Amsterdam

The last day in Munich provided a few interesting experiences. We visited Bogner Fashion House - a leader in the European luxury sportswear industry. It was fascinating to get a glimpse of how the company works. The highlight of my whole trip (at least so far) occurred on this same day; I ate dinner at Wursthaus in der Au. This was a restaurant I ate at during my last stay in Munich, and I have been waiting two years to go back. It has, easily, the best German food I have ever had. So I dragged a few friends there and we sat and ate until they became equally enamored with the place.

Early Thursday we left for Amsterdam. It is reputed to be a party city and, from what I witnessed, it lived up to its reputation. The multitude of bars and... other establishments... as well as a generally unkempt appearance remind me of an exaggerated Clifton. While there were several worthwhile things to do, overall I was not impressed.

On Friday, we took an intermission from the Amsterdam experience and went to Brussels. It is a beautiful city! We visited Deloitte Belgium while we were there, where we learned about how they have worked to change the image of their company within Belgium. I found their work fascinating. For example, to attract college grads, they threw a car into the employment package - a blue Mini with the greet Deloitte dot on both rear view mirrors.

Over the weekend, back in Amsterdam, we didn't have any company visits, so we spent a lot of time visiting museums. The Rijksmuseum was very expensive and under construction, so very few pieces were being shown. The Van Gogh museum was actually really interesting. It not only presented the artwork, but showcased Van Gogh's life and his impact on the art community. The Anne Frank museum was similarly enlightening and was incredibly powerful and moving. In addition to visiting museums, I stopped to eat and had the best pancake in the world. It was about 18 inches in diameter and was covered in powdered sugar, fresh peaches, and cinnamon ice cream. Yum!

Monday morning we visited the most beautiful factory in the world - the flower auction. I took some great photos. The whole industry is actually pretty fascinating. After, we left to go to Geneva, more on that later :)