For starters, I dont have a clue what Flying Hirsch means so if it is nasty, I have been duped. But I digress, this story starts at the ‘09 AIX Panasonic Party at a wonderful place called The Parliament. It looks like a converted government building with a killer bar and a huge eating hall. To those of you who have been to a Panasonic Party (Yes, it is capitalized because it is that good!) at an IFE function know, it is usually first class. We know, Panasonic has extended an invitation to most of them and we now get a way to say thanks. But I digress.

This story has two lessons: 1. What a Flying Hirsch is and 2. A warning not to drink them. No, there were no transgressions or embarrassments, however, since the author has not been contacted by any attorneys, one will assume all went well.

Actually, this blog has a beginning even earlier in the evening. It begins with an alcohol tasting. It seems that after dinner, when all were talking, I got a bit thirsty and sauntered out to the “killer bar”. To my surprise, I was the only patron. I was descended upon by barmen. These guys were great and asking for an after dinner cognac, I was presented with a wonderful Spanish Brandy that I had never seen before – Cardenal Mendoza De Jerez. This stuff is incredible; smooth with a fine sherry hit. Sherry hit is right because it is aged in a solera made from sherry casks, we assume (American Oak). Thanks Panasonic.

Bored, I sought other refuge in the bottle and the barman was quick to point out that vodka’s were capable of smoothness. No said I, because that is one experience I had not had. Excited to make my taste evening, the barman poured the best vodka I have ever tasted and if you like vodka, this is one for your booze cabinet. Made in France, Alpha Noble had the smoothest finish of almost anything I have ever drunk. According to the bottle (Yes, I could still read) it has been “ultra distilled” six times. What a vodka gimlet it made…after a straight shot, of course. Thankss Panasonic.

Bored again and still by myself, the barman, who was now spinning bottles like Tom Cruise in “Cocktail”, suggested a blind tasting – Alpha Noble against two others. Why not? Three shots on the bar and I could easily tell Alpha Noble…or not taste it, as the case may be. The other two were really different. The Polish one, Zubrowka, was akin to eating prairie grass. Not bad, just herbaceous…in a non-eco way. The bottle noted it was subtitled Bison Grass Vodka and the barman explained that it was mixed with Bison Grass for the taste. I described it as flavorless gasoline with a hint of Chamomile tea. Don’t get me wrong, this is one vodka you have to try. Lastly, I was presented with a Russian vodka and unfortunately I remember the name was in Cyrillic and had blue and silver color motif. It was a bit harsh but I still finished my offering…it was only polite. Thannkssh Panasonic.

Now the scene changed. Three airline employees hit the bar to my right and they gimleted and martinied their way to bar bliss on my right while we discussed the effects of good liquor versus bad liquor. Good won. On my left, two ladies occupied the two seats next to me and needed help choosing liquor. Being older and having experience with this matter I proffered an idea or two and they both ordered a couple of “cocktail umbrella specialties”. It didn’t take long to discover Claudia and Susan were from Airbus (Customer Service) and politely suggested that I drink a German specialty. Being in their country as a guest I thought it only polite to take up their suggestion, after all, everybody at Airbus seems to know what they are talking about. “Have a Flying Hirsch” they said. I thought they said flying horse and that seemed like a good liquor suggestion considering it was time to fly-the-hell out of there. So, I said yes and the barman knew exactly what and how a “Flying Hirsch” was. With a grin, he poured a shot glass full of cold Jagermeister and set on the bar. For the uninitiated, Jagermeister means “hunter” or some outdoor thing and is probably made from deer blood. Next, he placed the full shot glass in mug and proceeded to fill the space between the two glasses with the energy drink, Red Bull.

The taste could only be described as “medicinal, but with a silly hint of JP4″. I drank it and , interestingly enough, felt quite awake and clearheaded. Those crazy Germans…. There is a secret here but the girls did not have the presence of mind to tell me what it was – or they were waiting for the event that never happened. The shot glass stayed on the bottom of the mug and never flew in my face as I thought it would. Thus the name “Flying”. although I doubt “Hirsch” meant glass. The secret is drink slow. Somehow the shot glass will stay glued to the bottom if the Red Bull is allowed to mix with the Jagermeister as both leave their respective containers. Perhaps, the suction of the remaining Red Bull keeps suction on the shot glass. There, you learned something.

