Covered: 890 KMs

Locations driven to:

• Hannover to Frankfurt
• Frankfurt to Kelberg
• Kelberg to Stuttgart
• Stuttgart to Koln
• Koln to Frankfurt

Average Speed: 185 KM/H

Range of Speed: 160 Km/h to 230 Km/h

While driving I was driving at 200 Km/h there were a ton of cars that were passing me as if I was slow which pissed me off!

The cars that passed me while I was driving at 200Km/h:

• Audi A6 (HatchbacK)
• Audi A4 (Pre-2000)
• Opel something!
• Ford Mondeo!
• A DAMN VAN!

If you are on the highways and there are no speed limits visible you can go as fast as you want, I was following groups of people going 180 to 210 Km/h, its insane and I can’t believe that the whole lane were just flying. People are a bit aggressive in their driving but they are systematic, so its not as if they are trying to cut you off, they are just trying to go fast too, and if your going faster they will move out of the way. I am assuming I got caught by a couple of cameras, so I will know it a couple of of weeks from now. Another recommendation is never to go faster then a cop, but I did follow a cop and I wasn’t stopped so I got away with that.

The scenary is extremely beautiful and the banked highways were amazing to drive fast on! We literally drove through every season in the last 24hrs! We drove through beautiful sunny weather, through rain, through hail, and everything in between! It was insane, I was confused by all the weather changes it was different. And sometimes me and the navigation just didn’t agree and she would go nuts on me! I was laughing since my bosses in the car thought I couldn’t keep my foot off the accelerator! Everytime we had a distance of 100Km or more to cover I would always shave 30 minutes to one 1 hour & 30 minutes from the time to destination. I need to get on a race track post haste! For some odd reason there is no valet parking in all of Germany!

I just wish I could ride my bike in Germany my cruising speed would be everybody’s cruising speed!

Frankfurt airport is relatively boring compared to Heathrow airport. I have to say that the immigration people are very cordial and efficient.

We checked in our bags and walked right into gate A, after walking around for a bit and picking up a few items we went to the lounge to wait out the plane. I have to say for being an international airport they really don’t cater as much to its international travellers.

When we walked into the Business lounge it was packed full of people, I think they just need to improve the quality of the seating in the lounge. It looks and feels used and old.

The plane is packed full of people going back to Kuwait. Its a mix of people on this plane which is really interesting.

I’m just happy that I got my bags really quick and was able to head home to relax before I have to go into work this Friday. I will be riding Friday morning but later I have to go to work to finish up some work that has to be submitted by sunday.

We have been running around a hell of a lot the last couple of days. I will be coming back to Kuwait tomorrow on the Lufthansa flight in the morning and we were running around a lot and finishing up a few thing in Hannover then off to Frankfurt, then a meeting outside of Frankfurt. I honestly loved driving so much, I have a lot of things to take care of when I get back but the first thing I want to do is go riding.

I haven’t had any time to sit in front of a PC and type anything! I would have 5 minutes to check for emails and then take off and go where we have to go! Very little sleep and on the run, it feels good and just getting things done. Too many things to post about at one time, and Driving in Germany is fantastic!

We are done with CeBIT and need to get to Frankfurt. 364 KMs, 4 hours and 35 minutes based on google, but I bet I can shave an hour off of that.

I’m Driving from Hannover to Frankfurt and I have never driven in a European country before, I drove once in the UK but I just dont feel like driving much around here. I’m happy I managed to get the car with navigation. I got a BMW 525 from Hertz and its me and two of my bosses with me in the car. The thing is, I said I am going to drive no matter what. I love driving so its going to be really interesting driving in a European country and I know I will be pushing my luck with all the damn cameras. The Hertz guy turned out to be an Arab and he told me if I’m leaving Germany in two days not to worry about the speeding tickets, only when a cop stops you they will make you pay and they don’t take your license, you just have to pay right there and then. I’m willing to pay a few fines to go he speed that I want, its a misconception that there are not limits on German highways. I will just see how fast the fastest is going and go a little faster! I only wish the car was manual but you can’t get everything!
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Before traveling I went to my barber to get my head shaved and shave before traveling. The best part of it is that I went on my bike, so I felt great after doing that. One thing I’m really happy I did was bring my Oakley Beanie with me on this trip. Its the black in the picture above.

