Oswestry, UK
The company I worked for entered a new market by setting up a design center in Germany comprised of engineers hired away from a competitor already in that market. The engineers used components from European manufacturers they were familiar with. Good fortune smiled upon me and I became responsible for the suppliers of these components.
Managing these suppliers meant I would have to travel frequently to Europe. The purpose of the first trip was simply to meet the suppliers in person and tour the facilities. Oswestry was home to a company that made an air compressor tank. This tank had to be certified by EU beaurocrats from Brussels to be eligble for use in EU countries. It takes a week to make the tank and a year to get the approval. Anyway, this was the only trip I made to this supplier. I arrived on a Thursday afternoon and the supervisor drove me from the offices to the manufacturing facility only to find nobody there. The staff had left early and the supervisor was quite upset and started making irate phone calls. That night I stayed at a country estate that was converted into a hotel. There were sheep all over the estate grounds. I ate at a pub in town that served meals. I ordered a steak that easily weighed one pound and it was served with a huge helping of potatoes and mixed veggies. I was actually apprehensive about eating the steak because of the Mad Cow disease scare was at its height in the UK at that time. I took lots of pictures on this trip but I'll be mostly showing pictures of postcards.