Yesterday Katja and I went on a short-notice business trip to London. We agreed on flying to London late Wednesday night only so it was not possible to organize it all in the best way (=no cheap flight). We left the house Friday morning early about 6 p.m., drove to the airport and took a germanwings flight to London-Gatwick. Arriving in London we took the "Gatwick express" train to Victoria Station. It has been 'a while' since we've been to London (>10 years) so I forgot about their prices there. This Gatwick-express for example costed GPB 14 one way for each person, so we paid GBP 56 alone to get from the airport to the city and back - wow (a taxi drive is said to cost ~GBP 80 - one-way). Arriving in central London the weather was perfect - no cloud in the sky and about 22C already. We walked from Vic to Buckingham Palace as we had enough time left and then took a cab to our final destination. All I can say about our business meeting now is that we had a good product and tried to sell it for a reasonable price. The people we met there were professional, fast-thinking, straight-forward and it was a pleasure to deal with them. After two hours presentation/dicussion we were promised a decision as fast as possible, most likly on the very same day.

After the meeting we went to a pub/bistro were we could sit in the sun and discuss how we did, if and what kind of mistakes we did and what the final decision will mean to us. We had all day in front of us as our back-flight was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. We walked around then a little and finally decided to take a bus sightseeing tour around London. We jumped on the bus, paid the GBP 20 for each person and took seats on the upper open deck. Wow that was great! Good view, fresh breeze, perfect sunshine. That tour takes about 4 hours to complete, you can jump off and on the bus on every station and even change the tour as the have three different routes thru the city. At about 2 p.m. we got the call that our 'product is sold', all background checks and decision-backup through company's central went positive! Good news! We spent all afternoon jumping off and on that bus tour, viewing many many of Londons attractions, taking dinner etc. before going back to Victory station/Gatwick. In Gatwick we watched the second half of the World Cup opening match between Germany and Costa Rica (great shot by Frings!) before flying back home.

Some words about London: we were really impressed by the city (other than the other times we've been there), sure, the weather helped a lot but central london really was nice. Only two things to consider: prices and noise. Both are way to high. No wonder all those brits have countryhouses, they really need them! Knowing NYC from several trips I never had that impression there. We were relieved when we got back to our quite little Hamburg :). I would have taken some more pictures but I was unable to delete some files on my cell phone so bright was the sun, the display was not visible.

Being total exhausted after a long day and 7 hours in the sun I decided to drive to the local Casino at 11 p.m. to play some cards... lol. There was only one table going and I did not liked to wait so after some minutes of chatting with a friend there I left back home (subject: 18 years old internet poker millionaires and why are not one of them - we both found not one single reason except we are not 18 anymore ;). Now back on my desk, Katja still sleeping I start to realize what we have achived yesterday... WOW.

Stay tuned.