Drinking a lot of good booze is probably a bad idea, but it is still a better idea that drinking a little bad booze.

Thanxxxx Panasonic!

Update:  We discovered that “hirsch” is the German word for deer. “Flying Deer” is the drink name, but why? Simple if you are connoisseur of Jagermeister. The Red Bull commercials claim that “Red Bull gives you wings.” In this case, Red Bull and the Meister gives you “Flying Hirsch” and a full night of drinking. Ouch!

As usual, the Aircraft Interiors this past week was like an all-you-can-eat-buffet. It was more ground than a team could cover in a week…and we are talking IFE only. As a comparison, the exhibition booths occupied 4 buildings that were approximately one football field square each with IFE and Connectivity occupying roughly half of one building. Interiors, fabrics, hardware, trash compactors, coffee machines, etc all plied for a space on the plane. Airbus was there in force, and interestingly, Boeing was not. Perhaps they did not want to explain why their B787 was a couple years late. While they had reason, they still are in the airplane business and their absence on the show floor was noticeable. 

The big entrants are, of course, seats and interiors numbering over 200 booths while IFE and Connectivity garnered around 40. In a show with almost 500 entrants, our corner of the world is small. With IFE selling around $2 Billion per year in revenues, seats alone present a much larger revenue source. The addition of connectivity to the IFE category will up the ante, and this year it should contribute to a rapidly growing market segment. If one counts sales as deliveries, these numbers should really accelerate next year. Accordingly, connectivity is a growth business as will be the delivery of in-seat imbedded (portable-based) IFE and associated in-seat power. This area is probably the growth area of portable IFE and quite a few vendors were willing to talk about their plans. For example, IMS showed a great 12″ display that we think will be part of their eventual offering. digEcor’s newest digEplayer looked to be a good candidate for the job too. 

Another “pseudo-imbedded” system popped up from Zodiac (Sicma). We call them pseudo because the seatback unit really did not come from portable IFE beginnings, it was designed as a stand-alone, distributed content system. By that we mean that the seat hardware is hard disk based with content at each seat. The fiber optic back bone (Head end to seat box fiber and Ethernet to the display) is in the plane for broadcast solutions like map features and content updates. The Zodiac System is now marketed by Monogram (Remember Tom Lee the trash compactor king?) in California. We were knocked out by the GUI artwork, some of the best we have ever seen. They should have won an award for it! By the way, they just sold a few shipsets of hardware to Alia, Royal Jordan. Nice Work! No doubt seats and IFE were a strong point, one that was not lost on us and others. Perhaps there will be more selling partnerships in this area as seat integration is really a big deal. You know the old saying, “Hardware is easy, software is hard, and seat integration is impossible!” 

And speaking of fiber optic systems, the folks of Lumexis were there and quick to note their hardware featured fiber-to-the-display from the head-end servers with full interactive control by passengers. Their system is running on US Airways in a demo mode and we saw some great reviews by passengers. Light weight and low power (LOW HEAT, got it?) may just change the way vendors think about next gen IFE. 

Speaking of next gen IFE, one vendor talked to us with a hush-hush tone and said, “Watch out for a real change in our IFE- we are looking at a lot of new and different approaches!”  OK, that was a paraphrase but here is the message: Nothing is off the table in the next approach to systems. Weight, power and size are all in play as are the types of network distributions, partnerships, and even the possibility of outright purchase of other IP, hardware, and even corporate acquisitions. That is our position and we are going to stick with it. 

We will have more later but for now, jet lag is calling us for an untimely nap. By the way, if you have not discovered those energy drinks for fighting jet lag, be advised, they work. ZZZzzz!

