So, John went to Germany on March 23rd for the convention.It’s a HUGE world wide convention. Complete with the guys like on DIY building the company booth in a few days. I didn’t put the pictures on here, but as John was setting up his seat you can see the guys in the background with paint rollers putting the finishing touches on the booth. Now the few weeks leading up to the show, were pretty stressful. Things were breaking and the deadline was approaching for the models to be shipped to Germany. I was saying prayers constantly that the model would get there in one piece!
On the way over he had a few coworkers on the flight with him. Always nice to travel with people you know.
He left Friday evening our time and arrived Saturday evening Germany time. Crazy how that works! He checked into his hotel and got settled. The hotel was built in an old water tower. The picture below is of the hotel from the convention center. .
In the hotel room there was a window in the bathroom to see into the bedroom area. Of course it had a view of the TV. I guess Germans are like Americans and take their TV seriously, or they are catering to us. When he turned on the TV he saw familiar faces- Phineas and Ferb; but they were speaking in German! He brought a video home for the boys.
Here are some of the food John ate. Most of it looks really good. John mentioned most of the “meat” he ate was lamb. I think it’s pretty funny how they use big bowls and plates, but the serving sizes are a lot smaller.
The dish below was beef tartar. If you are unfamiliar with this cuisine it is RAW meat with a RAW egg and seasons. He said it was good and then got bad really fast. On a side note, I mentioned this to my dad, who had worked in Paris a good while back. He mentioned that he would always get a visit with the chef when he would order “steak tartar bien fait and 2 pieces of bread”; translated to steak tartar well done. He said it makes a good hamburger! I think John wished he had these words of wisdom before he ordered! I also googled beef tartar, also known as steak tartar, to make sure I was spelling it correctly. I found out that it can be made from beef or horse. So, now John is a little curious if he had horse without knowing!
The streets of Germany.
Sunday John and Jeff went to church before they had to head over to the convention center and set up the booth. Yes, they were good Catholic boys and wanted to make sure they had proof. They went to a German mass, but John said they had all the prayers and readings in French and English, so he knew what was going on. Now, the homily was all in German, so he had no clue what the priest spoke about.
Before the conference really got underway and all the last minute preps consumed John’s time; he was able to see a little of the city.
Also before things got busy, we were able to Skype with him. The first time we Skyped was too cute! It was Makaela’s first time and she was intrigued by seeing her Daddy on the computer. She wanted to talk and be front and center. The boys liked playing with the camera. They would get really close to it. Also, fist bumps were very popular. I think the could have sat there all day just doing fist bumps. They also would “hug” the computer screen when telling John goodbye. Makaela saw this and she tried to give kisses. TOO CUTE! Didn’t matter who was talking she would sit there waving at John and saying “Daddy”.
I also got on Google Earth to show the boys where John was at. We tried to find the convention center and the hotel, but they were under construction when the pictures were taken. Still a cool thing! This is the front of the convention center, hotel in the background.
On the inside.
This is the project that John mainly worked on. It was up for an award and featured in magazines, so I’m able to post this picture. Proudly they came in second, again a world wide competition. I only have one picture to share. I don’t want to get him in trouble, especially since at the conference they had security at their booth and would only let certain people in. They really didn’t want the competition checking them out. It looks pretty cool and they designed the chair and the tube case it is in.
Not a bad work trip! But it didn’t end here.