VIKING GODDESS

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Boat 2017 Jan 21-22

We awoke at 08:00 to a cold overcast morning here in Sweden but the forecast for Dusseldorf Germany was for a few degrees colder but sunny. The train ride to Kastrup was uneventful and the same with out flight. Since our flight was the 12:15 flight, the plane was less than half full. So we had plenty of room. Even if we did not have much room, the flight was only an hour, but it is always nice to have that extra sit next to you empty :) Once we landed, we headed straight for the taxis. Since we were only staying one night, we had only a carryon. This makes traveling so much easier. One can get in and out really quick. We grabbed a cab to our hotel. Lindner Hotel Airport. It was still before 15:00 and our room was not ready, so we dropped off our carry on and hopped in a cab to Messe Dusseldorf where Boat 2017 was being held.

Upon arriving we checked in our jackets and proceeded to go into the exhibition area. We knew that it was big but once we entered, then the enormity of the exhibition hit us. They had 17 halls setup with sailboats, motorboats, equipment and products for all boats. They had a shuttle bus that took you from exhibition hall to exhibition hall. It was that big

map_boat_2017

We were a little hungry so we stopped at one of the restaurants and had som schnitzel. Then we were off to were they had the sailboats. We found were Najad exhibit was and signed up for the last time they had, 17:30. With a few hours to kill, we went around to look at all the other sailboats.

We looked at Hanse, Jeanneau, Beneteau, Hallberg Rassy and many others. But none of them grabbed us like a Najad does. We like the price of some of the others, but it is Najad that we have fell for. You can see some video of some of the boats here Boat_2017 video

17:30 came and we meet up with Jörgen, CEO of Najad, and he showed us the Najad 450 CC that was on display. We got to talk with him more about the boat that we have our eye on. The Najad 395 CC. We got to see some more renderings and talk more about the progress of the 395 CC. They are building the first ones now and they should be ready by the end of the year. Anna and I are excited to see on up close.

We spent over an hour with Jörgen and since the exhibition closed at 18:00, we hurried to get our jackets. Grabbed a cab back to the hotel, checked in, ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and then crashed. We both were so tired from all the walking we did.

The next day we decided to look at more of the products and the other fun stuff they had there. In the trendsport hall, they had a wave pool where they were having a surf/paddle board competition. The announcer was screaming something in German so we did not understand what he was saying but it was still fun to watch them carve up the water.

After seeing what we wanted to see, it was getting close to leaving. So we decided to end the visit with some cocktails before we left to fly back home. We got Anna her Piña Colada and I had sex on the beach. (Oh Yea!) :P

It was a really good trip and we are looking forward to going back next year.