Europe Trip: Sept 2011

My next trip to Europe brings me back to Amsterdam. Flew by Delta and the experience was OK. Still no personal entertainment. If I had not known better I would have some what start believing that flight from/to India was being discriminated.
Amsterdam in summer is even better than in winter. The place is alive. People of bicycle are moving everywhere. In a city with hardly population of few millions, there are supposed to be 3 million bicycles. Also availed of public transport (tram and train) and they are as efficient as they can be.

My next stop was Copenhagen, capital of Denmark. This was a new city for me and let me take some time to write about it.
Denmark is at conjecture of Scandinavia and rest of Europe. Its culture it true to other European culture with close linkages to its Scandinavian history.
I actually had a meeting in a place called Malmo which is just across the border in Sweden. I was amazed by the collaboration between these 2 country. Both the country are building this city together, and making it into a commercial hub with business and entertainment avenue.
My meeting was in a multi purpose arena which was home of one of ice hockey team. It also could be turned to concert area within 24 hours. I was in of the corporate room which opened into the stadium. I got some taste of those rich and famous although I could see any hockey or concert. I also liked the business model of these arena. The arena sold off boxes to sponsor or rent it out during non-hockey/concert time.

The next day was off day for me and I took a foot trip through the Copenhagen city center. The place is not as clean as Amsterdam but as the day progressed it became very lively. There were street shows of all kind - Jazz, Violin, Western guitar, Mountain gypsy music, street comedy performance and others. There were different kinds of shops - all global branded ones, ethnic market, lot of eateries. There were 'Ricksaw', slightly different than India in built and also that drivers had iPad to entertain the guests.

I took a canal drive through the city and saw a lot of tourist destination including the little mermaid. There was one building where the top had 3 serpentine like body intertwining each other. This was a symbolic of the 3 Scandinavian country - Norway, Sweden and Denmark working together. Also the famous shipping industry was visible during these rides.

The weather was great during the day and I lead a nomadic life for one full day. Beautiful.

 

US Trip: June 2011

My second trip to US was an complete business trip. I was there for a week and every day in a new city.
International flight this time was through Star alliance members - Lufthansa and Continental. And both of them was a bad experience. The service for these mammoth organizations are average. I guess they are surviving because of sheer size and network muscle. Flight from Mumbai to Frankfurt did not have a personal entertainment and even onward to US had limited options. I was excited for return from Continental because of direct flight from Newark to Mumbai, but I missed the flight due to delay in connecting. The service again post delay was poor.

In internal US flight, I had the opportunity to travel in Southwest. As I had read many case study during my MBA days, the experience proved amazing. Their operations process, informal and friendly service was like  a wave of fresh air.

Could not see much of US this time except the famous arc in St Loius.

Auckland, New Zealand

My next official visit took me to Auckland in April 2011. This time I flew Malaysian Airline. The airline is OK
The city is a excellent. Its very well maintained and very lively.
This year Rugby world cup would happen in New Zealand and so the place was buzzing with rugby. Lots of souvenir, airport shops, clothes were selling related to this.
One of the afternoon took a cruise ride over the harbor. I was amazed by the richness and grandeur of the place. Weather was good and I had just hoped that the business meeting would have been successful :(.

Norway Trip

During my next business travel in January 2011, I had been to Oslo, capital of Norway. This time I flew Turkish Airways (via Istanbul). Its a good airline, especially the entertainment systems and food. I had some time to see around its hub,Istanbul airport while going. But while coming back since my flight from Oslo was delayed I run across two terminals which were far across and just boarded the flight on time.

Weather. Norway in winter is cold. When I came to know that I had to visit Oslo, I checked the weather to find that temperature was -25 degree C. And when I visited, people were happy that winter was almost over, but temperature was still -11 degree C. I remembered my school geography where we read about places up north where sun never rises during winter. In Oslo, there was sunshine for few hours. There was snow all over. This was my first city where I saw people well use to living in cold. But for me, I had a tough time walking in the snow filled streets.

Food. I had couple of business meals in the nearby restaurants. One was a Spanish which served buffet and where exotic food of different kind kept coming in, one after the other. The other was Japanese Sushi (its a big hit there). This on the other hand was not my favorite meal. First of all I could not use chop stick and secondly I did not fancy the taste. In other places, I normally ordered fish preferably salmon which was pretty good.
One afternoon while having lunch, we heard siren sound. I was a bit alarmed, but other kept on having their food. I then learnt that this was a routine test of installed sirens. These sirens have been in place from world war days, and had been used to alarm the citizens about attack from enemies. Somebody joked that this may be the best time to attack,as people may not know if this is a real attack or simply a routine test.

City. I was in Oslo for couple of days only and was mostly in meetings, so could not see the city. But while traveling to & fro airport, saw some of it. Norway is supposed to be one of the most prosperous country and the abundance shows. There were lots of boats and I remembered one of Scandinavian ex-colleague from Sweden who told me about his boating experience. Pakistanis form the largest expatriate population  living in Oslo and I had my first hand experience as my cab driver was one of them. We had a very interesting talk in Hindi.
The airport gift shop reminded me of vikings as described in Asterix /Obelix comic books. Norway along with Denmark & Sweden have a rich history interwoven in war and collaboration. Again it reminds of Indian Continent present. Hope we would be able to live in peace and collectively prosper in near future.