More BD meetings!!!

I had 3 BD meetings at Roche today.  In Basel, Novartis and Roche are the 2 big fish in town.  Roche is a very different company with a much larger recruiting function, so they use agencies for only 2-3% of their hiring, but I think there is a place for us, and I think they do too.

Today was beautiful!  It was cold and rainy and exactly what we all needed.  I am actually excited to go to bed tonight and get cozy.

I have a meeting in the morning and then we are headed to Zermatt, a small town in the Swiss Alps at the foot of the Matterhorn.  Maybe we'll ski??  We are
only going for 2 nights, back on Saturday, because I have to go back to Paris for meetings on Sunday night, and Eric and the kids are going to an FCBasel game!  I'm actually very jealous of that, but then I remind myself that I'm going to Paris for the night, and realize that I can't complain. :)

Heat Broke!!!!

I just had to post!  A front came in with thunder and lightning overnight 

and left cool air in its wake!!  I actually used a blanket in the morning.  We are so excited!  Guess I didn't need that fan after all!

Maddy even put a coat on this morning!

Luzern

I was so lucky to have had a meeting in Luzern today.  The city is beautiful and home to Merck's Swiss headquarters.  Their office is only a few blocks from the city center and the shores of Lake Luzern.  

The famous chapel bridge: (this pic is from the Internet, mine didn't come out good)

It was a quick visit, I actually had intended to spend the day, but as it goes, I got on the wrong train in the morning and lost all the spare time due to the mistake.  BUT, I did visit an electronics store and scored their last fan!!! I am so excited! 

My shiny new purchase: 

I got back to Basel in time to be a guest speaker for a Boston Herald Radio spot.   It was a live broadcast about career development relating to fresh grads.  It was fun and I hope they ask me back. 

After the broadcast I met my family at a pizza place in the center and on the walk home took some pics:  There's always something to see new here!

A floating concert on the Rhine!

View from bridge in front of our apartment:

Tomorrow is a packed day of BD meetings in Basel and the kids are back at soccer camp. I heard it might be cooler tomorrow.  Crossing my fingers!

Back in Basel, it's hot!!!

We took the 5 hour train from Munich yesterday back to our apartment in Basel.  I had meetings at Roche and Acino in the city and the kids went back to soccer camp.  Both meetings went great, but I would say the most noteworthy thing about being back is the heat.  I'm not going to lie, it's a little too hot for me.  Or maybe it's that spending the last 10 days in AC has mis-shaped my temperature gauge a bit.  It's 10:25 at night and about 85 degrees outside with an indoor temp of close to 90.  Apparently, AC in homes is against the law here!  I find solace in knowing that everyone is in the same boat, but I'm crossing my fingers it gets cooler.  Strangely, i cant find any fans either....no one sells them?  Maybe they are banned, ill have to ask.  

Here are some pics from today:

Bay at the pool

On river a tightrope to play on:

Great few days in Munich!

Friday was busy for me.  In the morning I was about 45 minutes outside Munich at the Sandoz offices.  Great people and great facility.  The train, tram, and bus system here is extremely easy to use, so getting out to the meeting and back was a breeze.  Also, everyone speaks English and the people here are SUPER helpful and nice.  In the afternoon I visited The Medicines Company.  If you've never heard of them, look them up.  Really inspiring vision and product line and I think our firms will work really well together. I'm looking forward to showing them!

Eric and the kids went to the Munich zoo.  They loved it!

After we were both done, we hit St. Augustine beer garden for more big beers and greasy food.  This was our favorite beer garden in Munich.  It's a must visit! 

I have eaten more pork product this week then I have in the entire last year!  Here are some pictures for St. Augustine:

My dinner, if you can believe it!

LOVE these big beers!

Maddy polishing off a plate of ribs

Beer number 2!

We are staying at the Munich City Hilton. They deserve a shout out.  The breakfast is amazing and included and we have an executive room, so we get access to a business lounge with free drinks and good all day.  Even wine and beer in the afternoon. This has been a super treat and if your coming to Munich, I highly recommend this place.

