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Sunday afternoon my wife and I stuffed our suitcases in my little car and set off for Boston.

We had planned to park in the suburbs and take the airport shuttle bus in, but the parking at the shuttle bus station was full so we drove all the way into the city.

I remember when the special parking for hybrids was mostly empty. This time it was full, so I had to park between more "normal" vehicles.

Driving directly in took a lot less time than the bus, so we got to the airport earlier than needed.

But, eventually our time came and we marched to the far back of the airplane.

6 hours later in London it was VERY windy. We flew loops around for a while hoping it would calm down, but it didn’t. It was not the roughest landing I’ve been on, but is in the top 3.

It was so windy that they refused to taxi the plane across the airport for fear the wind would bounce it and the engines would hit the ground.
So, they parked it at the end of the runway and sent busses out to get us.

The wind made scheduling problems. Heathrow airport doesn’t tell you what gate you’ll be using until about 45 minutes before the flight. They make you wait in their big shopping mall until then.
But, they don’t actually hit their targets for when they’ll tell you the gate. It annoys me.

But, eventually they gave us the gate and we flew to Luxembourg.

We got our rental car and headed off into Luxembourg.

After about half an hour of what Google said would be an hour drive it say "You’ve reached your destination". It did not look like a small town deep in a river valley, and turned out to be quite far off from where we really wanted to do. No idea why it took us there instead.

But, off we went again…

This time, the rain let up some and we could see by the sunset we were going the right way.
That helped a lot.

We did eventually see a small town in the valley under us and went down hill to where we should be.

It was a nice enough place.

I did have to ask for an iron for my work shirts and they acted like I had three heads. But, they did eventually bring me one and I was able to iron things for the next day.

My wife and I had breakfast together, and then I headed off to the company I was going to visit, B Medical. Good products doing a good function.

They started by giving us a tour of their show room and products. We were all very impressed. Especially by the Toyota product where they turn the back of a pickup truck into a vaccine delivery vehicle that keeps things cold for a good long time.

I wasn’t allowed to take photos in their factory or at the engineering meeting itself.
My wife was doing stuff while I was in the engineering meetings. While I have copies of those photos, she’s going to have to make an entry on them as I’ve got no context. So, go look at her journal for that.

After the first day of engineering meeting, my coworkers and I headed out, got on a bus and went to town.

Actually I had no idea where we were going. I had been told "a short activity and then dinner". This set exceptions for me that were different from reality, but I didn’t find that out until later…

There was a rainbow on the way. So much for that good luck thing…

My coworkers did NOT turn into zombies…

We drove the whole hour into Luxembourg city. I had not expected that…

I got worried when they kicked us off the bus and told the driver not to come back for 4 hours.

Everyone who knew the plan had not taken the bus.

There was a monument there, so we all just milled around it until the Chief Technical Officer of the company we were visiting showed up.

Then, down the path to the observation point we went.

We took a group shot there.

I had to admit, it was a very nice view.

Then, we marched along the river bank and back as the weather got worse, the river rose and eventually sleet began to fall on us.
I will agree it was very pretty and nice to see. But, without any sort of timeframe given, I kept thinking "is this where we’re having dinner?"

At this mermaid statue we were told this story:
"Once a king married a beautiful woman under the condition he would never watch her bathe. But, one day while she was bathing, he peaked in to watch her through the keyhole of the room and saw she was a mermaid. Then, she killed him. This shows mermaids are dangerous."
"Maybe it shows you shouldn’t peak through keyholes at women taking baths," I said.
"That is not the lesson I was taught growing up," he replied.
"Maybe it should have been."
"No, the lesson is mermaids are dangerous."
"That might be valid, but maybe there was more than just one lesson."

We marched on.

Some of the walkways were difficult.

One was abandoned due to the water being too high.

So, we crossed the river and continued on.

While going across the bridge the weather got quite bad. It didn’t photograph well, but it was a combination of rain, sleet and snow. It was at this point that two folks stopped to take photos and the group went on without them. I am told they found us at dinner, but I couldn’t swear to it…

We did eventually reach the dinner place that turned out to be right under where we took the group shot an hour or so before.

It had been quite a path:

I wouldn’t have minded so much if exceptions had been set. But, "a short walk 1km or so" is what we were told. 3.7 does not equal 1…

I was offered a ride to the top, and took it. I’m told the path to walk to the top was marked "Pass at your own risk" and quite muddy. So, I think I picked the right choice.

But, the car’s path was no less complex than our walking one had been…

The bus did come back for us and we headed off into the snowy night.

We dropped some folks off at the factory to clear their cars off and then went to the hotel.

The next day was cooler, but pretty with the coating of snow.

Although the next night’s activities were in the town with the hotel, I opted to skip them and have dinner with my wife. I was told I picked the right choice as the walk was just as long, but the hills much muddier.

It’s a long way up and down those hills. I had a good meal with my wife instead…

The last day my wife drove me to the factory so we could go to the airport from there.
I said goodbye to the ducks of Clervaux. Or, are they long necked turtles? 

After my day of meetings, my wife returned to get me, and we set off for the airport. I did not realize at the time my phone was set to "avoid highways"…

We got to the airport and found our gate.

My wife was very taken with the closable kiosks for checking in. She wants to use something like that for ticket sales at the new building in her school.