The longest day I’ve ever had in Freiburg

Today was the day- our reason for coming on this trip- the kickoff of a 3-day offsite for my boss and his leadership team. An offsite I lead. 

I was downstairs around 7 and found a good smattering of colleagues already having breakfast. The breakfast was pretty great - lots of options, everything fresh and delicious. Fancy coffee machines. Everything we needed. We had a blend of people with cars and not. Finally, around 7:30 there were 5 of us left and we decided to band together and get an uber. I pulled it up and was dismayed to see an uber couldn’t even get to us for 19 minutes. We had to START at 8 am! So, we all ran to the train station to grab a cab. We found a mini-van that could hold us all and then, inexplicably, my colleague who must be at least 6 feet tall, climbed all the way into the back and there I was now sitting in the front with the other 3 sharing the middle bench seat. It was hilarious so I snapped this cute pic.   

What wasn’t cute was the uber driver trying to drop us off in a large, grassy field. Fred, speaking perfect German says to the driver, “No! This is not it.” The driver said yes in some language but frankly at that point I’d decided he didn’t speak German or English. Anyway, Dorothy pulled her map out and pointed to show him to please drive around the large grassy field. Thank goodness those guys were with me because I had no idea where the office was, what it looked like OR what language to speak to the driver. I did think the office didn’t look like a large, grassy field. 

We ended up late, which is awful when a)you’re leading the thing and b)your boss is the first speaker and he’s standing at the front of the room waiting to start as you walk in. Good times! That said, everyone was chill about it and off we went.

At lunch, we took several laps around outside to wake up and get some sunshine. The campus is beautiful and the catered lunch was delicious. I was starting to believe I would live through the day!

We wrapped the meetings and embarked upon some manufacturing tours to cap the day. It was all very cool to see. We ubered/taxied/drove back to the hotel where we had all of…say 27 minutes before meeting again to walk to dinner.

But, as I walked into the lobby, I saw my friend Ashley had arrived! Woohoo!! Ashley moved to Germany 3 years ago but we’re old pals from Texas and this makes the 3rd time now we’ve hung out overseas. We were so stoked when we found out we were coming to Germany! She and Jason were sitting at the bar waiting for me so I was able to have a quick drink and chat with them before the lobby was buzzing with the craziness of the team gathering for dinner.

We all took off to walk into the gorgeous old town area together. The restaurant was absolutely delicious and we had a great time talking, laughing, and enjoying being together. My colleague Eddie started what would become a 4 day schnitzel bender. I have to say, schnitzel is good. Also, it is apparently white asparagus season and I for one do celebrate this now that I know about it. I asked everyone what the difference was between white and green and no one knew but I am here with the scoop having eaten the famed white asparagus now. There are 2 things - 1)apparently you have to peel white asparagus but more importantly 2) it doesn’t make your pee stink. Who else wants to celebrate this terrific vegetable? 

 I started hitting the wall after the second round of shots of grappa came by and was like - yo, who else is ready to walk back cause I’m outta here. We walked again as a herd on the way back after very loudly singing happy birthday to my colleague John who was a terrific sport about it despite the horror of the singing.

We had another 7 am lobby situation set for the next day and this time we knew we needed to call the car earlier. NOTED!

I was SO SO SO tired when I laid down. Whew!

Sliding Into Germany, Zero Fanfare

So, we woke up in Zurich and had “free” breakfast in the hotel lounge. This is one of our favorite travel hacks because it saves us time and money to eat meals, snacks, and even have drinks in the lounges you gain access to with loyalty status. We can save our money for the bigger things we want to do.

Then, we hailed an uber to cruise to the train station. Our driver was hilarious- he said he was driving Scottish people to the train station all morning because there was going to be a big soccer game later in the day in Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein!!?!?! what?!?!? Just a short train ride away to score another country??? This gave me ideas. Anyway, the driver was assuming we would also be Scottish and was quite surprised to hear our American accents.

The train station was pretty big but also super easy to figure out. I asked at the info booth to confirm we were reading our tickets right - and we were. We hopped on when it arrived and found our seats. We had a bit of a challenge with all the luggage - especially the large suitcase- because the overhead racks weren’t that big and there was otherwise nowhere for it to go. Another guy and Jason tag-teamed to ram the suitcase up there but it half way hung out, which made us nervous the entire trip that it would flop out and crush someone’s face. 

Aside from that, the trip up was great. Beautiful scenery. Lots of lush green farmland and vineyards. And somewhere in all that we crossed into Germany with zero fanfare or anyway of knowing it at all. It was more of a, “well, I guess we’re in there by now.” Too weird!