More than anything, the twin towers at the entrance of old Lubeck, set the stage for what lies in the island-like town. The towers were the bold face of the original fortress that protected a trading center with access to its many storage buildings by sea.

Eventually leading to the Baltic Sea, the river that “surrounds” the town set it apart geographically and psychologically from the rest of Germany. Indeed, when Lubeck became a “free” town in 1266, it was given a tax-free status much like a free trade zone today.

This meant that the city would become its own entity and survive and prosper, driven by it’s own financial destiny, and thus stand apart from the other cities of Germany and Europe, for that matter. Further, being a free town, it was spared the fighting and conquering that epitomized the life and times of people in the Holy Roman Empire. The lack of change resulting from its political isolation is one reason that it is now registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site of Mankind and the epitome of architecture and life from times past.

Pointing out buildings and sites is best left for guidebooks. We tried to give a photographic visit. As many history buffs note, look up when visiting Lubeck because much of the art and artistic merit of the times remains on the outside of the buildings themselves. Pick up a Lubeck city guide at the information office before the town bridges if you want to identify sights. Many tours offer a circumnavigation of the town by boat, which is also a good way to start off. They run every couple of hours and are reasonably priced.

The city prospered on many import and export items but none was more important than salt. Lubeck was a big warehouse center for the commodity that was considered equal to gold because it was used in everyday life for food preservation and as a condiment and a cleansing agent.

So much of the city is captured in monuments and statuary it behooves tourists to know before you go and we wish that we had better prepared for the sights ourselves. Walking is a great way to get around but open-air tour busses cover much more ground. Of the sights we did see we highly recommend: Holstentor, St. Petrikirche, Rathausmarkt, St. Marienkirche, St. Jakobikirche, and Katharinenkirche. Lubeck is a really worthwhile one-day trip outside Hamburg and one we will probably visit every time we visit the port town.

 

 

For more information:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/272
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lübeck

After dragging into Hamburg the prospect of leaving on a train to visit another city the next day seemed — as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it — “..dragging ashes to ashes.” Our tour guide and trip promoter, John Courtright was MIA. It seems that because of an aircraft cancellation he was somewhere on a plane over the Atlantic and madder than a wet hen.

Germany is efficient, friendly and very interesting and the trains are pleasant and easy to navigate. After clearing the human minefield that lies between our hotel and the North train station in Hamburg, we first went to the information booth where they told us in polite English that the ticket “helper” would point us in the right direction and indeed he did. The train cost 15 Euro per person round trip and that is as much as a local cab fare to an inner city attraction.

First a bit about Hamburg cabbies, as they are great compared to hack drivers almost anywhere else. Not only do they understand a good bit of English, they are courteous and are more likely than not to drive a Mercedes. One fellow called his ride a “Merc” which is understandable but having grown up driving, hot-rodding, and generally customizing Ford Mercury flat head engines… the irony was not lost. The back seat is more inviting now than it was then — go figure. But I digress.

German train stations, like those of many European cities always seem to have some good tucker. Food is usually easy to buy, hold and eat. Frankfurters in Germany run the gamut in additives and foodstuffs, but curry seems to be a favorite… and why not? Curried furthers (Don’t call them hot dogs) and chips seemed like a good idea for second breakfast and it was an idea that continued to give back during the day. Don’t get me wrong, German food is very, very good and the train station stalls serve up a tasty, inexpensive, and fast offering. It is up to you to choose wisely. Food in hand, it can be eaten in any one of the quick tables (standing, please) or carried to the platform or trains.

Eating on the run, by the way, is inversely proportional to age. It looks acceptable to eat on the train so take your food with you if you are running late. We don’t know if the last option is legal because the “terms and conditions” on the ticket and most signage was lost on us. The only sign we clearly understood was a descriptive red circle with the usual bar thru it describing what activity your dog was not to do. Come to think of it, the dog probably knew as well what not to do as we did. Never fear, one can always do the foreigner feign — show the palms of your hands, shrug, and generally imply that your pathetic existence has once again been the product of a poor upbringing. It is also OK to say, “sorry,” as most cultures have adopted that word and accompanying gesture as a universal “oops.”

