Day 6 – Wed 30 Sep: Dusseldorf

Breakfast was at the hotel again at 7am, a leisurely one this morning as our first meeting started at 10am.  We left the hotel at 9am, in a taxi, and were at the CCD a short time later.  We congregated outside the room allocated to us and soon discovered it had been double-booked.  So, we took a wander around and found a huge room and just used that for the MEPS Board Meeting.  That took 1.5 hours and then it was time for lunch – sandwiches and a bottle of water, oh and a green banana!

My only other function for the day was the MEPS Meet and Greet, but that did not start until 6:30pm.  Knowing this, I took my laptop to the CCD and set up in the wifi area and did some stuff: emails, words for photobooks, etc.  I also read my book.  This passed the time nicely until it was time to catch the bus to the Meet and Greet.

Our German hosts had put on a bus for us, and it left from the CCD at 6pm to take us into the Altstadt to the brewery Uerige.  Uerige was established in 1862 and is a craft brewery, brewing their own style of alt beer right on the premises.  We had a private room on the 2nd floor (3 flights up) complete with our own keg!  We were treated to a sumptuous dinner of many different dishes.  No-one went hungry, and only those that do not drink beer went thirsty! The leader of the German host committee, Arne Krappitz presented the Board members with special gifts, one of which was a bottle of wine from his brother’s winery – very special.  I also received a tea light candle holder that when lit, provides a shadow of the Dusseldorf skyline – a thoughtful memento.

 Because we were all having so much fun meeting new people and talking with old friends over yummy food and good beer, we did not notice the time ticking by.  The bus returned to pick us up at 9:30pm and we were back in the hotel just after 10pm.  A relatively late night, given the early start we have in the morning. 

EXPOPharm - 1 of the 3 halls

MEPS Meet & Greet venue - a private room at Brewery Uerige







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