Bert’s Blog

We had a productive, but very fast trip to Antwerp this past week. We were delayed 2.5 hours leaving Dallas due to an air conditioning valve problem. They had to shut off the air on the plane for about 40 minutes, and it got very hot. The plane was full and they did not allow us to deplane.

Since we were so late leaving, we missed our connection in Zurich. We had another 3.5 hour layover there. At least I had access to the Priority Pass Airport lounge.

We got to Brussels and took a train to Antwerp. Ashley decided that she really liked European train travel. The train was empty so it was very quiet.

We finally got to Antwerp about 500pm, and Ashley figured that she had traveled for 22 hours since leaving her house in Dallas. Despite all these wonderful delays, she did not get grumpy at all. YEAH!

We both took showers and decided to be adventurous and walked around the city until we found a nice Argentinian Steakhouse Restaurant. Had a nice meal and people watched. One thing that I was not aware was how one faction of the world controlled 98% of the diamond trade. We kept seeing so many men dressed in dark suits and formal hats, so we asked around and found out the there are many Orthodox Jewish men that are involved in the diamond industry.

We had a great time learning on the business side, and had a chance to have a nice meal in a very cool restaurant, and a brief walking tour of central Antwerp before we returned to Brussles Tuesday night. It was great to watch Ashley’s brain work on problem solving. I was surprised at how much she new about the robotics system, and how good she was at electromechanical work. The next time I need rewiring at my house, I will call her!

Be sure to check out the pictures of our trip in the gallery.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 16th, 2006 at 9:42 am and is filed under Tidbits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.