Kids at breakfast:

Today is Saturday and we had several people recommend a visit to Marionplatz, the market, and the Chinese beer garden, so we did all three.  The market was amazing and if I lived here, I'd go daily. 

This is the church in Marilnplatz.  

Upon each hour, the bells toll and these little statue dancers start moving in the center tower.  Very cool to see.

These are some pics of the market.  They have all these water spouts to refill your bottles with and they are adorned with flowers, so pretty.

We also stopped in at this surprising church in the center:

After lots of food, we decided to walk to the Chinese beer garden, which is in the English Garden.  I actually thought we were in the English garden the other day and it turns out, we were in a completely different spot.

The English garden is amazing and I wish we could have spent more time.  There are 2 rivers that run through it and they form these rapids and in a way, it's like the Rhine swimming in Basel, but the water moves much faster and there are bumps and twists.  It looked like so much fun and there were hundreds of people in the water.

The Chinese beer garden is in the middle of the garden and it was really cool, we stayed for a quick beer, ice cream and a few minutes to play on the playground.  The kids were tired, the walk there was close to 2 miles!

And I had to post this, when we got back to the hotel, the kids wanted one more trip to the exec lounge and they insisted that they wear Jammie's and slippers and it was a very funny sight in the hallways: 

Incredible castle......WOW

We put my day off to good use; Neuschwanstein castle is amazing! We took a 2 hour train ride to the beautiful town of Fussen.  If we had more time in Germany, a few nights there would have been great to hike or bike the mountainous and rural area around it. We didn't, so we made the most if our 5 hour stop.  When you arrive at the footof the   castle there is a smaller castle and a pristine looking lake:

We then hiked, up a VERY steep half mile hill to Neuschwanstein.  We had to bribe the kids with ice cream at the top to get them to forgo the bus and hit the trail.  

Stopped by a small trickling stream to cool off:

 At the top is a wooden bridge, and I didn't take a picture, but should have.  Imagine 1000 tourists in a rickety bridge over a 100 ft gorge.  Crazy, but the view was breathtaking:

From there you hike back down a bit and see the castle. No pics allowed inside, but here is a bit from the outside:

We started our hike at the orange roof!

The faces are of a few of the men who built it:

The castle was built by King Ludwig.  He loved Richard Wagner, German composer, so he built it extremely extravagantly, like out of a 19th century theatre set.  Sadly, it took almost 20 years to build, and he died 170 days after moving in.  It's been open to the public ever since.  Walt Disney designed magic kingdom after seeing it.

We decided to take a horse and buggy back down the hill:

The hike and tour took about 4 hours and after we headed back on the train home.  We were up at 6am and landed at 10pm back at the hotel, long but great day. We will all be tired tomorrow for sure.

I have 2 big meetings tomorrow, so I'm going to have to load up on the caffeine I think.   For now, to bed I go, Gute nacht! 

Beer, bratwurst, and pretzels!!!

Life is good!!! We left in the morning from Madrid and headed to Munich.  For the first time in our journey we are staying in a hotel, and its nice to be here.  There's some of the creature comforts of home and there's a gym, which quite honestly, we all need to visit.

As you can see, we were all quite giddy upon arrival! 

We are pretty much in the downtown area, and we found a fantastic pizza place for lunch then headed to the English garden, Munich's version of Central Park. While wandering we found the most amazing beer garden.  Picture this: large wooden tables, huge mugs of beer, pretzels and pretty much anything else you could want, AND a playground.  Just sitting around drinking-with your kids totally occupied, GENIUS!!  Maybe I don't get out enough, but do places like this exist at home?

After our stroll, we headed downtown and had dinner at the famous Hofbrauhaus brewery.  It was worth a visit!  Music, great beer, coloring for kids and tons of people watching.  We had a great time!

The size of the beers is impressive...

And yes, I finished it!

And this was dinner, now you see why we need a gym!

Tomorrow is a free day for me, so we are headed to Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle Walt Disney used as inspiration.  It's an all day excursion, so it should be fun!