Well, as much as I hate to admit it, my 09 trip to Germany is winding down. I arrived on 29 April and will be flying back into exile to the US on 30 June. Sigh!
I really do love Germany. I'm becoming increasingly fond of Dresden. At first it was just the physical beauty of the city, but like first dating a lovely woman mainly because of her appearance, given time one starts to appreciate the inner beauty as well.
I'm working on finding a way to actually move there. Stay tuned. ;-)
Monday, June 22, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Dresden Germany
Located halfway between modern Berlin and Prague, the small Slovic settlement named Dresden in 1206 has graced the gentle banks of the river Elba for the eight hundred years ever since. Under the ambitious 1670 to 1733 rule of Augustus the Strong, (so named for of his legendary physical strength), the name Dresden became synonymous with the art, culture, and Baroque architecture still defining the city today. Undertaking massive building projects, Augustus (and later his son) pummeled the city with stunning Baroque structures. Attracting artists and musicians from around Europe, Dresden rapidly became a cultural center rivaling those of France and Italy.
Despite heavy destruction during eighteenth and nineteenth century wars, Dresden doggedly rebuilt and remained a center for art, culture, and industry well into the twenty century. For many foreigners (especially those from west of the Atlantic) the city is even today a mystery, remembered mainly for the tragic and still controversial fire bombing by Great Brittan and the United States just weeks before the end of World War II. As part of Eastern Germany swallowed up by the Soviets after the war, Dresden fell off the radar of most of us in the west. Isolated from mainstream Europe and seemingly forgotten, Dresden fell into disrepair during the forty years under communist rule until German reunification in 1990.
Self proclaimed as one of Europe’s greenest cities (the OLD “green”, not the new), Dresden today boasts over sixty-two percent of its area are woods and green spaces. A young city with a median age of 45, the bustling streets are swarming with eager young students with no memory of communism. There are still plenty of thirty and forty-somethings (and older) who, while grateful for increased prosperity under capitalism, bring with them the shared sense of community responsibility necessary to survive more difficult times. Try finding a dentist in the US, for example, who makes house calls! You will find that in Dresden.
While taking enormous pride in its cultural heritage and unbelievably beautiful Baroque architecture, Dresden has woven modern shopping areas seamlessly into its cityscape. Compact in size, the visitor can wander easily between the historic beauty of old town and the trendy multi-cultural streets of the Neustat district. Museums abound, as does music, world class dining, and night life.
Despite an unemployment rate lingering around sixteen percent, Dresden is recovering, even thriving. Boasting a shining new light rail system, the S-Bahn would be the envy of any modern city. Now teaming with ten million (mostly German) tourists a year, this emerald destination is still “undiscovered” by most American and many European travelers. A foray here can earn one bragging rights for knowing a “best kept travel secret.”
©2008 Robert J Trede
Despite heavy destruction during eighteenth and nineteenth century wars, Dresden doggedly rebuilt and remained a center for art, culture, and industry well into the twenty century. For many foreigners (especially those from west of the Atlantic) the city is even today a mystery, remembered mainly for the tragic and still controversial fire bombing by Great Brittan and the United States just weeks before the end of World War II. As part of Eastern Germany swallowed up by the Soviets after the war, Dresden fell off the radar of most of us in the west. Isolated from mainstream Europe and seemingly forgotten, Dresden fell into disrepair during the forty years under communist rule until German reunification in 1990.
Self proclaimed as one of Europe’s greenest cities (the OLD “green”, not the new), Dresden today boasts over sixty-two percent of its area are woods and green spaces. A young city with a median age of 45, the bustling streets are swarming with eager young students with no memory of communism. There are still plenty of thirty and forty-somethings (and older) who, while grateful for increased prosperity under capitalism, bring with them the shared sense of community responsibility necessary to survive more difficult times. Try finding a dentist in the US, for example, who makes house calls! You will find that in Dresden.
