After almost 3 years, I finally had a chance to get back to Europe! It was a quick trip for work, crammed in between our Las Vegas trip and our vacation in Montreal. It gave me the chance to get back to Toulouse to see the team, as well as spend a bit of time in the UK, both for work and on the weekend to see some friends.
Note: As Justine and I are going on vacation the day after I get back from Europe, I’m going to do this post initially with pictures only from my phone. So they won’t be the best, but I’ll go back when we get home and try to update with more (and better) pics. But I wanted to capture the details before I forget!
The main purpose of the trip was to go to the office in Toulouse and spend time with the team there. It had been almost 3 years since my last trip and we’re all feeling a little disconnected. COVID has been bad for this, despite all the video calls. We’re also losing a lot of people from the team; some people are moving on to other adventures. This gave me a chance to see some of them in person for maybe the last time.
The trip didn’t start well - the line up for security.
I left on the Monday evening, and the trip didn’t start off too well - the lines at the airport to get through security were crazy. But I had given myself lots of time, so this wasn’t much of an issue. I hung out in the lounge for a while, before getting in the plane to Europe.
As I often do, my route was through Munich and then on to Toulouse. It provides a short connection, and a good airport for spending that connection at. The flight was on a brand new Airbus A350, which might now be my new favorite plane to fly long haul on. It’s open but quiet, and seemed to have more room in economy than most.
We got into Toulouse about 5pm on Tuesday after a mostly uneventful couple of flights. I managed to doze on and off on both flights, and so I was actually feeling not too bad. The trick was going to be forcing myself to stay awake until late that evening. Naps are the killer…
Looking down the new pedestrian street towards the center of town.
Looking back towards the train station on the same street.
I was travelling with a coworker from the development team, Peter. To make sure we stayed up, we headed out for a bit of a walk, then to find some dinner. As it had been so long since I’d been to Toulouse, I wanted to see what had changed. The last time I was there, they had started a few big construction projects. One of them had been completed - transforming one of the central streets into a “Ramblas” (like the main street in Barcelona) pedestrian street. Those are the two pics above. They did a really nice job of it, leaving enough of the roads for cars but also providing a very nice atmosphere for pedestrians to walk. Once the trees start to grow and fill in it will be really nice.
The other major project was the redevelopment of the main train station. That one is still going on. They have finished most of the work on the main plaza out front, but half the station was still closed down as they were renovating inside. And they had some of the tracks dug up. It looks like that one will continue for a while.
The redesigned plaza out front of the train station in Toulouse.
The Canal du Midi, as it plunges under the main plaza.
The Canal du Midi runs from Toulouse, 240km to the Mediterranean. In the centre of town, the lock dives under the central plaza in front of the train station. It’s created this great open space and I’ll be interested to see how the renovations of the station conclude. Hopefully next time!
I was only in Toulouse for 3 days. It was very productive time spent in the office, coupled with some great team bonding at lunch time and in the evenings. We went out for dinner as different groups on two nights, and had a great time. The restaurants were good (although at one of them, the service was really slow) and the food amazing. I really miss the food from Europe!
Friday was the last day in the office, and so we went out for lunch as a fairly large group. There is a great little restaurant on the Canal du Midi that I had not been to, that I wanted to try. The patio looks out over a very pretty stretch of the canal, as it heads towards Toulouse.
Lunch was excellent, but by this point I had eaten so many large, heavy dishes that I opted for salad. And while it was amazing (huge piece of burrata on the salad), the duck leg everyone else ordered looked and smelled so good I immediately regretted it!
Saturday morning we had a very early start as I was heading back to the UK. I had meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday with partners and customers, but had the weekend to myself. That enabled me to see some friends and spend the weekend with them.
Mark and I went to university together, and have remained closest of the group of us that hung out together over those four years. It seems like a different lifetime… I generally try to stop by for a visit, and was on my way to their house when I had to abort my last trip at the start of COVID-19. Mark and Rachel have always been great hosts and I was dying to see their daughter Arwen, who was only 2 the last time I was there. She’s grown up so much since then, and we had a really fun weekend together.
I landed at Heathrow around 8 am, and it took a while to get a rental car and get on the road. They gave me a manual transmission, which I hadn't driven in a good 4-5 years - let alone on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. But I made due, and the car was actually really nice to drive (Kia Sorento). So that all worked out well.
Mark and family live in Royal Tunbridge Wells, a small town southeast of London. They’ve been there for about 8 years, but recently moved within the town. I thought their old place was amazing - this huge Edwardian townhouse in the middle of town - but the new place is even more amazing! It’s was an old “country house” whose estate has been turned into a private road and subdivided. I think there’s about 18-20 houses on the private road, all beautiful and well spaced, with lots of green space separating everyone. As I had unintentionally planned my visit for the Queen’s Jubilee weekend, the neighborhood had planned a closed street party on the Sunday. So I got to meet many of the (very welcoming) neighbors as well.
Arwen - getting so big!
I arrived around lunch time on Saturday. I got to meet Arwen (who not surprisingly did not remember me) and get the tour of the house. It’s beautiful - a bit too big for me - and I am amazed by the size of the project Mark and Rachel are undertaking to restore the place. They have great taste and will do a great job, but it is going to be a huge amount of work.
Arwen and I played around outside a bit, and I got to see the gardens. They have some amazing old rhododendrons and lots of azaleas, and I was sad that I missed the peak of the bloom. Mark showed me some pics from a few weeks back, and it was just amazing. As Mark needed to get organized for the party the next day, he and I headed out to pick up some groceries and such. It gave us a chance to get caught up as well.