When we got to the train station in Freiburg, I pulled out my phone because I’d taken some screenshots of google maps knowing my phone wouldn’t be working yet/ no WiFi. But, turns out I didn’t need that because I looked around and literally could see the Marriott Courtyard from the train tracks! HA! 

It would have been fastest to walk through the station but something had happened and the entire thing was closed and surrounded by police. I, of course, didn’t know that there weren’t always police standing around the outside of the train station so I tried to walk in anyway when two of them said to me at the same time, “ENGOIEGNOIENGOIEGNOEIG” which is German for something likely resembling, “You can’t go in there.” Well, excuse me.

So, we walked around and all of 2 blocks later, there we were! As we entered, we saw Corie and Nick- like showing up at summer camp and seeing all your friends. We got checked in and up into the room with no trouble at all. 

We decided to just have a light bite at the bar rather than going out since we were still shaking jet lag and I had an early start the next morning. Well, as we sat there, literally my entire team strolled in over the evening and each time we’d stop to meet/chat/catch up. Before you knew it, it was like 9 pm and we hadn’t eaten yet. Little did I know this would become the theme of the trip!

We finally had some dinner and headed up so I could get ready for a 7am meet in the lobby start to what would be a very long day of meetings and team dinners. Whew! Look out Germany- we have arrived!! 

The much anticipated, last minute upgrade on our way to Europe

 

After booking this trip way earlier than we normally would, mostly because it’s a work trip for me and my boss told us in a staff meeting one week to “buy your tickets THIS WEEK,” we found ourselves in a very long wait to see if I would get upgraded.

Airlines are such a whip.

We booked Jason in business class to make sure he would be able to stretch out and be comfy. And then we called and bought a mileage upgrade for me. And, you would think in doing so, we would trade in the miles and dollars and then have secured the upgrade. But, no. Instead, it sat there saying requested until about 5 minutes before boarding when miraculously, they paged me. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so dramatic had the agent we spoke to not told us that UNLIKE an unpaid upgrade, this could process at any time. So you know, everyday I thought today could be the day. Sheesh! 

Now to back up - we flew overnight to Philly through Phoenix. We had a painful 6 hour layover in Phoenix and then the night flight to Philly. When we landed, we realized we could walk to the hotel from baggage claim- w00t!- and did so. But, then we had to wait a bit for our room because it was so dang early and they had been sold out. So, we had breakfast and sat in comfy chairs. We met delightful staff members - 2 of which said they’d been there for 30 years- whoa! And finally, when Jason looked just about ready to fall asleep sitting up, they waved us over to get our keys. 

So, after some sleep and a shower, we cruised back down to the bar again and man it was poppin’. Turns out when you have a hotel in the airport that you can walk to but nothing else walkable, the lobby bar is the scene! We had some wine and appetizers and headed back up. We would try to have a normal night’s rest before our next overnight flight to Zurich.

We did ok with sleeping. We walked back to the airport and checked in and then were delighted to find we could both go into the brand new Flagship lounge. I was worried that they wouldn’t let me in since the upgrade hadn’t come through. Whew!

The lounge was pretty good for a US based on but no comparison to the Heathrow lounges, as one example. But! We were happy for food, drinks, comfy seats, and places to charge all the devices. While we waited, my colleague Nick popped in for a drink. Fun to be on the same flight. 

This pop up storm entertained us while we were in the lounge. When the rain stopped this beautiful rainbow came out!

After finally clearing the upgrade, I took the very last seat in business and I was so happy to have it! I’m old enough now that sitting that uncomfortably for long periods of time will make me miserable for a few days. We were entertained by the very loud, rude, and entitled man in front of me as he attempted to demand the steak for dinner despite there not being any more steak. What a moron. I had the salmon and it was delicious. I was able to sleep for a couple of hours. Jason powered through, as always, wide awake the whole time. He became best friends with the flight attendant who reminded us of another South African friend from a cruise we took a few years ago.

Before long, boom - touchdown in Zurich! We grabbed our bag, cruised through immigration, and I figured out WiFi and grabbed us an uber. We were SO happy to find we could check in early and went right up to our awesome room at the Renaissance downtown. It was now Sunday morning, we’d been traveling since Thursday and still weren’t yet at the place we were trying to go! Craziness. 

With that, we had a slow, chill afternoon and evening and went to bed looking forward to taking the train to Freiburg and seeing Germany for the first time the next day!

Our hotel was so cute- this book shelf was probably 8 feet tall and you could walk through it. These wasabi peas nearly burned my sinus passage off- love it! And really, who knew the Swiss were spicy?

It’s June- That means it’s time to meet up with Ashley somewhere in Europe!

