Bonn/London March 2007

I was in Bonn, Germany & London for work. I'll just share a couple of the highlights.

Our German colleagues were great hosts, taking us to some really good restaurants. Sunday night we went to Indochine, an Asian fusion restaurant. Monday night we went into Cologne to eat at a brauhaus. I had a dish called Heaven & Earth and I'm still not sure exactly what it was - some type of sausage and potatos - but it was really good! Tuesday for lunch we had Italian, and I of course had my staple, margerita pizza. And Tuesday evening we left Bonn and headed to London.

We checked into our hotel and headed up to our rooms. This is probably one of the most interesting hotels I've ever stayed in. All the hallways were narrow and twisting going up and down stairs. And this was before I got to my room which was extremely small. The roof was sloping down. I nicknamed it the "Harry Potter" room as it reminded me of the room under the closet Harry had in the first book. We went to dinner at a Greek restaurant down the street.

The next night, after our conference, we went to see Wicked. I've never been a huge fan of the Wizard of Oz but had heard good things about Wicked. It was amazing!! I loved the story (which is told from the Wicked Witch of the West's point of view) and the songs were great. The lead actresses were excellent.

Friday we toured around London. After beautiful weather in Germany and even our first few days in London we were hoping it would continue but Mother Nature had other ideas. It was overcast and before long it started to rain. But you've got to expect rain in London!

Saturday we split up and I ventured out to Bletchley Park, where codebreaking was done in WWII. I had wanted to see it since I saw the movie Engima, which takes place at Bletchley Park. The house is an electic mix of different architectural styles - the original owner got ideas from places he had traveled to and incorporated them into his house. The lady who gave my tour actually worked at Bletchley during the war and one of the women on our tour did as well. It was neat to hear their stories. It's unfortunate that Bletchley is not a government-run museum, it's funded entirely by donations, as it lacks the efficiency and organization you normally find in a museum.

Sunday we left and came home.