We had a relaxing evening, chatting and getting caught up while watching the Queen’s Jubilee concert on TV. It was well done, but we were all tired and needed to start early for the party set-up.
The festivities were planned for 1 pm, so the morning was spent hauling tables and chairs and and other things needed for the party down to the spot they had picked to set-up. We also took down all the food and drink, and it took a good couple of hours to get everything sorted out.
The Jubilee Party! Thankfully the weather behaved and the rain held off.
True party was lovely, and I got to meet many of the people from the street who were all very nice and very happy to chat. I spent a lot of time entertaining Arwen and some of the other kids on the street. But the highlight of the day was certainly getting to see the World War II era bunker that is under Mark’s house.
It seems that the people that owned the place in WWII built a proper bunker under the house. It’s about 1,000 square feet, has full rooms - kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms - a proper air exchange and filtration system, and the whole works are protected by feet of concrete. It’s in rough shape now, but will make a spectacular bar and movie theatre when Mark and Rachel are done with it! It is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time.
The entrance to the bunker - I’ll get some more pics up once I get home from vacation and can process them.
The party wrapped up in the late afternoon, and we all pitched in to help clean up. Many hands makes light work, and we got it all wrapped up pretty quickly. That evening was spent hanging out, talking while watching more of the Jubilee festivities. We needed to make it an early evening as we all had work (or school) the next day.
Mark and Rachel took Arwen to school in the morning and I got myself organized to head out. Once they got back, I got the car packed and started the long drive north. It was really great to have spent the weekend with them. Arwen has grown so much and it was fun to have spent some time with her at this age. And it’s always great to see Mark and Rachel and spend time with them.
Selfie on my way out.
I had a long drive ahead of me as I made it from the southeast to the northwest. I was headed to Liverpool!
A pilgrimage to Anfield.
As many of you will know, I am a big Liverpool FC fan, and have been since the early 2000s. Not a long time in the history of a club like that, but I did see them play live a few times while I lived in the UK. But strangely, I never actually made it to the city of Liverpool in all my time in the UK. Which in hindsight seems like a big miss. I guess I always figured there was lots of time.
The drive up was long and painful. A hour longer than it should have been due to issues on the highway. But I made it, and after circling the city center a couple of times managed to find a car park and get rid of the car. I was staying right downtown and the hotel I had chosen ended up being very cool. It was an old insurance company building that they had converted to a hotel.
I got settled into the hotel, then headed out to explore! My hotel was walking distance from the Royal Albert Docks, the historical center of Liverpool. The docks are full of very cool buildings - both old and new. Sadly it was late enough that nothing was really open. And it was a Monday, so all the museums were closed anyway. I’ll need to go back.
One of the interesting elements of the waterfront are the informational signs that explain some of the history of the area, with an emphasis on putting Liverpool’s someone darker past and central role in the slave trade into context. It was interesting, and part of the Maritime Museum is dedicated to a separate Slavery Museum. It would have been very interesting to see, and yet another reason to come back.
After wandering for a bit and taking in the sights, I sat at the Pumphouse pub and had a pint while the weather held. It was my first proper pint back in the UK.
Eventually I went and grabbed some dinner, and then met our new sales person for the UK for a couple of drinks and to get acquainted. It was a fine evening. The next day we had a meeting with Merseyside Fire and Rescue services, which went very well. I was glad I was there to help the team out with the discussions.
After the meeting, I made the pilgrimage to Anfield. Sadly we’re in the middle of the very short offseason, so there were no games going on. And for that matter, they seem to be building a whole new stand at the Anfield Road end of the grounds, so it wasn’t the most attractive time to visit. Still, I was able to walk around the whole stadium, and see the grounds. It’s a huge stadium, with so much history. Most of the good pics were with my proper camera, so I’ll update those later.
I went into the team store for a bit and bought a couple of things to remember the trip by. Hopefully I’ll get back to see a game some time soon! While I would have liked to stay longer, I still had a long drive ahead of me and it was getting late.
My stop for dinner along the drive was in Pants (yes that’s the name of the town), at a great little pub that had excellent food.
My meeting the next day was in Wales, which should have been a 3-hour drive. I chose to take the scenic route, which should have added about half an hour to the trip. The road was beautiful - twisty turny country roads (lots of sheep) and very nice scenery.
But sadly the trip was more like 5 1/2 hours thanks to a road closure that was unsigned. That closure caused me to have to backtrack an hour to an alternate route. Needless to say I was very unhappy and exhausted by the time I pulled into the hotel at close to midnight.
The front entrance to the St. Pierre hotel. I love this place.
I was staying at my favorite hotel near our partner in Wales - the St. Pierre. I’ve stayed there a number of times, and the old castle-like main building is just amazing. Sadly I had one very quick night, and had to head to the partner’s site for a day of work early the next morning.
My room overlooked one of the holes on the golf course. I would have really liked to have time to play a round.
The front entrance to the hotel, along with it’s beautiful little church.
After the day of meetings in Wales, it was the long drive (OK only a couple of hours) back to Heathrow. I had a hotel near the airport, as my trip home was early the next day. There’s not a lot ot report on this part of the trip. I did find a nice local pub near the airport hotel, so my last evening was not a complete write off. I was happy to be headed home, but was so glad to have started travelling again. It was great to be back in France, see friends in the UK and just generally get a feeling of hopefully things getting back to normal.