Drupa - About Town

Traveling around Dusseldorf has been an experience - some good - some bad.

For example did you know you can order a liter sized mug of beer? Now that is darn right civilized I'd say. When I was in London last weekend the best you could do was order a half liter mug of beer. Now I have to admit that I did like the beer better in London, but I don't think 'bitter ale' is a form the Germans go for.

I went for dinner my second night in town and ended up down on the Reine river. Outdoor eating seems to be a big thing over here. This was the day before May Day - which is a holiday - so everyone was out to have a good time.

Seafood is very popular hear, and ordering is very fast and casual.

I found a place to sit - which was a real challenge - and then ordered a beer. After the beer came I went to get some food - using the beer to mark my table - but when I got back these three woman had parked themselves at my table. Oh well, I guess that is how things are done over here. They did not actually steal my table cause they knew someone had left a beer there, but they figured space is short and let's be friendly.

The woman on the left is 'Erica' (what a coincidence) and was the only one who knew a little English.

After dark when things start cooling off they turn on some heaters to help folks keep warm. Now these are some kick-ass heaters they have going here. Yes folks that is a one meter high open flame - wha-hoo. It was not all really that cold - at least for me - but I guess not everyone has my metabolism.

I have to say having dinner outside next to the river this was a real treat.

The other thing I noticed is that people walk along the river, or sit on the grass beside the river with open beer, wine and coolers - public drinking seems to be totally OK here - something I would just never imagine anywhere in North America. Even in town, people walked out of bars and pubs with their drinks and finished them while walking about the sidewalks.

Drupa

 
Drupa, in Düsseldorf Germany, is the largest Print Industry trade show in the world, and it only happens every four years. Ever since I started at Creo in January 2004 I have heard about Drupa and always wanted to go and see what it is our customers really do. As Kodak is currently in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection it is unimaginable they would ever send me, so I decided to send myself. I am not going for the whole show, but I plan to spend two weeks in Germany playing tourist, and then a week in Toronto (on the way back) visiting friends.

I have never been to Germany before. I have been to England once, but that is about as far east as I have been, unless you consider Australia east of us (which it technically is). The plan is to spend a couple of days at the trade show, and the rest of the time exploring Germany.

Preparing For the Trip

I use to be an experienced Road Warrior, and travel was a way of life, but I have not had to plan a trip like this for a long time.

1. I saved over $500 booking through Travelocity, as compared to Air Canada, even though all the flights are Air Canada. Sadly I was not paying attention and I booked my last flight from Toronto at 10:55 PM instead of 10:55 AM like I thought I was doing. I guess I am taking a cab home from the airport in Vancouver.
2. I also booked my car via Travelocity.
3. I tried to book my hotel via Travelocity, but I waited too long and the hotel ran out of vacancies (I was 2 hours too late). I eventually found a decent hotel through Booking.com because it had more hotels listed than Travelocity - Binnewies City Hotel in Neuss.
4. I had to apply for an international driver's license. You need to get a couple of passport photos taken. I thought this would take a few days, but if you go directly to the BCAA office they do it in a few minutes while you wait.
5. Deena suggested I download some audio books - which was a great idea for the long plane flights. I downloaded about 1.15 GB of Larry Niven novels. Deena has another 7 GB of Anne McCaffery novels.
6. I picked up a pair of noise cancelling headphones from London Drugs. I really hate noise, and endless hours of jet engines and wind noise is very depressing. They seem to work great with my new Samsung Galaxy Note and Sony Tablet S.
7. I want to take Deena's new Dell laptop with me, but my computer system has been acting up lately so I am reluctant to leave Deena with twitchy computer system at home.
8. I looked in to travel rates for my phone with Rogers. Can you believe 25 MB of data costs $100 - that is totally criminal - but it costs incredibly more than that if you rely on data roaming. Voice and text is a little better at $56 for 40 minutes and 25 messages.
9. And many other details and things to finish up before I leave...

I can't believe I have only a couple of days left before I leave. This is usually the worst part of any trip, especially when you have not traveled for a while, wondering if you have planned everything carefully.

Remenising Tofino

My original plan was to post more frequently while in Tofino, but the spirit of irresponsibly enjoying myself caught up with me, then Deena's laptop computer died, blah blah blah...

To sum things up - I cannot believe I waited so long before ever visiting Tofino - it is such an incredibly beautiful place - and so close to Vancouver. To be sure, Tofino's main industry is tourism and consequently it caters to tourists. However, it is not (yet) the flashy kind of tourism you will find at Whistler, rather a more rugged and lay back experience.

My key experience with the region is dining - there is an abundance of places you can get great food, especially seafood. I was able to easily maintain my oath to have seafood at every meal. The Food & Wine Festival was really the best time to be in Tofino for dining, but it is important to point out that prior to that in May there are three other dining festivals in the region. The locals are increasingly caught up in refining the dining experience and will likely be trying to out-do themselves year by year.

Friday June 3 we attended the Winemakers Dinner at the Shelter Restaurant. This was a seating of 16 people, including the couple who own the vineyard and the owner of the restaurant. The winemaker gave the chef four wines to pair with four courses, and the chef really rose to the occasion. What made the meal even more remarkable were the people seated at the table - at least the ones near me were intelligent, experienced and had a talent for appreciating good food, wine and conversation.

Saturday was the actual Food & Wine Festival at the Botanical Gardens - my main reason for picking the dates of our trip. Sadly I was a little wined out from the night before and the festival seemed to be emphasizing Wine rather than Food. While there was good food available, I would have liked to have seen more food, and more substance than treats.