While taking enormous pride in its cultural heritage and unbelievably beautiful Baroque architecture, Dresden has woven modern shopping areas seamlessly into its cityscape. Compact in size, the visitor can wander easily between the historic beauty of old town and the trendy multi-cultural streets of the Neustat district. Museums abound, as does music, world class dining, and night life.
Despite an unemployment rate lingering around sixteen percent, Dresden is recovering, even thriving. Boasting a shining new light rail system, the S-Bahn would be the envy of any modern city. Now teaming with ten million (mostly German) tourists a year, this emerald destination is still “undiscovered” by most American and many European travelers. A foray here can earn one bragging rights for knowing a “best kept travel secret.”
©2008 Robert J Trede
Friday, February 13, 2009
My Bad
Oh geeze... Has it really been two years since I last made an entry? My bad!
It's now Mid-February, 2009, so I have a lot of catching up to do. That includes the better part of a year in California and two summers in Germany.
By the way, I did get a pleasant surprise this morning when I was notified by Freelance Writterville (http://www.freelancewriterville.com) that I had won third place in a little writing contest on their website. Kudos are always nice. :-)
I'll be back soon, my friends!
RJ
It's now Mid-February, 2009, so I have a lot of catching up to do. That includes the better part of a year in California and two summers in Germany.
By the way, I did get a pleasant surprise this morning when I was notified by Freelance Writterville (http://www.freelancewriterville.com) that I had won third place in a little writing contest on their website. Kudos are always nice. :-)
I'll be back soon, my friends!
RJ
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Return from Hong Kong
I just got back from Hong Kong last Sunday night (14 May, 2006). The flights went well enough. I probably was less tired as I walked through my doorway than I had been on previous trips of equal length/time. That was a pleasant surprise, although I seem to be taking longer to readjust myself to the time-zone here than I thought I would take.
After over a month there I still was not ready to return to the USA and Colorado. There are probably several reasons for that. The first is that I have lived in Colorado too long to see it as an “exciting” place to live. There is not doubt that Colorado is very conservative in nature compared with other places. There is also a notable lack of cultural diversity here. Having worked a few years in a job with took me to San Francisco relatively often, I’m convinced the “Bay Area” would be a better choice for me at this point in my life.
Back to my trip, I lived in the Panda Hotel in Hong Kong for the month I was there. Until the new airport was built, the Panda was the largest hotel in Hong Kong, having over 1000 rooms. While one of the new hotels close to the airport is now larger, the Panda still comes in at a respectable 2nd place, in terms of size.
The Panda is located in Tsuen Wan, a community located in the “New Territories”. While many of the newer hotels in Tsim Sha Tsui and Central are more elegant, I actually prefer staying at the Panda. Of course, the lower price at the Panda is a draw, but more importantly, the community where the Panda is located is much more of a “local” community than a “tourist” community (as are Tsim Sha Tsui and Central). I really like immersing myself in the local culture where ever I go, so it is much more pleasant for me to stay in an area which has many less tourists in it than some of the more “up scale” communities. In addition, once a person is away from the tourist areas, he/she has almost anything they need within a very few blocks of the hotel. I like being able to walk out of the hotel and find grocery stores, bakeries, local restaurants, and department stores within a minute or two. The tourist communities are full of… well… “tourist trap shops”, not to mention having no “local flavour”.
I came to Hong Kong for many reasons. One of which was for business. Attending trade fairs is not only enjoyable for me, but important to my business as well. Like many Asian countries, the level of technology is much more “state of the art” in Hong Kong than in the US. If I want to see what mobile phones, televisions, and consumer products will show up in the US two years from now, I come to Hong Kong. Like in Europe, the mobile phone technology is light years ahead of the USA.