 We didn’t mean to start a new tradition, but according to Facebook memories and my actual brain, apparently when it’s June, Jason and I head to Europe and meet up with our buddy Ashley somewhere. 

Let’s do it!

This time, we’re heading to Germany and Switzerland. I’m super stoked because I’ve never been to either and I do love collecting new countries!

It just so happens that Ashley now lives in Germany so she can just hop a train down to meet us when we arrive in Freiburg. BAM!

This whole trip just sort of accidentally worked out, as it often does, so that Jason can go- having just healed from getting a brand new right hip and conveniently still a few weeks from a brand new left hip. Ashley was able to get some time off work and I have to go for work which means my flight and first week of hotel is free. Woohoo!

It also means, sigh, that I have to fly coach. Let’s face it- I’m old now and my body doesn’t appreciate this horror and disgrace. When you can lie down up in business class and have a great meal- man, not going to lie, that makes a massive difference. Alas. I shall sit up right, likely sweating (why do the planes have to be so warm overnight?), not having anything to drink, and constantly trying to shrink so as not to be physically touching the people next to me. Can’t wait.

Thankfully, Jason can fly in biz so he can stay physically comfortable - doctor’s orders! 

Anyway, as I type we’re in Philly. We leave tonight for our overnight in Zurich and then we’ll take the train to Freiburg for the week. I’ll lead a 3-day offsite for my boss and our leadership team and then we’re off to explore cheese and chocolate and mountains in Switzerland! 

We have a terrific new ranch and creature sitter hanging at the house and we are so thrilled. What a mental load off to know she’s there loving on Jinx, Jeaux, Field, and Otro and making sure everything is fine. Cheers to Mary! (Shout out to Mark and Christiana, who are our normal ranch sitters in residence but who are working this summer in Colorado. Jinx and Jeaux send their regards and hope you can still come visit soon!)

The Definition of Insanity

 Things had been going exceedingly well. We were in Miami, having gathered bags, and clearing customs. Jason called us an uber and eventually it found us. You just never really know what is going to happen at an airport uber pick up spot. It’s never normal. Ever. 

But, things were still looking up- I mean yes it was now 5 am but do you know when a good time to drive through Miami is? 5 am. We arrived, sort of, and eventually had to walk around a building with our bags because someone thought it was clever to hide the hotel entrance around in what looked like some industrial parking garage. Cool. 

Now, here’s where it gets good. Imagine this scene - it’s cold for Miami. Maybe 50. We’re tired. We’ve been traveling forever. We know we are way too early for check-in but we have good status with this hotel chain so we’re hoping to get lucky. The lobby is oddly dark. I suppose it was time appropriate but not really business appropriate. There was one lady at the desk. 

“Hello,” she said. “How are you?”

“We are ridiculusouly early to check in!” I said in the most yay, I’m fun and awesome voice I could muster so she would think we were cool and give us a room.

“Ok, let’s take a look.”

See? That started so well. Then she said, “Good news - I am able to upgrade you. The room is ready but there would be an early check-in fee.” 

RELIEF! YES! I think early check-in fees are dumb but also, whatever. Jason said, “Ok, how much is it?”

Nothing could have prepared us for her saying, “$500”

I’d been traveling a lot and my brain immediately had a thought so I said, “500 dollars? Like in USD?’ Cause pesos was sounding up my alley.

And thus, a very bad situation began. She would not budge when politely asked. I mean, the room was ready. What difference would it make? So, there were 2 chairs in this dark lobby and they were by the exit door. It was cold, dark, uncomfortable but only 10 hours till check in so that was good. WHAT.

And, this next part is what really did us in. I am not making this up but I will tell you with extreme confidence that if you want to drive someone out of their mind, I know how. Because in this cold, dark lobby where we had to sit in these dumb chairs for 10 hours, there was also an alarm going off. Not someone’s iPhone alarm. Like a monitored door had been breached. 

We sat with this for about 2 minutes and finally Jason said to the lady, “Can you not hear that?”

She said, “What?” Like -dead ass. Not being snarky.

Jason, “The alarm that’s been going off the entire time we’ve been here.”

“Oh, that goes off on its own.”

Ok.

Now let’s skip ahead to the part where I let you know THIS WAS NOT TRUE. It did NOT GO OFF. About 45 minutes later, with Jason seconds from murder, some random man walks in the front door, goes over to the alarm door. Sees it going off and walks right back out. A few minutes later, he comes back, punches in the code, and the most exquisite, glorious silence I’ve ever experienced in my life happened. I almost ruined it by saying to the woman at the desk, “Seriously? What is wrong with your ears?”

