Blue Point: Copenhagen Red Line: Plane
Green Point: London Yellow Line: Bus
Yellow Point: Brussels Purple Line: Train
Sunday October 12, 2008:
14:45 - We took off from Copenhagen International en route to Nottingham (East Midlands) by Sterling Air flight NB583. About one hour into the flight the plane suddenly rolled to the left and lost about 200 feet in altitude within a few seconds! My friend Joe, looked out the window at this moment and saw another commercial airliner within 100 yards of our plane! The captain came onto the PA and apologized, but this little incident made me very nervous for the remainder of the flight -- lets just say I was glad when we landed in the UK! (Also, just a few days ago Sterling Air went bankrupt!) After going through customs, we took a 2.5 hour bus ride into the city and checked into our hotel (the Royal National Hotel). We then went out for a group dinner at a local Italian restaurant and the rest of the evening was spent exploring the SOHO district of London with a friend from home, Emily.
Some first impressions of London: (1) They drive on the wrong side of the road! (I almost got hit by 3 or 4 cars before I finally figured this out), (2) the city has many of the major chains from the US - Starbucks, Subway, McDonalds etc... (3) The Tube is so easy to use and maneuver the city! If only Los Angeles had a Tube...
Monday October 13, 2008:
9:45 - Our first business visit of the trip was to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or EBRD. This bank uses tools of investment to help build market economies and democracies in 27 different countries currently, from central Europe to central Asia. This was a very interesting visit as their head economist spoke to us about the strategic direction of the bank and future challenges. The presentation was in the main conference room, which was on the 15th floor and overlooked much of downtown London. It was cool sitting where the representatives of the 27 countries get to sit!
The EBRD
The Main Conference Room!
Flags
12:00 - We walked from the EBRD to Brick Lane, where we were given money to eat lunch at one of the many curry restaurants that line the street. I choose to eat at the Aladin Curry restaurant, which ended up being very tasty!
Brick Lane
14:00 - After lunch we were given a guided tour of London's East End, which has seen tremendous change over time. It used to be the poorest district in London, however today this area is becoming very trendy as artists, designers and city folk are snatching up the traditional 17C and 18C houses.
Historical Building in London's East End
A bar that "Jack the Ripper" frequented often
15:30 - After the walking tour, we were given free time to explore the city on our own. We first stopped at the egg-shaped building called the Gherkin. The building is 40 stories tall and has a restaurant on the top floor. The building was designed to be environmentally friendly and the shape of the building is used to facilitate ventilation.
The Gherkin
The next stop was BIG BEN.
Big Ben
Then we crossed the Thames and went to the London Eye. The views were absolutely spectacular from the capsules on the Eye. From start to finish, one revolution takes approximately 30 minutes, which gave us plenty of time to take in the sights on London. On a clear day they say you can see for 25 miles in any direction! Unfortunately for us it was slightly overcast, but the views were truly breathtaking!
Me in from the of the London Eye
Overlooking London
Buckingham Palace!
Harrods!
20:00 - After a long day of sightseeing and being tourists, we all met at the Palace Theater for the play Spamalot -- which is a play ripped off from the hit movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The play was very funny and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.
Outside the Theater
Tuesday October 14, 2008:
09:30 - We were supposed to have an academic visit to Actics.com in combination with Clownfish Marketing, however the previous day, the company went bankrupt due to the financial crisis! Apparently one of their major financial supporters backed out at the last minute, so the company had to fold (an example of how the financial crisis is happening outside of the US as well!).
So, we had the morning free to explore the city and do more sightseeing. A group of us decided to visit the Tower of London. The coolest part of the tower of London, was seeing the Crown Jewels!
The Tower of London
The Armory
Inside the Armory
1 of the many Ravens
We saw this sign in the Tube:
what is the other 28%??
14:30 - We all meet at the St. James Park Tube stop for our academic meeting with Transport for London -- which is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England (i.e. the Tube, London Rail, Buses, street traffic, congestion charge, light rail etc...) The meeting was great, one of the major topics addressed at the Transport for London was the Oyster Card, which is their form of electronic ticketing that uses RFID technology instead of the traditional paper ticket.
After the meeting we went out to a great restaurant called Brown's Restaurant and Bar and on the way I got my photo taken in a red phone booth -- call it cliche, but I had to do it!
Phone Booth
Wednesday October 15, 2008:
09:00 - We did not have any business visits, instead we visited the Tate Modern Gallery in London, which is the the national gallery of international modern art, it is one of the family of four Tate galleries. The gallery was very cool, my only complaint was that we did not have enough time to fully explore the gallery.
Outside of the Tate Modern
The entrance to the gallery
Famous spider exhibit
14:34 - Our time in London was over and we all boarded the Eurostar train #9138 and headed under the English Channel (the Chunnel) on our way to Brussels, Belgium.
Eurostar Train: London - Brussels
17:33 - Arrival in Brussels. It was raining when we arrived, so I got a bad first impression of the city right off the bat, but that soon disappeared when we explored the city and had a great French dinner.
Main Square
10:00 - Our first academic visit in Brussels was to Belgacom -- a telecommunications company with internet, tv, mobile and fixed telephone networks. This presentation was very interesting, we learned about the convergence of the telecommunications industry in Europe.
Belgacom Building
15:00 - We walked to EU Parliament and got a behind the scenes tour of Parliment! This building was very cool and we had a great tour guide who knew just about everyone in Parliament. The highlight of the tour was when we ran into the EU President Hans-Gert Pottering (the equivalent of Nancy Pelosi in the United States) who is from Germany
and spoke to us for 10-15 minutes.
Outside Parliament
Inside -- Where decisions are made
Yours Truly pretending to give a speech
The man himself: Hans-Gert Pottering
Friday October 17, 2008:
09:30 - Our final academic visit of the study tour was to the Brewers of Europe -- the voice of the European brewing sector to the European institutions and international organizations - essentially a special interest lobbyist group. They gave us a great presentation, followed by sampling of Belgium Beer!
Brewers of Europe
We then had our final group lunch and wrap-up session followed by a visit to Planet Chocolate, where they showed us how chocolate is made and treated us to free samples!
Planete Chocolate
Being shown how Chocolate is made
Favorite 3 Things about Belgium:
* Belgium Chocolate
* Belgium Beer
* Belgium Waffles
21:00 - Our bus departed Brussels for a 12-HOUR long bus ride back to Copenhagen. Needless to say I did not get as much sleep as I had hoped for on the bus. We arrived back in Copenhagen around 9 am on Saturday October 18th. That gave me about 24 hours to rest, do laundry, pack, and eat before leaving for Russia on SUNDAY!
Posts
