Random thoughts from Montreal, Barcelona, Munich, and Nuremberg

Two weeks ago, I went on my first business trip of 2025 in order to attend two trade shows – Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona and Embedded World in Nuremberg.

Since MWC was Monday to Thursday and Embedded World was the following Tuesday to Thursday, I spent the weekend in Munich to avoid flying back and forth between Europe and North America and emitting unnecessary CO2.

The 13-day trip was quite interesting with different surprises, as you can see from the random thoughts below. 

Random Thought #1 – The joy of air travel

The original plan was to get to Barcelona by connecting through Montreal. Prior to the trip, I made an Air Canada eUpgrade request for both flights. My request was cleared for the Vancouver to Montreal flight but I was #3 on the waitlist for the Montreal to Barcelona flight. 

The flight from Vancouver to Montreal was quite pleasant. Thanks to the lie-flat bed, I managed to nap for about 1.5 hours. When I arrived in Montreal and checked my email, I was surprised to see a few emails from Air Canada stating my booking was cancelled and rebooked on the same flight and the same premium economy seat. 

When I checked on the Air Canada app, I was still #3 on the business class upgrade waitlist and there were no available business seats available. Since I had a boarding pass in hand, I didn’t think much and waited at the gate to board the flight.

About 10 minutes prior to boarding, I received a notification from the Air Canada app that I had been moved to standby. I immediately went to talk to the gate agent and found out that Air Canada had changed from an AirBus A330-300 plane to a smaller plane (A3330-330, I think?), resulting in some passengers like me getting put on standby.

At first, the gate agent reassured me that I’d get a seat and not to worry. As boarding started, I noticed there was a long line of passengers talking to the gate agents. All the passengers seemed frustrated, so I decided to get in line to talk to the agents again. 

My best guess was that there was a glitch in the Air Canada system and all the passengers that were on the upgrade waitlist were put on standby. Furthermore, many of the people who were boarding had their seats moved, so it was extremely chaotic at the gate.  

The agents were constantly on the phone and working through the system and trying to get us seats. A few of the standby passengers got seats assigned (one gentleman, about 6 ‘4, was moved from business class to a middle seat in economy, and he was not a happy camper!). Unfortunately, five or six passengers, including me, were left without a seat. We stood there and saw the gate closing. It turned out that all four passengers who were denied boarding were going to MWC as well. We would all miss planned meetings as a result. 

Frustrated but knowing that it wasn’t the gate agents’ fault, I stayed calm and asked to get rebooked on the next earliest arrival flight, which was the same flight but the next day.

Air Canada had originally given me a hotel that was about 10 km away from Montreal Airport. Not wanting to go that far (it was almost 11 PM), I decided to book the Sheraton Hotel next to the airport instead.

Whenever I travel for business, I always use a carry-on suitcase. However, because I had to be formal for trade shows (i.e. suit jacket & pants, a handful of dress shirts, and dress shoes), I couldn’t fit everything in a carry-on suitcase and brought a bigger suitcase. This meant that I had to check in my luggage in Vancouver. So when I finally rebooked my ticket, I had no idea where my suitcase was..

After exiting Montreal customs on Sunday night, I tried to find my luggage by talking to the Air Canada luggage folks. But they had no idea where my luggage was after 15 minutes of searching! I gave up and went to the hotel (it was about 11:30 pm by then). The next morning, I went back to the airport to finally locate my luggage after talking to different people for almost an hour (I was told my luggage was sitting in Montreal Airport waiting to be loaded and that I shouldn’t try to take it out because it would cause a bigger delay). 

I arrived in Barcelona safe and sound a day later than planned and missed a handful of important meetings. 

And my bag? It wasn’t on the baggage carousel upon arrival! Turned out my bag had arrived the day before on the flight I was supposed to be on! This made me question why I was told that my luggage was in Montreal about 12 hours earlier… 

Lessons learned? 

1. I should have packed more efficiently (ie. pack clothes in my backpack as well) to avoid checking in my luggage.
2. Get to the show a day earlier to allow for potential delays
3. Consider going from Vancouver to Europe first, then take the short flight to Barcelona next time (there weren’t really suitable flights this time around, hence for going to Montreal first)

Random Thought #2 – MWC madness

The last time I was in Barcelona was back in 2004 when I was living and travelling in Europe on an extremely low budget. Going to Barcelona on business was a completely different experience.

Before MWC, my company had booked hotel rooms for everyone. Because the hotel was way out of the way on the outskirts of Barcelona, some of my co-workers and I decided to cancel the hotel reservation and book a hotel that was closer in the city centre. 

The last-minute booking meant I had to pay over 400 euros a night ($600 CAD) for a tiny room. Fortunately, the bed was comfortable and the bathroom was quite clean with good shower pressure (all I needed). 

It was my first time at MWC and it was absolutely jam packed with people. This year, around 105,000 people from 205 countries and territories attended the three-day trade show. Display booths were scattered across eight different halls in Fira Gran Via. It was quite expensive to have a booth at the show. According to my co-workers, a 10 metre by 10 metre booth would cost $200k and some companies like Nokia spent $10 million last year on the booth!

With that many people attending the show and companies spending a lot of money on their booths, MWC creates a significant economic boost to Barcelona each year. Although the Metro was packed with people throughout the show, I was pleasantly surprised by how well organized everything was. MWC (used to be called GSM World Congress) started in 1987 and has grown to a big annual trade show for the mobile communications industry. It’s quite clear that Barcelona has built up its infrastructure to accommodate the big spike in crowds.

