International Dental Show 2019 - IDS

Just a quick post, as I’m busy packing for a week away in the Rhine-land city of Cologne. It’s a business trip that I’m embarking on, and it’s as part of a team to represent our company at the International Dental Show (IDS).

This event takes place every two years, and this will be my fifth time at what is, by far, the world’s largest dental show. Occupying several halls of the Köln Messe (the Cologne city exhibitions halls), just about every company  involved in the field of dentistry will be there.

We are travelling over in a number of separate, and staggered groups, with some staff members swapping over with others who will be arriving mid-week, but I’m in for the long haul, as I’m there from Monday to Saturday. We’ll be catching the Eurostar from Ebbsfleet on Monday morning, changing onto one of Deutsche Bahn’s  high-speed ICE trains at Brussels. If all goes well we’ll be pulling into Köln Hauptbahnhof at 16:15, local time.

 

Now I don’t want people to get the impression that it’s all glitz and

glamour, as it’s a long day on stand. The show opens each day at 9am, and runs through to 6pm. Being stuck inside a vast complex of inter-linked exhibition halls, means there’s little chance of enjoying much daylight, although I do endeavour to go outside when it’s my turn to grab some lunch, or as a means to take a short cut across to another hall.

The evenings too will be similarly busy and they are an opportunity to entertain customers, or meet up with colleagues from elsewhere in the group. The latter traditionally involves a lavish evening hosted by our parent company, at the Hyatt Regency, over-looking the River Rhine, but this year, our party of five has been invited out for dinner with the company president and several of the directors.

This was a last minute arrangement, and as it was proving difficult to find any restaurant in Cologne, able to accommodate a party of ten on a Friday night – with a major exhibition drawing to an end, it was left to me as the only German speaker in the company to find somewhere are make the booking.

There was also the proviso that the chosen venue had to be fairly close to the Hyatt Regency, which is where the board members will be staying. After several attempts and finding most places fully booked, I secured our party a table at the Löwenbräu Köln Hotel & Restaurant, in the city’s Altstadt, pleased that the staff member who took my call understood what I was saying, and grateful too that I understood in return.

Looking on the restaurant’s website, it looks like quite a cosy place, despite claiming it can accommodate up to 100 diners at a time. With an offering which combines both German and Italian cuisine, there should be something for everyone, and definitely a selection which will interest the Japanese board members who are hosting the event.

Beer-wise I noticed the establishment offers Löwenbräu Hell and Pils by the litre or half-litre, as well as the ubiquitous Kölsch – Cologne’s local, top-fermented pale beer, which although only normally sold in 0.2l glasses, is also sold in Bavarian sized measures.

Friday evening’s dinner may be the only chance we have of enjoying some traditional German cuisine, as on Monday evening we’ve a table booked at an Argentinean steakhouse, where we’ve eaten on a couple of past occasions, whilst Tuesday night sees us hosting a couple of Middle Eastern dealers at an Italian restaurant, close to our hotel – yours truly had to book that one too, over the phone!

Wednesday evening is still looking free at the moment, so could this be a chance for me to escape to Brauhaus Päffgen and enjoy a few glasses of Kölsch, brewed on the premises? Päffgen is somewhere I visited back in 1975, on my first visit to Cologne. I was travelling around Europe by InterRail, and spent several days in the city staying with an old school friend who was living and working in the city as part of his degree course.

It’s a real old-school sort of place, steeped in tradition, and full of atmosphere. I re-visited, with a number of colleagues, in 2009 whilst over for the dental show, but have not managed to squeeze in a further visit on subsequent trips to IDS. As well as draught, house-brewed Kölsch, dispensed from wooden casks, Päffgen offers a solidly traditional German cuisine, with a few Rhine-land touches thrown in for good measure. It would certainly be good to renew my acquaintance with the place.

I trust I’ve whetted your appetites, as I certainly have mine, but that’s all for the time being,  as I’ve things to get ready and a suitcase to pack.