Germany Visit

   Back in January of this year I was sent on a business trip to Germany to spend a few days there to meet with one of our largest clients. It certainly was a long trip from Minneapolis to Chicago, then to Amsterdam, and finally landing in Hamburg. 

   While it was a chance to go to Europe for my first time ever, I was unfortunately very sick at the same time with a sinus and lung infection. This made flying very painful with the cabin pressure changes. I hope to never experience that again. 

So I will share some photos below from the trip staring with a few from the Amsterdam Schiphol airport. Likely one of the largest and nicest airports I have ever been to.

Holland Boulevard Lights in Amsterdam Airport.

Closeup of the inside of the Holland Boulevard lights.

Our connecting KLM flight from Amsterdam to Hamburg with the sun just breaking the horizon in the morning.

After the short flight from Amsterdam, we landed in Hamburg, very tired from the flight. We stayed at the Hotel Hafen in Hamburg with rooms in the tower over looking the harbor.

View from my hotel window.

View from my hotel window, ship in dry dock for maintenance in the port of Hamburg.

Interesting space saving bathrooms.

They even had a rubber ducky in the bathroom, but no bathtub. Not sure if was to be used playing in the sink. 

View of the hotel room from the bathroom looking over the desk and out the window.

View out the window with the fire escape, which was nice to catch some fresh air and some unobstructed photos from.

Clean room with cable set on the 

Small deer mount?

Every room has one of these, yes it is a real apple. As tempting as it was to have when I was sick, the apple was not in the best of condition.

Nice view of landungsbrücken and the port of Hamburg. I did not get to check it out, but there is a tunnel from here to the other side of the port.

Skyline view to the north east.

Across the port you there is a theater putting on the production of The Lion King.

After dinner Jay and I headed back down the walkway to our hotel.

Crepes of course!

Really great looking ship in the port.

Where we stayed, Hotel Hafen Hamburg. Apparently had burned down in the past. They had a beautiful interior and items we would consider delicate and antiques just part of the usable decor.

Another view of landungsbrücken.

Cargo ship moving through the port at night, I like seeing all of those cranes on the horizon.

Vancouver Island

Friday morning Tom decided we go to Vancouver Island and visit his friend and former classmate Stu Johnson in Nanaimo, BC. Before we headed out we had to pick up his results to his english proficiency test for apply for Canadian residency. After we ran up to Simon Fraser University we went over to Burnaby Mountain Park with a gorgeous view of the valley.

View from Burnaby Mountain Park of the Indian Arm / Burrard Inlet looking at North Vancouver

Totems at the top of Burnaby Mountain Park

    We decided to ferry over to Vancouver Island to see his friend from school Stu Johnson in Nanaimo, BC. We took the ferry from Tswassen, BC to Nanaimo (Duke Point) which happened to be the wrong ferry. Stu lives 5 minutes from the ferry terminal in Nanaimo, BC but, this ferry we took was about 27 Km away from where he lives. It made it an adventure to say the least. BC Ferries

   Nanaimo is a nice small coastal town with a Mediterranean climate, meaning it rains slightly less over there, but it has some nice foliage. I got to see float planes come in and land in the harbor and we traveled south to Nanaimo river to go swimming Saturday.

  One thing I did learn is that in Canada they use debit cards with a chip set in them for transactions, not an RFID but a chip that makes contact with the reader instead of the magnetic strip. So some places could easily take money while others insisted we have a card with a chip in it (even though they could have just swiped our cards). Tom said in his 5 years of living here he has never encountered that problem.

  We couldn't stay over in Vancouver Island for many days unless we rented a hotel room, and got a taxi to take us back to the ferry. So Stu was gracious to let us stay with him. So we took the 8:30 ferry back to Tswassen since Stu had a wedding to attend on the mainland Sunday and we messed up and parked in Tswassen instead of Horseshoe Bay.

  The ride back on the ferry was very beautiful, so check out some of the images from the trip below.

Ticket for the Ferrry Ride over to Nanamio (Duke Point) Wrong Ferry....

Tom on the right boarding the 2 hour ferry to Vancouver Island Nanamio, BC

Sail Boat in the Strait of Georgia (Between Vancouver Island and the Mainland)

Lighthouse station near Vancouver Island

View of Mount Baker in Washington State while on the Ferry

Nanaimo Bay

Nanaimo Bay - Docking for float planes

Sunset view from the ferry ride back from Vancouver Island

Sunset view from the deck of the Coastal Inspiration ferry (built for the 2010 Olympics) 

Deck of the Coastal Inspiration ferry

Suset over Vancouver Island

Deck of Coastal Inspiration Ferry

Tom Rodengen aboard the Coastal Inspiration Ferry back to Tswassen, BC 

Queen of Alberni Ferry in the Strait of Georgia

Moon over Tswassen, BC

Me on the deck of Coastal Inspiration