For lunch I highly recommend Sobo - they have an awesome seafood chowder with tons of fresh salmon and a wonderful crown of fresh dill. This came with hearty slice of fresh cornbread. They also seem to make the best chai latte in the area.

Our last night in town we went to the Pointe Restaurant at Wickaninnish Inn. The view is ineffable, and I do not have the skills to take a photograph that would do justice. In celebration of the Food & Wind festival they have a special tasting menu to showcase the talent of their chefs:

Spiced Lamb Broth
Confit Lamb, Endive, Fennel

Black Olive Crusted Sablefish
Red Pepper Puree, Chili Lemon Gelee, House Cured Lomo

Braised Rabbit
Hand Rolled Pappandelle, BC Morel Mushrooms
Roasted Garlic, Medicine Farms Argula

Cinnamon Churros
Tomatillo
64% Chocolate, Cigar Jelly

Yes, yes, yes - it all sounds fancy, but believe me, it all tasted much better than I would have imagined. I started off the meal with a Bourbon Snap - Makers Mark, Grand Marnier and fresh basil - it was so awesome I had to have two. Deena talked me into ordering the Pinot Noir we had sampled on Friday, and I'm glad she did because it paired wonderfully with the rabbit. After dinner I enjoyed a truly remarkable Tawney from Australia. And least, but not last, I started off the meal with some exceptionally good cinnamon bread. The meal was three hours and over $400 with the tip, but every once in a while you just have to spoil yourself. To top things off, Deena was kind enough to indulge me by wearing my favorite dress I bought her in Australia - and she looked stunning.

I've really only covered the food highlights of this adventure, and I will try to catch up with some of the other treats later.

Waking Up In Paradise

It was really great to wake up to peace and quite - no buses driving by or motorcycles, no dogs barking - the noisiest thing we have is the sound of the waves crashing on the beach and I rather like that sound.

Thursday, we went for lunch a Sobo in town. My lunch was good - fresh salmon - but next time I will try the seafood chowder as that is one of the things they are famous for. They gave us a little taste, with some fresh dill - mmmm - have to go back.

We spent most of the day just walking around checking out the shops and stuff. It's pretty much your standard little tourist village with various gift and art shops. Deena found a pair Emus - sheepskin boots from Australia. They seemed to be half the price of Uggs, and they were another 40% off, so the Scottish side of Deena took over and she realized she needed them.

I got a free aluminum/steel water bottle because we hit all three outfitter stores in town.

It was cloudy with light rain, so we just hung about in town most of the day, then came back to our awesome suite so Deena could finish up some synagogue business. I finally turned on the TV to see what was available and was surprised to find Al Jazeera - but I guess that's one of the perks of satellite TV.

For dinner we went out to the Schooner in town. Deena had beef tenderloin, because it was her birthday and she did not want any more seafood. I had a whole crab, which took a long time to eat, but it was really yummy.

Tofino Bound

I have never been to Tofino before and I have always wanted to go because so many people tell me how beautiful it is. This year I decided it was time to check it out. I looked up Tofino on the web, and searched for any events. The Food & Wine Festival goes from June 3 to 5 so I bought tickets and booked a suite at the Beach Break Lodge - which was actually the first place I found.

We took the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo - this was Deena's first crossing by this route. We caught up with Robert Hooper and David for lunch. Deena got a couple of great big hugs from Robert - you would think they like each other or something.

Traveling across the island was interesting as I have never been this route before. Much of the route was white-knuckle driving because of the twisting road so Deena was pretty sore from trying to keep her balance. Maybe I will let her drive back so she can at least hold on to the steering wheel.

It was about 3 hours from Nanaimo to Tofino. It was easy to find the .Beach Break Lodge because I have my navigator going in my phone. The place really is gorgeous - inside and out.



Seriously, this is the view from our back porch. Yes, that is our hot-tub/spa in the lower right corner of the photo. While the spa holds two easily, you would have to have close friends to fit four people. Indoors there is also a huge bath tub for two people and a large shower (also fits two).

We went into town to look around. There is an awesome grocery market there that has a lot great food. While our suite has a kitchen, it is small and does not have a lot of appliances.

We ended up at The Shelter for dinner. The first Vancouver/Boston game was on, but we were seated upstairs so could not watch. They had a feature fixed menu for the festival, including wine pairings with the different courses.

We started with fresh clams in a tomato ragout paired with a rose wine. It was great using pieces of fennel seed bread to soak up the extra ragout.

Then we had breaded oysters on fennel slaw with a mayonnaise dressing paired with sauvignon blanc,

Finally we finished with baked sockeye salmon on potato salad and kale, with gherkins and capers, pared with a pinot noir.

Desert was dark chocolate mousse with raspberry compote. Deena had port and I had a Joshua Tree - navan, grand marnier, and roiboss tea with a slice of real vanilla bean.

At the end of the meal we heard the crowd scream and as we were walking downstairs we could see on the big screen that the Canucks won - scoring the on goal with 17 seconds left in the game. Those Canucks should like to cause the fans a lot of stress...

Later that evening we just chilled out, and then warmed up in the hot tub before packing it in for the night. There is nothing like sitting in a hot tub looking out at a beautiful beach while it is growing darker.

There's No Place Like Home

At the end of the day it's always nice to come back to your home, your lair, your crib, your demesnes, your place of refuge or your fortress of solitude.

Every once and a while, however it is nice to get out into the world and see new places, start new adventures. For those of you have followed our out travels on Deena Down Under I thought I would start a more generic blog of our adventures.