Munich, Germany Airport - 15 June 2006

I am sitting in the Munich airport awaiting my flight to Birmingham. We had boarded the runway bus to take us to our airplane and then they pulled us off. A bewildering few minutes later, they graciously decided to inform us that the airport had been closed in Birmingham. For reasons unknown! However, an hour later, they had no new information. But, they offered us meal vouchers! And, it's not even their fault. The only way any US carrier offers that is if they are responsible for the delay.

This airport is fantastic. It is modern, clean, bright, and well appointed. I highly recommend it.
Based on my 3 nights/2 days here in Munich I have decided that this is a city that I could live in. Joining my list are Denver, Vancouver, & Amsterdam. Here is why Munich makes the list:

• It is clean
• There are lots of parks
• Soft pretzels are considered acceptable for any meal3.2 (Shandy in a bottle) beer is considered a food, not alcohol, and available at lunch at the factory(!)
• Sidewalks have bike paths
• People are friendly
• The beer is tasty
• People dress normally and not like fashionistas
• Munich = Bavaria = Bavarian Alps
  

There are of course drawbacks:

• Pickles are available at breakfast
• People smoke everywhere
• David Hasselhoff was popular in Germany.
  

I was here at one of the client's factories to do conceptual training. This factory was the first implementation to go-live so they have had lots of issues. Needless to say, Power Point presentations about overview concepts was not what they'd hoped they were getting. I did my best to make it relevant for them. A challenge to say the least.


The Munich Marriott is nice. The bar in the hotel is themed after an American sports bar. But with German beer. Whew! The staff is from all over Europe and are all very nice. And, they have big soft pretzels for just 1 Euro. Monday night I ate there and had a pint.

Tuesday night, a group of us headed down to the Olympic Park. It's the site of the 1974 Summer Olympics. What impressed me was how well the buildings from 1974 held up from a design perspective. There was some really ugly stuff to come out of that decade (Think Brady Bunch). However, these buildings look like they could have been built within the past 10 years. They were well made, for sure.

They have a big area where people can go and watch the World Cup games on enormous screens. They have lots of beer tents. So, everyone is in a good mood. We saw people wearing their colors for just about every team. All but the USA, that is. In the Official Fan Shop, they did not even carry the US game jersey! Ouch...

Brazil was playing Croatia that night. There were lots of supporters for both teams. But, all were good natured. It probably helped that the good weather and beer made everyone happy. Not angry and looking for a fight like at areas like this in the UK.

Wednesday night I went back for the Germany/Poland game. I walked there from the hotel. It took about an hour since I did not really know where I was going. But, it was a nice night and there was this really nice bik/pedestrian path to follow. Just like I have done everywhere else, I would ask someone for directions every once in a while. One lady I asked in Spanish, and most of the others spoke English. Except for one older lady. That's when I broke out my college German from 1994. Needless to say, I could not formulate complete sentences

The Fan Fest was PACKED. Take a look at the photos below taken by a webcam in the area and saved for me by Janet (thanks!)

But, again, everyone was in a good mood. The chants of "Polska" and "Deutschland" were done in support. Not malice. Pretty surprising when you consider recent history between the two countries. Lots of skin shown as we were in Europe, in the sun, with lots of beer involved. Men and Women were very creative in how and where they displayed their colors. I'll leave it at that.
I bugged out at half time so that I could avoid the crush at the end for the U Bahn (subway). I made it back for a quick Skype call to Janet before heading back down to the bar to watch the last 5 minutes of the game. All tournament long, I had missed the big goals. Not this time. Germany scored in injury time (91st minute) to win the game. The place exploded with cheers born of excitement and relief. This means Germany advances. Poland was eliminated.

Then, it was back up to the room for a longer chat with Janet via Skype. Skype rocks.

Thursday morning it was up early to get to the airport. We made it to the airport in about 15 minutes. We were sustaining speeds in of 140+ MPH (230 KMH) in a big black Mercedes. It was awesome.