I also had planned on taking the train up to Guangzhou in the Guangdong Providence for the Canton Trade Fair. “The Gods” seemed to be working against me, however, so I never made it there. As a start to my “travel troubles”, I had planned on obtaining a China visa when I arrived in Hong Kong. I had no idea that the Easter holiday would be observed by the China visa office, but it was. So I could not get a visa in time to attend the first session (first week) of the fair. That was really ok with me, as the products and companies I really wanted to see were all in the second week of the fair. When I tried to finalize my plans, however, it turned out the hotel reservation I had made did not work out… Instead of feeling frustrated, I decided just to recognize that sometimes do not work out as we had hoped. I decided just to accept my fate and not be upset. (This is a good way to be, I think. Getting upset at things we can not change really makes no sense if you think about it.)
Having said that, I was disappointed I could not see some of my friends and business acquaintances in Guangzhou. I was really looking forward to seeing my friends from Zhenmei Foods and Voyage Leather Products. One of the things which pleases me the most about doing business in China is the importance of personal relationships within business. Maintaining good personal relationships is not only pleasant, but also imperative when working with Chinese companies. This used to be true in the US as well, but I think we have lost this. That is unfortunate, in my opinion. In China, I feel a real “connection” with my business contacts and consider them my friends as well as my business partners.
While there is no doubt the people I meet in Hong Kong and China are genuinely sincere in their interactions with me, I am not always sure they strive to understand me as much as I do them. This is not a criticism of them as much as it is a simple observation. I get the distinct feeling Americans are looked upon as being “all the same”. I say this because I am often told that I do not behave “like a typical American”. While I take this to be a compliment, I also feel I would not be told this if Americans were looked upon as being individuals rather than as a “homogeneous group”. Still, I am not complaining, as it gives me pleasure to represent my country in a positive way.
Ok… as a “guy”, I can not resist writing a little about my impression of Hong Kong and Chinese women. I have been coming to the area for long enough that I think my observations are sound, and not those of someone seeing a culture for the first time. Of course, by speaking of Chinese women in general I run the risk of grouping them together as “all being the same”. That is not my intent. Like anyone, each Chinese woman is unique in herself as an individual person. Having said that, I am only speaking in general terms here, so I will have to take a few “short cuts”. In short, I really like Chinese women (generally speaking). Like so many other American guys, I have really grown tired of being thought of as “the enemy” by American women. (Sorry if I again appear to be placing an entire group of people into one “shoe box”.) I can only speak of my past experiences. Those experiences have been one of feeling very “under appreciated” by American women. (Come on guys… You know what I’m talking about.) On the other hand, so many Chinese women I meet seem to genuinely appreciate a man if he is well behaved, thoughtful, and sincere. I’m not trying to imply here that I have personal relationships with a lot of Chinese women. (Far from it.) I am instead making these statements based more on observations of how women interact with men in general in HK and China. I know this is a lot of writing just to get to one simple point… That is, I only wish to compliment the culture underlying Chinese women for showing a little appreciation for “a good man”. It is refreshing to see!
I will continue this later, as I really want to talk a little more about the culture I encounter when I go to HK and China, including the food, business environment, etc.
After over a month there I still was not ready to return to the USA and Colorado. There are probably several reasons for that. The first is that I have lived in Colorado too long to see it as an “exciting” place to live. There is not doubt that Colorado is very conservative in nature compared with other places. There is also a notable lack of cultural diversity here. Having worked a few years in a job with took me to San Francisco relatively often, I’m convinced the “Bay Area” would be a better choice for me at this point in my life.
Back to my trip, I lived in the Panda Hotel in Hong Kong for the month I was there. Until the new airport was built, the Panda was the largest hotel in Hong Kong, having over 1000 rooms. While one of the new hotels close to the airport is now larger, the Panda still comes in at a respectable 2nd place, in terms of size.