Germany is raining and cold so my ears were freezing, but my beanie did a good job of keeping me warm. When the sun came out for some reason it got a hell of a lot colder. Everytime we would wait for the train my ears were freezing to the point of falling off! This beanie is probably the only thing that kept my ears from freezing and falling off.

The second day we got started early and were going from stand to stand. There weren’t as many people since it was a sunday. After a few hours my feet went numb, every time we went into a building we had to have a plan of attack to know exactly how we are going to tackle the stands. Its funny, I started drawing patterns to how we were doing it, it was very systematic and worked but sometimes we stopped when there really wasn’t anything for us. I want to cover the networking because there are so many cool networking products and powerful wireless products! Too bad you can’t buy anything.

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After interacting with a lot of Germans I have come to quite a few conclusion, some are obvious and some are interesting.

Points:

• They love their cars
• They don’t understand all types of humor
• They are extremely proud of their language
• Not all of them speak English, even the ones at the convention
• They love Beer (Obvious)
• They love sausages
• They love Pork
• They Love Coke (No a Pepsi can in sight)
• They are really professional
• They are damn tall!
• They are very helpful, even if they dont speak English they really go out of their way!

Its really weird seeing an asian speaking German, for some reason it just doesn’t fit in my head! Lots of interesting people and they all work really hard, I was just wondering when they take a damn vacation. I could be totally wrong with these points, but its the conclusion I have come to!

There is a lot to like in CeBIT Especially if your in this field, but there are a few stands which really attracted me and made me want to just stay at the stand to play with all their equipment, and I still haven’t finished the whole thing and I want to check out a few more later but I don’t think I have the time. This isn’t even including all the work related stops we made. This is one extremely organized convention.

• ASUS (Mother Boards & Graphics Cards)
• MSI (Mother Boards & Graphics Cards)
• Thermaltake (Silent PC Cases, Gaming Systems)
• Samsung (Consumer Electronics)
• Toshiba (Consumer Electronics)
• TomTom (Navigation)
• Gefen (Audio/Visual Equipment)
• Ubuntu (Distro of Linux OS)

So we were trying to figure out which train would take us to the convention, so it turns out there are three different platforms and we have to go down to the lower floors to get up to any of the other platforms. So we had to choose our platforms carefully. Everything is in German so its a bit confusing in the beginning, but we tried to figure out which one was the right platform so we chose platform two since it said FAIR, but afer 10 minutes the train stopped on platform 4 so we had to go down and run back up but by that time it already had left. So then we went and got a quick bite and waited there for the next train and it did come after 25 minutes.

The Next Day we did the next thing but it was my choice so now I’m not allowed to make decisions regarding trains. I’m hoping not to do that again. But it was funny since we kept running up and down those steps.

We slept on the plane, it wasn’t too bad on the Lufthansa flight but some of the flight attendents just felt really dry when dealing with them. I don’t know maybe it was just the natural way they communicate with people. I was tired from a long day since I was up at 7am to go riding so a flight at 2:20 am that same night stretched my abilities to stay awake. I just wanted to get on the plane and pass out I didn’t care that it wasn’t moving really.

So as soon as we got on the plane we went to our seats and I was sitting right next to my boss. The funny part is figuring out how to use the seat. It really moves in odd ways if you want it in a certain position its shifts around under you in a strange way even going up, it feels wierd but it works.

As soon as we arrived we looked for somewhere to eat since we had about an hour and 40 minutes to our connection. So we went to get something to eat and I ordered veal sausages which came in the wierdest packaging I have ever seen but it tasted good. After finishing we went to the immigrations who were really decent, but he said my picture is too young, and I agreed since it was taken over 10 years ago and I haven’t changed it. I really look different then before so then we went straight to our gate and got on the plane after a little while.
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