Out Door trade show, kid paradise

I am afraid my tales of Germany won’t be too exciting, and I have to be nice because this is the industry hand that feeds us, so to speak.  This week is really about the kids.  All three of them, that’s right. 

Indoor and outdoor pools

I’ll start with the youngest one.  The hotel is a kid’s paradise.  If you could ask Aidan what three things would make him the happiest boy on the planet, he’d tell you that he’d like a day where he could swim as long as he wants during the day, followed by free access to his own private putt-putt course, and then an evening of bowling until midnight.  And don’t even get him started on the breakfast buffet.

Could they be IMing each other?

Then my firstborn.  She got to have all of the above, and the company of another teenager for the week.  (I don’t know why, exactly, but we aren’t coming across very many traveling families.  I thought the kids would get a chance to meet way more single-serving friends than they have.)  With her new friend Brad, she got to taste a little bit of independence, running around unsupervised and even taking a taxi on their own to the trade show from the hotel.

Ken got to schmooze with the entire outdoor industry in Europe, which is not unfun.  This industry is largely (but not exclusively) populated with people who have not been encumbered with the outcome of procreating.  Those who have kids and/or spouses generally do not have them present at the show, so when the beer flows, and it does flow in Germany, the party begins.

As for me, meh.  It was good.  I got to swim, and to read hundreds and hundreds of pages of a few books, which was great.  Fiction even, something I rarely get around to reading.  For the last two weeks, I have sworn off reading my regular news sources, and I am deleting any email that isn’t either personal or a billing notice.  I had decided to leave it all behind while in France, so I could be entirely present, not concerning myself with the news cycle in the US – one that certainly would still be around when I return.  I like it so much that I think I am going to continue it for the whole trip. 

The bed is so hard that even the comforters are afraid of it.

I ended up taking care of the kids as they got a little tummy trouble.  I slept on a bed that was so hard that I actually pulled the sheets up to see what the hell it was made of.  Ever hear of a pillow top, Germans?  Austerity is not always the end-all-be-all.  The room was pretty cool though, we were on the top floor with skylights, and in a suite where the kids had their own room and twin beds.

Wifi was only available in the lobby, so I took advantage of it when I could.  One great thing about Germans is that they love to drink, so there was that too.  (One bad thing is that I don’t know a damn word of German, and because it’s not a Latin-based language, I couldn’t read a single sign.)

The trade show was pretty cool.  It was HUGE.  Friedrichshafen is where zeppelins come from.  Bet you didn’t know that.  

It’s true.  So the convention center here is like a whole bunch of ginormous zeppelin hangars.  In addition to companies showing their latest product lines and taking orders, there was an entire zeppelin field sized courtyard full of climbing walls and slack lines and of course, beer gardens.  

Each of these halls is the size of a zeppelin hanger!

...Remember my name...

There was an incredibly cute fashion show, with lots of dancing.  It turns out that in Europe, they use the whole spectrum of colors for clothing, shoes and gear.  
I really wish the clothing buyers from all the outdoor “lifestyle” brands/stores in the Seattle area could take away from this show the apparently remarkable notion that the color palette includes more than the same five colors we see in the Pacific Northwest. 

You know the colors – the bright apple-y green that every woman has in her closet.  I know this because you can’t have five women in a group without this color making an appearance.  Myself included.  It’s a great color, flattering to lots of skin tones, but please, enough is enough.  There is also the plum-y mauve, the chocolate brown, the teal/peacock blue, the burnt orange, ugh!  The same colors over and over, year after year are just variations on each other.  “I know – let’s heather the apple green and it will be revolutionary for spring.” 

Sorry for the rant.  Anyway, it was very interesting to get a glimpse into the market, to see who is innovating and who is imitating; what the bigger companies are up to, and whom they are buying to get even larger market share.