germany...

For our consulting project, my team had to head to Heidelberg, Germany for our kick-off meeting with SAS. We needed to be there on Wednesday the 12th, but convinced SAS to fly us in a few days early (on the 8th) for some sight-seeing. Matt, Anurag and I were met at the Frankfurt airport by a car service which took us to our hotel in Heidelberg, about 40 minutes away. Saturday evening we took a brief stroll through the old town, found a little traditional restaurant for some good German food, and then found a bar in which we could watch Germany play for 3rd place in the World Cup. In addition to the football game, there were also fireworks in Heidelberg that evening, so it was a pretty special night to be in town. After Germany won the game, people just streamed out of all of the bars and expressed their jubilation in the streets. In the Bismarkplatz, people were so happy they decided to show it by blocking all traffic through the square, cars and trams alike. The police for the most part let people have their fun, though occasionally made sure that at least a few cars made it through the madness!!

Sunday we decided to rent a car and head to Strasbourg, France, which is about an hour and a half from Heidelberg. Driving on the autobahn is always fun! We arrived in Strasbourg in the late afternoon, wandered around the city for a bit and then realized that we had unintentionally made our way to France on the day that they were playing in the World Cup final! People were singing in the streets all day long in support of the team, and everyone was walking around with flags or face paint or jerseys – great atmosphere! Unfortunately, the mood didn’t last when France lost the game in kicks…

Monday we had breakfast in Strasbourg, then left and worked our way slowly back to Heidelberg, stopping in the resort town of Baden Baden for a break, where we got to see Roman bath ruins as well as the modern spas that are all around the city now. In the evening we were back in Heidelberg, and had the luck of meeting up with two of my German cousins who live in the city. Kerstin is actually working in New York at the moment, but serendipitously happened to be in Heidelberg that day. Jan is living in Heidelberg as well. It was great to see them and I think that my team-mates enjoyed the opportunity to speak with some locals (and just to mix up the dinner conversation a bit!). After dinner we met up with Vern, who had just arrived from Canada to join us for the coming days. We enjoyed hitting a few of the local hot-spots, including a place called Cave 54, where I got a rose and a dance from a groom at a bachelor party! Amusing.

Tuesday we spent the day exploring Heidelberg. We walked up the hill to the castle and had a good look around the ruins. It’s an interesting castle in that it was started early and then additional wings were just added to it over centuries, so it’s a real mix of architectural styles. We also wandered the main shopping street before heading across the river to another mountain on the other side, where we walked along the Philosopher’s Walk – which runs the length of the hill and offers fabulous views of the old town and castle across the way. Another lovely evening meal, this one at a Thai restaurant with seating outside in the university square, plus continued exploration of the local nightlife capped off the day.

Wednesday was the day we had been waiting for, our kick-off meeting with SAS about our consulting project. We spent the day at their European, Middle East, and Africa headquarters, in a small conference room with a great view of the city. We met with two SAS employees who we will be coordinating with over the next several weeks, and spent a few hours hashing out the details of the project and what they are looking for. We left in better shape than we started, but there is still a lot of work to do in terms of clearly defining the objectives and the scope of what we will be doing. More fun to come, for sure. After the meeting we headed straight for the Frankfurt airport and back to Oxford!