The Panda is located in Tsuen Wan, a community located in the “New Territories”. While many of the newer hotels in Tsim Sha Tsui and Central are more elegant, I actually prefer staying at the Panda. Of course, the lower price at the Panda is a draw, but more importantly, the community where the Panda is located is much more of a “local” community than a “tourist” community (as are Tsim Sha Tsui and Central). I really like immersing myself in the local culture where ever I go, so it is much more pleasant for me to stay in an area which has many less tourists in it than some of the more “up scale” communities. In addition, once a person is away from the tourist areas, he/she has almost anything they need within a very few blocks of the hotel. I like being able to walk out of the hotel and find grocery stores, bakeries, local restaurants, and department stores within a minute or two. The tourist communities are full of… well… “tourist trap shops”, not to mention having no “local flavour”.
I came to Hong Kong for many reasons. One of which was for business. Attending trade fairs is not only enjoyable for me, but important to my business as well. Like many Asian countries, the level of technology is much more “state of the art” in Hong Kong than in the US. If I want to see what mobile phones, televisions, and consumer products will show up in the US two years from now, I come to Hong Kong. Like in Europe, the mobile phone technology is light years ahead of the USA.
I also had planned on taking the train up to Guangzhou in the Guangdong Providence for the Canton Trade Fair. “The Gods” seemed to be working against me, however, so I never made it there. As a start to my “travel troubles”, I had planned on obtaining a China visa when I arrived in Hong Kong. I had no idea that the Easter holiday would be observed by the China visa office, but it was. So I could not get a visa in time to attend the first session (first week) of the fair. That was really ok with me, as the products and companies I really wanted to see were all in the second week of the fair. When I tried to finalize my plans, however, it turned out the hotel reservation I had made did not work out… Instead of feeling frustrated, I decided just to recognize that sometimes do not work out as we had hoped. I decided just to accept my fate and not be upset. (This is a good way to be, I think. Getting upset at things we can not change really makes no sense if you think about it.)
Having said that, I was disappointed I could not see some of my friends and business acquaintances in Guangzhou. I was really looking forward to seeing my friends from Zhenmei Foods and Voyage Leather Products. One of the things which pleases me the most about doing business in China is the importance of personal relationships within business. Maintaining good personal relationships is not only pleasant, but also imperative when working with Chinese companies. This used to be true in the US as well, but I think we have lost this. That is unfortunate, in my opinion. In China, I feel a real “connection” with my business contacts and consider them my friends as well as my business partners.
While there is no doubt the people I meet in Hong Kong and China are genuinely sincere in their interactions with me, I am not always sure they strive to understand me as much as I do them. This is not a criticism of them as much as it is a simple observation. I get the distinct feeling Americans are looked upon as being “all the same”. I say this because I am often told that I do not behave “like a typical American”. While I take this to be a compliment, I also feel I would not be told this if Americans were looked upon as being individuals rather than as a “homogeneous group”. Still, I am not complaining, as it gives me pleasure to represent my country in a positive way.
Ok… as a “guy”, I can not resist writing a little about my impression of Hong Kong and Chinese women. I have been coming to the area for long enough that I think my observations are sound, and not those of someone seeing a culture for the first time. Of course, by speaking of Chinese women in general I run the risk of grouping them together as “all being the same”. That is not my intent. Like anyone, each Chinese woman is unique in herself as an individual person. Having said that, I am only speaking in general terms here, so I will have to take a few “short cuts”. In short, I really like Chinese women (generally speaking). Like so many other American guys, I have really grown tired of being thought of as “the enemy” by American women. (Sorry if I again appear to be placing an entire group of people into one “shoe box”.) I can only speak of my past experiences. Those experiences have been one of feeling very “under appreciated” by American women. (Come on guys… You know what I’m talking about.) On the other hand, so many Chinese women I meet seem to genuinely appreciate a man if he is well behaved, thoughtful, and sincere. I’m not trying to imply here that I have personal relationships with a lot of Chinese women. (Far from it.) I am instead making these statements based more on observations of how women interact with men in general in HK and China. I know this is a lot of writing just to get to one simple point… That is, I only wish to compliment the culture underlying Chinese women for showing a little appreciation for “a good man”. It is refreshing to see!
I will continue this later, as I really want to talk a little more about the culture I encounter when I go to HK and China, including the food, business environment, etc.
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