Was she torturing us? Could she not hear it? Is she that callous? So many questions here.

Awhile later, I asked for a bathroom and she sent me up a floor. You know what’s on floor two? A massive, living area with soft couches, comfy chairs, etc. It was warm. FOR THE LOVE, why didn’t she tell us to sit up there?

About this time, Jason is blowing up the hotel chain about it - including sending a video of the dark lobby with the alarm blaring. Now, hear me - we were polite the whole time and we understand check in times. We were going to wait. Our issue began when she said the room was READY. No one else could be in it between then and us checking in. It was already clean. What’s the deal? If there is one, explain it!

So, the hotel chain was equally horrified and before long the daytime supervisor arrived. Guess where she was from? 

Argentina.

Guess what the first thing she asked us was?

“Where are coming in from today?”

About 10 minutes later, we were in our upgraded room with $0 in early check in fees. It was about 8 by then. Jason was pretty much done with life at this point and went to bed. I took a shower and felt surprisingly good so I went downstairs to the lobby restaurant for coffee and food. Both were delicious! This was not your average hotel restaurant and, in the spirit of Miami, had lots of wide open doors to the outside. I love a good open  air place. 

Later after we’d both napped and cleaned up, we went on a walkabout looking for a late lunch place. We found a terrific row of restaurants and bars and found some amazing tacos and margaritas. The weather this time of year there is perfect - about 70, sunny, and humidity in check. 

We thought this place will likely be a hit when it opens- LOL

We began attempting to rearrange all the things for the final flights home the next day. This is perhaps the thing I hate most about traveling. The annoying manhandling of the crap we have to carry around over and over again for each different mode of transportation requirement. But alas, it must be done.

I wanted to take Jason to the cool Argentinian-esque hotel lobby restaurant so we went down for wine. Turns out, it was wine Wednesday and bottles were 50% off. Praise the Lord. We saw some intriguing Argentinian wines but had no way of knowing if they were good. But then I remembered our new best friend, Jose, from the wine bar in Buenos Aires. I sent him a WhatsApp message with a screenshot of the wine list and a moment later he told us which to choose. We did and man was it terrific! I love making new friends!

While we sat there - super early for traditional dinner in Latin countries and apparently Miami, the cooks were prepping and doing interesting things. There was a full Argentinian wood burning stove going and we watched them grill up fresh pita bread. I guess I was drooling because before long the chef brought us a treat for free to try! I can’t remember what he called it but some little pita bread-beef sandwich grilled to perfection with a delicious savory yogurt sauce. That was enough to be our dinner since the tacos weren’t all that long ago!

Happy with the way the day ended, we went up and sat on our really cool balcony. It had a very comfy day bed big enough for both of us. We sipped our delicious wine and had a cheers to our last night of the trip! 

Buenos Aires by Land

 So, it turns out, we have a butler. And I don’t know about you, but what in the actual heck? 

Our first morning, we butled up some additional coffee pods and a bucket of ice. I couldn’t figure out the milk situation so I went downstairs and made friends with the concierge and he gave me a package, with great flourish, and said, “This is something like milk.” Great. I’ll take it. The coffee awaits!

Once we were ready to track down the HoHo, we were off to the races. I had scouted the area and taken screenshots of the maps while we still had WiFi. Before long, Boom- the red HoHo! We bought a 3 day ticket because a) we were going to be there that long and b) we’ve learned this can be a cheap way to move about a city, whether you still care about the narration anymore or not. 

Turns out, the HoHo stop nearest us was right in a major shopping area. Tons of shops, restaurants, theaters, etc. It reminded us so much of Barcelona. I love the European cities where everything is 100% walkable. 

We were able to get right on the bus and off we went- what a beautiful city! Before long though, we realized something. There either weren’t enough busses running OR there were too many people riding them. We would roll up to a stop with a bunch of people waiting and no one would get off. This meant no one could get on. They were told to wait for the next bus.

We did some quick thinking and decided that for day one we would simply ride the loop and not get off. Consider it like we were casing the joint. If we saw something neat, we’d come back. I’ll tell you one thing - I didn’t know statues were so big in Argentina. Not big like in size but holy crap balls there are a tons of statues. Ok, also, now that I’m saying it- there are also very large. Who among us knew this? I happened to be texting my bro who was asking what we were doing when we went by the surely famous statue commemorating the man who figured out how to get mail from Africa to Argentina. And listen, I’m not saying that isn’t cool. But is it statue cool?

We drove by the Recoleta Cemetery where Eva Peron is buried and got to hear a clip of Madonna singing Don’t Cry for Me Argentina. Took me back to my choir days. I’m certainly not suggesting that Madonna singing a version of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical number is the quintessential Argentina experience, but it was pretty great nevertheless. 

