Personal Dork Assistant

Long Flight, Short Trip

Went to Düsseldorf for three days and two nights, all included. Unfortunately, all it included were day-ful of meetings for work, so I literally zero time for sightseeing. Didn't help that we were staying out-of-town near our distributor's office, in a little village surrounded by fallow winter fields and denuded trees. Also got a good look at the Zürich airport, considering we were stuck there for five hours waiting for our transfer to Düsseldorf. The airline was kind enough to issue us each a 5CHF refreshment voucher for our wasted time. I think even our line-workers in China get better treatment than one franc an hour. The vouchers were just enough for a cup of coffee for each of us, and the vendor guy was cool enough to toss in a candy bar to soak up the leftover amount. Hey, the GF said European chocolate would be a good gift, so that's one thing taken care of. Had to take a bus out to the commuter plane and walk up the stairs, which gave me a chance to see falling snowflakes for the first time in I don't know how long.

Did get to stop by an office on Königsallee in Düsseldorf city center for a meeeting, but didn't get the chance to browse the fancy shops along the thoroughfare. The city does have a large and modern airport, completely rebuilt after a fire ten years ago. Wandered around and bought a Düsseldorf keychain for the GF while waiting for our flight out. Us Asian folk were getting a bit tired of the coldcuts+cheese on bread of the typical German lunch, so our sales manager splurged for sushi, an offshoot of a restaurant in town. It wasn't bad, although it did cost more than a meal at the much-superior Japanese places back home. Funny how after all that we still ended up with a plate full of cold food, although the miso soup sure hit the spot (for two euros it damn better).

It was a working trip, after all, so no complaints on the lack of R&R. Did get the chance to have a few genuine German brews, see the Rhine, and check out our European distributor facility. Plus the chance to finally pile up some points on my Cathay frequent-flier card. I'm happy enough with that. On the flight back, we ran into a crowd of Chinese folks returning from an exhibition in Düsseldorf, each with multiple massive suitcases full of show samples and their own purchases. Made the flight on Swiss Air seem more like your typical Asian flight, complete with midnight cup-o-noodle runs. Whatever it takes to fill up the planes, I guess.