WHERE IS IT?

Located in the city center, this small romantic hotel overlooks the picturesque tree-lined Groenerei canal.  It’s in the heart of Bruges (Brugge in Flemish, Brügge in German) and minutes away from museums and other sites.   The hotel has 30 guest rooms, all individually decorated.  The lounge is the restored Guild Hall of the Tailors and dates back to 1779.

ROOMS

My room was a bit small and full of lace with a beautiful view towards the street and canal. 
The bed was small but comfortable and, despite facing the street, the room was very quiet.  There are several renovated rooms in the hotel’s annex across the street next to the restaurant and parking area.

DINING

Die Swaene’s restaurant, located across the street near the hotel’s parking area, is in a 17th century vaulted room and offered a menu specializing in seafood and regional cuisine accompanied by friendly and unpretentious service.

Breakfast in the hotel’s ground floor dining room was a simple but ample buffet with a choice of ham, cheese, salmon, yogurt, fresh and dried fruit, and a nice selection of breads and rolls.  Orders for egg dishes were taken at the table.

ROAD WARRIOR

The desk was small but, since there was no Internet access in the room, it really didn’t matter. Since my stay was largely during a weekend and in addition to my meeting my plans were mostly to see the city, I didn’t live or die by not having Internet access but it was limited to the lobby and first floor salon and never worked in the salon and worked only part of the time in the lobby.  When asked, one of the managers smiled and said that it must be “something in the air.”

VERDICT

Die Swaene, a beautiful small luxury hotel run more like an inn, is a wonderful setting to meet but perhaps not to work in if you require Internet access.  Nonetheless, it is the perfect hideaway for business meetings and romantic journeys.

Die Swaene
Steenhouwersdijk 1
Brugge, Belgium
www.dieswaene-hotel.com

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

Brugge (Brugge is its Flemish name, in French and English it is Bruges) was, in the 14th and 15th centuries, a cultural bridge between northern and southern Europe and a cloth-manufacturing town (buy lace items during your visit).  It was rediscovered by English tourists in the mid-1800s who had come to see the nearby battlefield of Waterloo.  Today, Brugge is the perfect hideaway for business meetings and romantic journeys. The city thrives on its tourist trade and tourists are everywhere.

Leave the car parked and enjoy a canal tour and a long walk (ask your hotel concierge for a Welkom@Brugge card for discounts on tour, bike rental, and museum entry).

Don’t miss Galler and Moeder Babelutte chocolate shops, the newly-opened De Gastro restaurant on the Braambergstraat, the 14th century Stadthuis (Town Hall), the Choco-Story museum of chocolate, the Basiliek van het Heilig Bloed (Basilica of the Holy Blood), and the Kantcentrum (Lace center), with lace making demonstrations and a mission of continuing the lace education started in 1717 by the Sisters Apostle.

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

Skype Pro
Skype Pro is a relatively new offering that costs only $3 per month but offers many features particularly useful to the road warrior.  Most notable is the international traveler calling plan.  Users pay no per minute charges for calls to landlines within the same country or region (a connection fee per call, $0.045, may apply).  Coverage includes 28 countries, all of the ones I visited (Austria, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands) with the exception of Denmark.  In some countries, including Argentina and France, only certain major metropolitan areas are included.

With Skype Pro you also get a $30/year discount on a SkypeIn number, a free Skype To Go number (you can make international calls from your mobile phone at SkypeOut rates), and free Skype voicemail.

Research in Motion and Verizon Wireless: BlackBerry 8830 World Edition
I also tested Research in Motion’s BlackBerry 8830 World Edition CDMA/GSM.  Part of RIM’s 8800 series of phones, all of which share a full QWERTY keyboard, the pearl-like trackball for navigation, Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and a built-in speakerphone.  The 8830 supports dual-band 800/1900 MHz CDM-2000 1x EV-DO as well as dual-band 900/1800 MHz GSM/GPRS.

For Verizon Wireless customers who travel internationally, this makes it very easy to have a single number that works almost anywhere, something ordinarily not possible with most Verizon Wireless phones, which work only with CDMA networks.  The phone itself, however, was not that easy to use.  I found the keyboard, both for typing and for dialing, not nearly as user-friendly (in terms of not hitting the wrong key) as the smaller format Pearl, which given its quasi-QWERTY keyboard uses RIM’s SureType technology to allow users to compose messages quickly.  The centered dialpad was much easier to use on the Pearl than the 8830’s keyboard, which is not centered.  The 8830 also frequently refused access to the + key, necessary for dialing country codes.  Normally one presses down zero for a few moments and + comes up.  With the 8830, the + only worked occasionally and I had to resort to saving the + and using the paste function in order to dial calls.

These issues not withstanding, Web browsing, BlackBerry e-mail, and placing and receiving phone calls all worked perfectly.