We hopped off at the other stop that was walking distance to the hotel and we were able to navigate back with the screenshot maps I had. As we got back into the heart of the shopping area, we decided to pick a cafe to grab a drink and a bite to eat. To our delight, an older gentleman came up to play some music for us all. A great way to relax and do some people watching!

After, we meandered our way back to the hotel and conveniently it was happy hour time in the lobby bar. We enjoyed trying another Malbec- so far, I’ve liked them all and historically I’ve been very hit or miss with them so it’s a fun surprise.

The next couple of days were similar - we used the HoHo to continue exploring different parts of the city and then wandered around on our own. We chatted up our awesome concierge guys and settled on a wine bar we wanted to go to in hopes of trying a bunch of different Argentinian wines. We took an uber over to it because it was a 15 minute car ride in a new direction. Jason was able to buy a 2 day international plan on his phone because you gotta have WiFi for uber!

Man, we hit the jackpot at this wine bar!! We ended up sitting in a back part of it with an incredible knowledgeable guy. He didn’t say he was a som, but I’d sure believe it. At first, he said he could pour us what they had open but then we had so much fun, he started opening all kinds of things. We got to go down into the cellar. He showed us some olive oil they make locally. We must have been there several hours. By the end, we were all WhatsApp friends and had a case ready to ship home that our new friend Jose curated for us. As we left, he insisted we take a bottle of local olive oil, too. What a pleasure!

Our trusty concierges also recommended “the best burger” places because after so much wining and dining, we were ready to just have a nice burger. We grabbed another uber and headed over to the Four Seasons with the rich people to try out The Pony Line. This is the lobby bar and restaurant there but it is legendary and it did not disappoint. I thought our Park Tower was a cooler looking hotel- certainly with a better lobby- but the Pony Line was rad.

Our butler had been doing us right- got some laundry done (returned to us in the basket below!), many more buckets of ice, new wine glasses, daily chocolates and nuts for snacking. Once they wheeled in an entire table when we ordered room service. And then, in the most epic butlering ever, our butler Eva asked if we would like a tour by window. We had three giant windows in the suite looking out at three different areas. We went to each one and she pointed out the buildings, history and interesting facts. I remember thinking how incredible it was to have this super sharp Chinese lady explain the Argentinian history and culture to us visiting US peeps. I love these small world moments- where all those things come together at once for such a time as this.

Before we knew it, is was time to head to the airport. We weren’t able to get a late check out, unfortunately because our room was booked. We killed time trying another local Argentinian snack at the lobby bar. We’d booked a car to take us to EZE airport, which is just outside of town. 

We had a bit of a wait before we could check in at the airport and drop the bags. I think maybe 45 minutes or so. By then, lots of people were in line. It is still weird to me that most airports outside the US don’t just have agents staffed at the counters all the time. Anyway, this time we were legit flying first class and boy did that open some doors! We got to go through this Fast Track line which pretty much sent us away from everyone else to a single, old school metal detector. We breezed through that, had 1 person in line ahead of us in immigration, and then Shazam, we arrived at the lounge. 

We had plenty of time to kill so Jason went exploring in the lounge and decided to take a shower. What a treat to be able to clean up at night before the long flight. They had a full bar and tons of food- all serve yourself. We had comfy chairs to sit in. About as good as could be.

Once it was time for the flight, I was excited to see if there really would be a different in first class from business class. There was! Now, we were flying for free- using all the miles we’d been saving, as always, so I don’t know that I’d pay the thousands more for first but- here’s what else we got over business class- a larger seat with a chair that swivels over to a desk or back to lay flat. In lay flat mode - nothing on either side of it so you aren’t jammed into a little cave like in business. We had an extra course in the meal service and better wine. But the best part was…. Pajamas! The attendant came by and said, “Ma’am, would you like some pajamas?” I gasped. Well yes, I would! Next thing you know, I have a new set of gray, super soft pajamas. We also had an upgraded amenity kit. In addition to sheets and blankets, we got 3 pillows and a mattress topper. I couldn’t quite figure out what to do with all the pillows but the topper was awesome and made it so much more comfy!

The flight was supposed to be about 9 hours  and we were to land at 5 am. In a weird twist of fate, we landed an hour early, which isn’t all together helpful when you are already too early for check in!! That said, the flight was terrific. Super comfy. I slept a lot. The meal was delicious. Jason even managed a nap. 

Global entry was once again worth its weight in gold - we blew right into the country with nothing more than a short pause for a picture at the kiosk. 

More on our time in Miami to close out the trip next!