Saturday, 15 December 2007

Phil - Chicago via Finland

Christmas is fast approaching, and so is the end of my travel schedule for this year. 

This second last trip for the year (I have to go to Cologne for a few days next week) was really interesting 

First stop was Helsinki, where I'm sure I never saw daylight. I arrived late at night, was up early to take a 2 hour train ride to Turku (where our company has a factory) to have a some meetings and a site tour and watch the robots dance! The technology that goes into production lines is quite amazing!.

I transferred back to Helsinki by train, and even though we were rolling through the Finnish countryside, it was all dark.

After some further meetings in Helsinki, I flew to Chicago - my first visit to the home of the Blues Brothers.  Nicole, however, sees Chicago as the home of 'ER' and asked if I saw George Clooney anywhere. 

Chicago is a great city, I was really impressed. The Euro is killing the dollar, and I was able to get in an hour's shopping (ended up with new ice skates for the boys!). 
 
The meetings were really interesting (do I sound surprised?), but I was really sad to be away for the Christmas concerts and other events at home.  For some reason I missed putting them in my diary. Usually the personal events get put in the calendar first, and I work trips around them. I have some video footage to enjoy (but it is not the same, is it?). At least I convinced Nicole not to decorate the tree without me!

 
Huge snowstorms shut in the Eastern Seaboard, but luckily, Chicago missed it all and I got out in time - and glad to be home.

 
I am so looking forward to the Christmas break!

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