Hotels
I visited multiple hotels and wanted to pass along a few observations important to the business traveler.

1.)    Hilton am Tucherpark, Munich, Germany
Internet worked well.  Rooms were comfortable to work in.  Location was a bit out of the way but on the other hand it was alongside the English Garten.

2.)    Mandarin Oriental, Munich, Germany
Couldn’t ask for a better location, within the heart of the Altstadt and close by to practically everything.  The rooms were recently refurbished and provided a comfortable work environment, although a more appropriate desk chair would have been icing on the cake.  Good Internet service.  Very personalized services, for example check-in formalities are done in the room.  Guests are always addressed by name.  Restaurant Mark’s is one of the top restaurants in the city and deservedly so.  It was too cold to really enjoy the roof-top pool but the views from the pool deck were magnificent.

3.)    Hilton am Stadtpark, Vienna, Austria
Excellent location across the street from the Stadtpark, Executive floor lounge had two free computers but they were always in use.  Internet was slow.  Reading lights for in-bed reading were weak.

4.)    Holiday Inn, Munich – Schwabing, Germany
Recently renovated rooms and lobby, plus a wonderful breakfast buffet.  Not overly luxurious but very comfortable.  New business center is a nice touch with a sufficient number of computers to accommodate most comers.  Internet service through Swisscom offered business-level service with quality-of-service guarantee (no questions asked).  I found the service slow and told them.  I was immediately offered a credit.

5.)    Fairmont Vier Jahreszeiten, Hamburg, Germany
Located on the western side of the Binnenalster lake, an impressive location to say the least, the Vier Jahreszeiten is also in the heart of the business district and its cafés, bars, and restaurants attract a local crowd in addition to visitors.  Hamburg, a city of merchants, is a bustling port on the edge of Scandinavia, with never-ending river traffic along the Elbe.  I noticed many Hamburgers came to afternoon tea, which featured live piano music.  Rooms are equipped with antique furniture, Wi-Fi that was usually OK but sometimes slow, comfortable work environment, and incredible views of the Binnenalster (the Alster is divided into the Binnenalster and the Außenalster, inner and outer Alster, respectively).

6.)    Die Swaene, Brugge, Belgium

The first thing I noticed about Brugge were the town’s narrow streets (on which local residents drove very quickly), centuries-old buildings that time had left untouched, and the city’s canal systems.  Brugge was, in the 14th and 15th centuries, a cultural bridge between northern and southern Europe.  It was rediscovered by English tourists in the mid-1800s who had come to see the nearby battlefield of Waterloo.  Today, it is a hideaway for business meetings and romantic journeys.  Die Swaene, a beautiful small luxury hotel run more like an inn, is a wonderful setting to meet but perhaps not to work in if you require Internet access.  Since my stay was largely during a weekend and in addition to my meeting my plans were mostly to see the city, I didn’t live or die by Internet access but it was limited to the lobby and first floor salon and never wo

rked in the salon and worked only part of the time in the lobby.  When asked, one of the managers smiled and said that it must be “something in the air.”

7.)    Park-Hotel Bremen, Germany
Located in the middle of the Bürgerpark, my stay there was brief (arrived Monday at 21.00) in order to be in nearby Bremerhaven for an early morning meeting.  The hotel’s services were exemplary, Internet was lightning fast (although their system required that I connect both the USB cable and the RJ-45 cable to my laptop), and I was sorry to leave only 12 hours after arriving.

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

Brugge, Belgium

The beginning of article comes to you from Brugge, Belgium, at least that’s where I think I am.

On October 15, I found myself on Lufthansa Flight 411 to Munich, arriving in time for the October 17 opening of the new BMW Welt (see BMW’s Brave New World), BMW’s new €500 million “experience and delivery center.”  Just a year ago, in these pages, I wrote about the European Delivery programs that automakers offer their U.S. customers, allowing them to pick up and drive an automobile in its native habitat.  As a BMW European Delivery habitué, I had been invited by BMW to be the first customer to collect a car when deliveries start a week after opening.

The BMW Welt's first customer delivery goes to the author

European Delivery is a process I had been through many times before. To some extent, it had become almost routine.  Fly to Munich, get picked up by Rolf Raffelsieper (a retired BMW employee who runs a VIP pick-up service for European Delivery customers) and driven to the European Delivery Center in Freimann, pick up the car, go to the hotel, drive somewhere.  This trip, with delivery at the BMW Welt, would be different.

Of course, like most of my trips, this one mixed business and pleasure.  It was just much, much longer.  Following the BMW Welt opening, I had two days of business meetings in Munich.  For the weekend, however, I went to Vienna (BMW had loaned me a 535d) to see friends.  A business meeting scheduled for Monday morning was cancelled, giving me a bit of time to go shopping before leaving Vienna.

By 4 p.m. on Monday, I was back in Munich and checking my e-mail, including one from BMW.  I was expected to be at the BMW Welt at 07.30 “at the latest.”

