I made my next business trip for work to southern Germany again, this time to Karlsruhe. I hopped on the train early Thursday morning to meet Levin, one of my coworkers who was already in the area visiting some AIESEC sponsor companies. Together we went to set up a replacement mail and web server at the university in Karlsruhe which had donated space in it's server room and access to it's internet connection. After getting the server up and running, Levin headed off again to meet his family since they were close by, and I stayed the night with one of the local AIESEC members. I wasn't heading back to Cologne just yet, because the upcoming weekend was the weekend of the Dancing Ship reception (Tanzschiff) weekend, the most storied reception weekend of them all. But first, I had the morning to look around Karlsruhe. I met a visiting Mexican AIESECer and we walked through the downtown of the city, coming finally to the impressive palace at the centre which used to be the home to the Grand Dukes of the region (Baden Wurttemburg), but is now home to Germany's highest courts. I was worried when it began to rain, and kept raining for the majority of the morning. There were reports of possible storms, and the night before not boats had been able to leave the harbour. This would be a disaster for the weekend. Tanzschiff is a joint event between AIESEC in Germany and Switzerland. Essentially, a boat is rented with room for 150 onboard. The boat is loaded up with food and music before setting off on Lake Constance for six hours of floating merrymaking. I went with the majority of my office team, Lars, Tille, Stephan and Janik. The party was fantastic, and although it wasn't part of the official weekend, what would a reception weekend be without a little local sightseeing? Lars and Janik suggested that we visit the Rhine Falls, a picturesque part of northern Switzerland where the Rhine river gives way to waterfalls, the view of the falls was worth the short drive south, but combined with a hearty traditional fish lunch and some walking through the town, we managed to make an entire day out of returning to Cologne.
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