If Vancouver were to host such a trade show, would it be able to handle that many people? Although Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Games beautifully, the Canada Line struggled to handle the big spike in riders (there were very long queues back then). If Vancouver were to host a big annual trade show like MWC, I doubt it could handle it from a public transportation point of view. Furthermore, there are simply not enough hotels in Vancouver.

Being a poor student on a tight budget meant I didn’t try any fancy meals in 2004. This time around, I got to enjoy some really nice dinners and drinks. 

Between MWC (basically at the show from 9 to almost 6:30 or 7), riding Metro between Fira Gran Via and the hotel (which took about 40 minutes including walking), and business dinners (the Spanish eat dinner late so dinner started at 8 PM), I didn’t have any time to see Barcelona. 

It was a shame that I didn’t get to explore Barcelona much because my hotel was about a 15-minute Metro ride to La Sagrada Familia. If I get to go to MWC next year, I would plan to show up a day earlier and perhaps stay one extra night to explore Barcelona a bit more.

Random Thought #3 – Ein Prosit, ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit

I visited Munich a few times while living in Europe and fondly remembered this charming city. The last time I went to Munich was in 2014 for a quick work trip to have meetings with Intel/Infineon. This time around, it was quite fun to retrace my steps from decades ago and remember things from those trips. 

Since I have explored the old Munich area (i.e.Marienplatz) and been to Neuschwanstein and Dachau, I decided to check out parts of Munich that I hadn’t been to for the one full day I was in town. (I was in Munich for three days, but on the first day I had to work and I departed shortly after lunch on the last day). 

So, with that in mind, I checked out the BMW Museum and the Olympic Park.

Although I’m not much of a car person, the BMW Museum was extremely interesting. I learned more about the history of BMW and it was sad to learn that BMW used forced labour during WWII. It was also really neat to see new BMW models and two Rolls Royce models on the BMW Welt display floor. I couldn’t help looking up how much these cars would cost in Canada… 

The Olympic Park was a very pleasant, welcoming, and green area with a lot of people walking around. The park itself was constructed for the 1972 Summer Olympics and the architecture was very unique.

Visiting the BMW Museum and the Olympic Park only took about five hours, so I walked around the old town area and bought some souvenirs. 

Walking around, I couldn’t help but notice that about 85-90% of the cars on the road were German brands. Perhaps Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Audi cars are cheaper in Germany than in North America? Or the Germans are simply very supportive of local brands. If any German readers could educate me, I’d be interested to know the reasons. 

I also noticed that food items were generally more expensive than in Barcelona. I knew Munich was one of the more expensive cities in Germany and that Munich real estate was very expensive, but I was shocked when I walked by a realtor place and saw the prices. I suppose Munich real estate is just as expensive and perhaps more expensive than Vancouver!

Someone I know from Taiwan spent the weekend in Munich too, so we met up for dinner. Since he hadn’t been to Munich before, I took him to the Hofbräuhaus after dinner to experience the German beer hall shenanigans. In case you don’t know, Hofbräuhaus is a beer hall with a lot of history. It was originally built in 1589. Adolf Hitler made a speech founding the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (aka the Nazi Party) on February 24, 1920.

Random Thought #4 – Tipping overload

Tipping is very much a part of North American culture, which I feel has become a bit extreme in the last few years. For example, in Vancouver, you’d see tipping options like 15%, 20%, and 25% on the payment terminal in restaurants, cafes, and even shops. 

I was surprised that this kind of practice is happening in Germany, too. While paying for food and coffee in Germany, I noticed that many restaurants and cafes had default tipping options on their payment terminals. Only after clicking a few times I could pick the “no tip” option. 

While the default percentages weren’t nearly as high as the default percentages in Vancouver (and North America), I found this practice highly annoying, especially knowing that tipping is not a standard in Europe. 

Is this silly North American culture taking over Europe? 

I sure hope not!

Random Thought #5 – Eins Zwei Polizei

I spent one day at Nuremberg’s Christmas Market 21 years ago, so I was not as familiar with the city as I was with Munich. Unlike Munich, Nuremberg is a much smaller city. One thing I enjoy about European cities is how pedestrian-friendly they are. It was very nice to walk around and explore this beautiful Bavarian city. 

Embedded World was not nearly as big as MWC, with only around 1,100 exhibitors and around 32,000 visitors attending. Embedded World is aimed at developers, so there were fewer consumer-oriented brands, and I had more technical discussions throughout the show.

Comparing prices at Nuremberg and Munich, I noticed food and drinks at restaurants and cafes in Nuremberg were between 5-10% cheaper than in Munich. It was interesting to note the price difference when the two cities are less than 1.5 hours apart by high-speed train. 

Random Thought #6 – Your personal brand & reputation

I ran into many former colleagues at MWC and Embedded World. Since the cellular industry is very small, many of these former colleagues are either working for our competitors, our partner, or our customers. Essentially, people know each other and word gest around the industry. 

More than ever, I’m convinced that for someone to grow professionally in any industry, it is important to maintain his/her personal brand and reputation. Do not burn any bridges and don’t cross anyone because if you do, they may come back to bite you one day. 

This is true in the blogging world, too. Building your personal brand, reputation, and trust with readers is extremely important. Despite having written for over 10 years, I’m still working on these important things every day. Brand and reputation take a very long time to build up, but they can get ruined very quickly if you aren’t careful.

My motto? Build connections and relationships, be respectful and friendly to everyone, and lend a hand to whoever is in need. More importantly,  always, always, always treat people the way you want to be treated!