern) European: we walked up the nearby hill to an old Gasthaus and stopped for brunch. I guess we were a bit early, but soon the place filled with all the locals on their Sunday walk. We got a great table with a superb view down to the whole town, and the light breeze was keeping us cool in the sunshine. Can you spell p-e-r-f-e-c-t! As we were leaving, we took turns taking pictures so we could have everyone in at least one picture. A stranger stops us — to offer to take the picture for us, so that the whole family can be in one picture! (Not with my camera, so no link to a picture yet.)

On the way home we took a trail through the forest. It was great seeing how the kids were so excited about walking in the forest. They do so every week at the kindergarten, so it is a familiar yet ever interesting environment for them. No worrying about getting bored, I tell you.

In a couple of hours I’ll be arriving in Frankfurt. I felt sad leaving Freiburg, especially since we got to the train station a bit late, and there was no time for a proper goodbye. I had to just jump on the train as the doors were already closing. Need to plan that better next time…

Klaus and Bernd are NetBSD developers in Karlsruhe, who took me sightseeing (by foot) around the city yesterday, and then for a well-deserved beer and other nourishment. I had never visited Karlsruhe before, dispite having driven past it a number of times. I think it was about a year or maybe two earlier that Bernd and I tried to arrange for a meeting, but my schedule kept changing too much. I’m glad this time everything worked out perfectly.

It is now wonder that businessmen don’t complain a lot about the burden of traveling. Who cares if you have to arrive at the airport two or more hours early, if you can spend half of that time dining. On the plane you can then survive with a snack, instead of trying to operate a knife and fork in the tight space assigned to you. Not that the space is tight in business class…

After deboarding there is another excellent idea: the arrivals lounge. Unfortunately I had to hurry to a connecting flight, so I couldn’t visit it to enjoy a hot breakfast and a shower.

The second flight of the day (from London to Frankfurt) behind me I’m feeling a little bit well traveled for the day, especially after stewing for an hour in the sunny glass enclosure that is the Fernbahnhof at the Frankfurt airport. Here is a tip for anyone taking a train: go downstairs and sit by the tracks! It is nice and cool there, even if a bit noisy when trains arrive and depart. (more…)