Reception area in the BMW Welt's Premium Lounge, reserved for those collecting new BMWs only

On Tuesday, October 23rd, in the early morning hours, I found myself once again being driven by Rolf to pick up a car, but for the first time, we were heading to the BMW Welt. Unlike the sunny opening day the prior week, it was drizzling. As we approached, I found the Welt’s cloudscape-like appearance even more captivating in the mist.

Only a few BMW Welt employees were on hand when I arrived.  When I told the receptionist that I was there to collect a new car, she informed me that I was the first customer to arrive.

The Premiere Delivery Area at the BMW Welt

Another Welt employee escorted me to the elevator that zipped us to the Premium Lounge, an area reserved for customers taking delivery.  At the lounge’s reception desk, I was introduced to Thomas Huber, who would complete the formalities with me.  As we finished the paperwork, Michael Rösner, director of customer service at the Welt, stopped by to welcome me and see how things were proceeding.  Other customers were also arriving by then.

Inside the Premium Lounge, waiters and waitresses were putting out croissants, Danish pastry, juices, and preparing Cappuccino for guests.  I was ready to settle in but was told to be at station B1 by 8.10 to begin the delivery experience.  Before I could get to the station, I was greeted by Rudolf Wiedermann, the Welt’s director, as well as Keri-Lynne Shaw, Director of European Delivery at BMW NA and Simone Zaccardi, European Delivery manager at BMW NA.

THE EXPERIENCE

With the BMW Welt, BMW has without question raised the bar in delivering new cars.  As instructed, I waited by the airport-like information kiosk and Stephanie Duderstadt, my delivery specialist, came to introduce herself and start the process.

In the simulator cabin, before delivery

BMW uses specially developed and highly advanced multi-media technology to provide each new car owner with an individualized explanation and overview of the vehicle.  This is done in two parts.  The first, an introduction to the model and BMW design, is done at a multimedia station, a table-sized touchscreen display.  Frau Duderstadt covered features in the 5er Series, as well as design, performance, security, service, and driving dynamics.

I was then ushered into one of several simulator cabins, each outfitted with a steering wheel, brake, and gas pedal.  The armrest even had a pop-out iDrive controller.  Here I was asked to perform various accident avoidance maneuvers, such as braking with and without ABS (this felt very realistic by the way and I only crashed a few times), given an opportunity to drive with and without Adaptive Headlights to see how the light steers in the car’s direction, and given further details about the car.

Having concluded this glimpse into the future of automotive delivery, I was escorted by lift to the top floor of the Welt so I could descend down what the staff calls the “Hollywood” staircase to the Premiere delivery area.  At that point, my 550i was the only car there, sitting on a turntable.  As we walked down, Frau Duderstadt pressed a button in her PDA-like device (that she always carried) which set the turntable (there are 30 of these) in motion, with a spotlight focused on the shining car.  We continued down the three flights of stairs, stopping to admire the view of the Welt’s interior as well as of the BMW Vierzylinder headquarters and BMW Museum buildings through the Welt’s glass walls.

New cars are stored deep in the cellar and are retrieved by machine.

Frau Duderstadt then turned over the keys (each owner also receives a brushed stainless keychain in the shape of the Welt with the owner’s initials) and reviewed individual details about my car and its options, a 2008 550i in Carbonschwarz (carbon black) metallic, an exclusive color only available on the 550i with sport package, which includes an aerodynamic package, sport suspension, Active Roll Stabilization, 19” Style 172M double-spoke wheels, and 20-way multi-contour (“Comfort”) seats.  Other options include Comfort Access, Heads-up Display, Lane Departure Warning, navigation, HD radio, Logic7 sound system, rear and side shades. An anthracite headliner and black leather interior with dark poplar wood complete the look.

The car looked incredible.  At this point I could have driven off but first I wanted to spend more time in the Welt.  Later, I drove it along the path inside the Premiere area and had an opportunity to see the Welt from the driver’s seat, a unique perspective and a good way to begin to enjoy the Freude am Fahren that the Welt imbues.

The port of Bremerhaven.

Over the next seven days, I covered over 2500 kilometers, visiting eight cities (Munich, Hamburg, Flensburg, Kollund, Brugge, Düsseldorf, Bremen, and Bremerhaven) in four countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands).

The last day was drop-off day, the final step in every European Delivery trip.  You hand over your brand new BMW to E.H. Harms, BMW’s shipping agent that will book its passage across the Atlantic.  This time I went to Bremerhaven, the actual port, instead of an inland drop-off location.  I was able to see new BMWs being loaded into a ship and see the vast warehouses of BMWs, some being imported, most slated for export.  A short while later, I was on a plane, first heading to Frankfurt and then continuing to New York.  The Carbonschwarz metallic 550i would begin its own voyage a few days hence.

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.