Frankfurt BuchMesse Virgin - Part 1
Hello folks!
Well, it's the biggest bookfair in the world, and being a publisher I simply have to be there! The hotel got booked a couple of months ago, though I should have done it much much sooner as all the nearest hotels were all fully booked! There are some 7000 plus exhibitors alone, just to give you some idea of the size we are talking about here! I think over 40k visitors attend this mother of all fairs!
After advice from another publisher I attempted to spend some nights planning who I wanted to see at the fair and if possible arrange meetings. Needless to say, I left this way too late, plus it wasn't an easy system to get appointments sorted (unlike the London Book Fair site), as you have to liase by email 7 try to get times & days sorted etc.. I did manage though to get together a definitive list of various stands who I simply had to visit. I had about 20 of them. Next thing was then to sort them out into which halls they were, so I could hit them all in some kind of order so I wouldn't be walking backwards & forwards all over the place.
So, armed with my Euros, passport and numerous maps and printouts showing me the train and bus routes, and Trade fair maps etc., I headed off to the airport at the ungodly hour of 4am, for my 6.30 flight from Southampton International Airport.
Some hours later after two cups of tea, four biscuits, a mile long trek at Charles De Gaul airport and my connedcting flight - I arrive safe & sound at Frankfurt airport.
Next challenge to get from the airport to my hotel - which looking at the maps is miles away.
I manage to get on the correct bus to escape from the terminal to get to the other terminal which houses the train station.
I manage to suss out the train timetable and platform to get the right train to where I need to get to.
All going well, until I get to the first station I need to change at. I spend 20 minutes wandering around - seemingly in the middle of nowhere - despite there being shops, not many people around to mention who can help me. After treking around with a couple of bags, tired and starting to get rather hot at this point - I could see the train track I needed to get onto - but I couldn't find a way to get to it - so I re-trace my steps and work further backwards - the only direction I hadn't gone in, and lo and behold i find a subway, which takes you up to the trainlines - only to my disappointment there are no signs - anywhere to tell me what train I need to get, on what track or direction!!! Fortunately someone who could see I was struggling did help me and pointed me in the right direction. Phew!!!
Managed to get on the right train and got off at my final stop - a station which seems to be completely out in the sticks - even more so than the other station. It took me some time to fathom out how to get out from this station - as there were again no signs, (the locals actually physically crossed the train track!) So I escaped the station - I found a footpath going up to the main road, which was rather well hidden - and managed to find a bus stop - though it didn't have a timetable or anything on it. After hanging around for about 20 minutes, I decided to give up and tgry to find a taxi. Fortunately, just spitting distance from the train station kiosk I saw some yellow cars - which fortunately had something on them which gave it away that they were taxi's! Needless to say I nabbed one and got to my hotel - finally!!! Now 2pm.
Phew! I can relax a little now.
Come back for the next installment soon.
PaulineThePublisher
Well, it's the biggest bookfair in the world, and being a publisher I simply have to be there! The hotel got booked a couple of months ago, though I should have done it much much sooner as all the nearest hotels were all fully booked! There are some 7000 plus exhibitors alone, just to give you some idea of the size we are talking about here! I think over 40k visitors attend this mother of all fairs!
After advice from another publisher I attempted to spend some nights planning who I wanted to see at the fair and if possible arrange meetings. Needless to say, I left this way too late, plus it wasn't an easy system to get appointments sorted (unlike the London Book Fair site), as you have to liase by email 7 try to get times & days sorted etc.. I did manage though to get together a definitive list of various stands who I simply had to visit. I had about 20 of them. Next thing was then to sort them out into which halls they were, so I could hit them all in some kind of order so I wouldn't be walking backwards & forwards all over the place.
So, armed with my Euros, passport and numerous maps and printouts showing me the train and bus routes, and Trade fair maps etc., I headed off to the airport at the ungodly hour of 4am, for my 6.30 flight from Southampton International Airport.
Some hours later after two cups of tea, four biscuits, a mile long trek at Charles De Gaul airport and my connedcting flight - I arrive safe & sound at Frankfurt airport.
Next challenge to get from the airport to my hotel - which looking at the maps is miles away.
I manage to get on the correct bus to escape from the terminal to get to the other terminal which houses the train station.
I manage to suss out the train timetable and platform to get the right train to where I need to get to.
All going well, until I get to the first station I need to change at. I spend 20 minutes wandering around - seemingly in the middle of nowhere - despite there being shops, not many people around to mention who can help me. After treking around with a couple of bags, tired and starting to get rather hot at this point - I could see the train track I needed to get onto - but I couldn't find a way to get to it - so I re-trace my steps and work further backwards - the only direction I hadn't gone in, and lo and behold i find a subway, which takes you up to the trainlines - only to my disappointment there are no signs - anywhere to tell me what train I need to get, on what track or direction!!! Fortunately someone who could see I was struggling did help me and pointed me in the right direction. Phew!!!
Managed to get on the right train and got off at my final stop - a station which seems to be completely out in the sticks - even more so than the other station. It took me some time to fathom out how to get out from this station - as there were again no signs, (the locals actually physically crossed the train track!) So I escaped the station - I found a footpath going up to the main road, which was rather well hidden - and managed to find a bus stop - though it didn't have a timetable or anything on it. After hanging around for about 20 minutes, I decided to give up and tgry to find a taxi. Fortunately, just spitting distance from the train station kiosk I saw some yellow cars - which fortunately had something on them which gave it away that they were taxi's! Needless to say I nabbed one and got to my hotel - finally!!! Now 2pm.
Phew! I can relax a little now.
Come back for the next installment soon.
PaulineThePublisher
posted by PaulineThePublisher | 10:41 pm
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