November 6-9 I had to travel to Cologne (Germany) to attend the BioEurope trade show, along with a UK delegation. I have been in Cologne several times before, so I was not particularly surprised. But as with every trip, here are a few remarkable things I would like to comment:

  • The hotel was right next to the train station and the Cathedral, quite convenient
  • It rained every frigging day. It was cold and dark
  • Where there are trees, Autumn is quite a spectacle
  • Rheinpark is very nice, but has too many walls. They have a “beach club” (I guess some sand by the river could be considered a “beach”), which closed and very sad in the winter
  • The “locker bridge” (Hohenzollernbrücke) is amusing. Herd mentality, symbols, the power of love, the risk of too much additional weight on the bridge…
  • The cathedral is tall and dark. Very tall and very dark. And it has a really cool “pixellated” stain glass window. I like to think of it as a Matrix glitch
  • The Ludwig Museum is very nice. I should write a post about it. And it has a great store: mostly books. No ties or watches. Thank you
  • Pharma Industry is a lot of mirrors and smoke. Speculation riding on the back of a few blockbusters, the greed of executives, and the commercial naivety of researchers. It reminds me of the circus VCs and entrepreneurs put together in every single TechCrunch and similar events

What am I doing here? Sometimes in order to find yourself, when you are not where you want to be, you have to get lost. But I have a plan. And it’s a good one 😉