A short business trip to Germany
A week without US travel – Franzi stayed in New York and Alex actually flew to Germany. For a one-day client workshop, he had to be in Stuttgart on Friday. To prepare everything properly he flew out on Wednesday. Originally his plan was to fly out the weekend before to visit his family. However, “unfortunately” (good for them) Alex mum and her husband Pepe flew out for vacation exactly that weekend; and yet there was some feeling of coming home.
When we were still with our German unit, Alex was staffed on a project in Stuttgart for more than a year. During all that time he stayed at the Le Méridien Hotel. When checking-in, everyone remembered him and it was like a happy re-union. He was welcomed with a warm hug and greeted with the words “We expected everything to happen this week, but not see you back here at our hotel after such a long time”. He got a beautiful room and could enjoy his short stay in Germany while getting everything ready for a successful workshop. Luckily there was enough time to catch-up over dinner with one of Alex best friends Yuki, who lives in Stuttgart. It was a great to have some proper German (schwaebisch) food.
He got back on Saturday around noon with quite some delay. Starting with some circling for about 1 hour over Newark, followed by immigration that took 2+ hours, Alex only got home at around 5 PM. Waiting time felt especially unpleasing due to hundreds of people from two flights from China wearing face masks due to the increased spread of the Corona virus.
Dinner with Mark and Elena
While Alex was on his way home, Franzi had brunch at Coco & Cru with two colleagues (who have become friends). In the evening we were invited for dinner at our friends Mark and Elena. We shared a delicious cheese platter and they cooked fresh Angus beef burgers for us. Since it was Elena’s birthday the weekend before, we then ventured to Baby’s All Right, a bar in the neighborhood. Elena thought it was just for a desert, but Mark and her friends organized a surprise party for her!
After a fun Saturday, we ended the weekend with a not so fun Sunday – Alex got pretty sick. Therefore the day consisted of running to the drugstore to get medicine and electrolytes and trying to get Alex back to strength.