On the train, the ride to Lubeck is a 51-minute run and we really enjoyed the experience. In fact, a leather seat with a 48-inch pitch is about Business Class, without the lines at the loo. Keep your ticket handy because the conductor may want to punch you out (I love saying that). Our ticket had some German words that seemed to indicate it was because we were kind enough to not travel during the busy hours, were getting a deal on the price. We traveled in a time window that was from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM (pretty much)… the non-commuter hours.

No worries if you don’t make the 3:00 PM deadline, just mumble in English if the conductor takes your ticket and looks at you with that “Can’t you read?” look, they seem to understand that you are a product of the American educational system and that the money in your pocket will help to educate his kids. What goes around comes around. This is just one of the things I like about Hamburg — common sense and a “go easy on them, they are tourists who don’t speak German” attitude. Try that one in New York!

There seems to be no special train etiquette except don’t spit, feel free to eat but put your trash in the little box on the sidewall, and that dog-sign-thing we mentioned earlier. There always seems to be a newspaper available left on the seat by another traveler but if you don’t speak German, you most certainly won’t read it. Except for one thing, a German newspaper is pretty much unintelligible. The pictures.

 

And that is another matter. No doubt German newspaper editors have discovered two facts of life. Scantily clad women (That’s topless to you Bunky) are always part of the front page because that is why men pick them up off the newsstand. The second is: blood, gore, stupid movie star tricks, and generally outlandish behavior is the world’s favorite reading matter. I am pretty sure that in the late eighteen hundreds, the castle crazy King Ludwig of Bavaria built was the talk of the peasants. If newspapers were around then, he would have made the front page and everybody would have wanted to read about it. Newspaper people aren’t dumb, but we digress.

 

Arriving in Lubeck is a bit anticlimactic. There is no tipoff as to what is in store out the door and up the hill – none. The people at the information booth gave us a nice map and pointed our way. We were not prepared for the time warp that was a couple blocks away. The old city is up a small hill and across a bridge some 3 blocks from the station. As the Medieval city came into view, it is a bit shocking.

As we later found out, Lubeck is an island connected by bridges and while many were built later, the place has a sense of “keep out” and invaders would have had a hard time laying waste or forcing taxes upon it. Strangely, today’s tourist invasion is a welcomed one and this place is open armed to all who come. Totally surrounded by a river, old Lubeck is worth a trip and we thank Rolf — the Airbus guy — for the tip.

In April, with few flowers and an occasional sunny day, you can see why Europeans flock to it all summer. Pretty much, every view of old Lubeck is a spire, a waterfront row house or a narrow street with certain history that you will probably never know but the images are stunning. The city is modern but the setting is Medieval. Check out the photos and be sure to Google Lubeck and map your visit ahead of time. Wikipedia is another source for information. Our trip was too short so we won’t point out the sights, do that online before you go. And oh yes, be sure to pat Mercury (not the car) on the behind with your left hand as you leave for you are sure to come back.

Coming next… old Medievil Lubeck!

Do you like meat? If your answer is “Yes” and you find yourself in Hamburg, Panthera (pronounced here as “pant-tera”) is your feed bag.

Not far from an area noted for it’s missionaries and churches — the Reeperbaum — this Brazilian hangout does meat and there is not a vegan in sight. Dinner starts with a GREAT salad bar but control yourself. Don’t eat the shrimp and do eat the sliced ham leg (Serrano?) and great chorizo and summer sausage.

Next the veggies arrive by messenger such as rice, french fries, sautéed peppers (dont miss them), zucchini… I could go on forever but this is about the meat. Next, men with meat surround your table.

Two kinds of beef, lamb, chicken, two kinds of pork, sausage, squab, sliced fresh-off-the-spit meat sticks onto your plate… MMMMMmmmm! No limit, eat till you puke, then visit the dessert bar.

Life in Hamburg is good — cold — but good. Reservations are encouraged but if one pleads and sucks up to the maitre-de… let the eating commence.