Five lessons learned or re-learned on my travels
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2013-12-15 17:35:48 - Graham Ellis1. Demand still outstrips supply in WiFi connectivity, and there are still people out there looking to make a quick profit. Conclusion of my trip from Melksham to Thun to give a course from Wednesday to Friday.
2. There is a lot that could be done by the UK railways to bring them up to the standards that you'll find in many places in Europe, and some of the ideas would, surely be cheap to implement.
3. There's nothing like a helpful real person who you feel appreciates your business to make you feel at home, or indeed to resolve issues. But such customer facing people are harder to come by than a manx cat's tail in some places.
4. Switzerland is incredibly expensive, and whilst you'll find plenty of efficiency, cheese and chocolate there, there's scarcely a cuckoo clock to be seen.
5. Our IT training delegates are, almost without exception, really lovely people that it's a privilege to teach, and it's really rewarding to see their progress over the few days I spend with them. I said "almost" without exception... let me make it 110% clear that I haven't trained any exceptions for months.
For those of you to whom I haven't responded as quickly as you (and I) would like... I feel that 5 Swiss Francs (that's four pounds) for 30 minutes in my hotel was profiteering that I couldn't support, and in any case their network (free in the breakfast room) timed out and dropped connections all too often when it was in busy use - like at breakfast time! A similar story on the Ship from Hoek of Holland to Harwich - great at 3 a.m.; Dutch and German trains much better, McDonald's in Thun a wonderful place (!) and a big THANK YOU to - you know who you are - who helped me out too ;-)
Electric trains all the way from Thun to Hoek of Holland. Impressed by cross-platform connections at big places between trains covering vast distances. A switch from the Interlaken to Berlin train onto the Munich to Hamburg train takes 8 minutes. And similar changes at Dusseldorf and Rotterdam (Venlo is 20 minutes!).But in the UK bus from Harwich to Mark's Tey, which left people behind because it was so full, then a 30 minute wait for the connecting (?) train. And diesel from London to Swindon. Good news in that at least that latter is being fixed.
The staff at my hotel seemed troubled to have customers. Nice place, but unfriendly, and unable to tell me about the buses that stop right outside, and really didn't want to look at a local map / advise me where to go. On being told I was leaving early on Saturday, no offer of a croissant or milk in the fridge as we would do, no offer to call as taxi. Don't get me wrong, the fabric of the hotel was excellent (doors clanked and echoed like prison doors, perhaps!) and facilities were as advertised (I do miss a hospitality tray, though).
A main course for 30 pounds before you add veg and drinks - and even at the staff canteen, it cost me 15 pounds at employee rates for a main course and fizzy drink. Ten pounds for a fast food burger starts to feel like good value, and the whole place makes Iceland look cheap. I understand the Swiss are well paid to compensate for the higher prices, and things like house rentals are about the same as the UK. It was good to get back to Germany!
Our delegates make the trip worthwhile... a fascinating office, some incredible people it was my honour to meet. But I'm probably not supposed to go on, and I certainly can't tell you their stories.