Busy Week in Europe

I am now back in Japan trying to recuperate from my whirlwind business trip to Europe last week.  It was truly a week full of planes (8), trains (4), and automobiles (39)!!  I am exhausted because our schedule left little time for sleep, and I am expected to be at work on Monday at 9:15am even though I didn't get back home until after 9pm on Sunday.



The weather was terrible all week. I was told to pack warm, but I looked at weather.com before leaving and was optimistic of their predictions. Most days it was gloomy and rainy and the temperature never went above the 40's. It certainly didn't feel like May. I hear that our originally scheduled week in April (with the volcanic ash cloud) was a beautiful week.

Despite the cool temps, I still noticed that many local people smelled "ripe". And some taxis, hotels, and other establishments had a B.O. scent lingering about. I remember this vividly from my trips to Spain and Italy in the late 1990's. Mental note to myself: Avoid Europe in the summer. I don't want to imagine what happens in hot and/or humid weather.

Speaking of my previous trips to Europe, here are some things I was expecting but didn't get on this trip:

• Towels that were thin and nonabsorbent and are better suited to be a tablecloth, but this time they were fluffy and absorbent and even provided washcloths!
• Crusty rolls for breakfast. I will admit that most days I opted for extra sleep, skipped the hotel breakfast, and ate one of my packed granola bars instead, but the few instances I did have breakfast there was always sliced bread with butter, cereal, and fruit, among other things.

I also forgot that:

• Cobble stone streets seemed charming at first, but by the end of the week I was so over them. They caused me to walk wobbly and made my feet hurt. I will take flat asphalt any day.
• Water is served still or sparkling (no gas or gas), and you always had to purchase an entire bottle at a restaurant, rather than being served tap water.
• Smokers were everywhere!!  Japan doesn't allow smoking on the streets, so I didn't like walking by people who had a lit cigarette and were blowing smoke in my face.  I was even in an elevator that had an ashtray!!
• Hotel rooms are curiously dim.  It seems like every place I went used a 40 watt bulb to illuminate the entire room.

On cool thing is that I ate dinner in 7 different countries in the past 7 days:
Monday ~ United Kingdom
Tuesday ~ France
Wednesday ~ Belgium
Thursday ~ Czech Republic
Friday ~ Poland
Saturday ~ Germany (airport layover)
Sunday ~ Japan

I must confess that all of these different cuisines did not agree with me.  Towards the end of the week, my body went into revolt.  But I continued to eat local foods and local brews since it was expected, and I figured I may never get the chance again.  (Individual food pics to come later this week.) 

I was kind of disappointed that once you get to the mainland of the EU (European Union) there is no border control, so no passport stamps for in and out of each country.   It's like going from Michigan to Ohio.

More details to come later this week once I catch up on my sleep and upload my photos :)