Austria

Hosted in Austria by Martina Kröfel, who I must thank for organising such a wonderful visit to Austria, there I visited a farmer on the who produces pumpkin seed and also has a wheat processing business, interestingly gaucho has been banned as a seed treatment due to issues with bees, stemming back to the issues they had when I last visited Germany back in 2006.
Interestingly nearly all of the pumpkin seed produced in Hungary, Russia, Slovenia, and Ukraine comes back to Austria for processing by just a couple of companies.
They view China as there greatest threat to their market but only from a price point perspective, china is really struggling to get the quality and processing right, they don't have the practical expertise on the ground to get it right. It's is something that you see a lot of in China where they don't have the skill level or expertise in the middle management or supervisors to get the processes right, something in time I think they will sort out but it will take some time.
Austria is the home of schnitzel so here, I am in my element, you can have schnitzel three meals a day if you want! Love a good schnitzel.
Interestingly Austrian farmers seem to have similar weed pressures as we do, which has seen them incorporate a tillage technique mounted on the front of there bed preparation implements to remove the weeds mechanically, they say this has far more impact than any chemical could ever have. Certainly something to think about.
I've really got to brush up on my German, I just walked into the ladies room, I guess I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right, bugger!
Vienna is another European city steeped in history, today had a visit to the royal palace which was home to Sisi who was queen Elizabeth the 2nd I think? Very impressive, almost more so than Buckingham Palace.
There is a lot said for not fighting wars too hard, as it preserves your heritage far more than being bombed to oblivion like some other European cities have been.
Tomorrow off to Paris, stay tuned.

Northern Italy to Venice.

After a day in Bologna it was time to head north first stop a town called Villafranca, a quaint little place with again an amazing history with an ancient arena in the centre of town where gladiator type events were held. This castle type structure was largely complete with underground entrance for the competitors, all still in amazing condition, today it is a venue for sporting events and concerts quite amazing.
Just north of Villafranca I had hoped to find a company that produces a catalytic heat technology which I had heard of, unfortunately all my research and searching turned out to lead me on a wild goose chase, with no result. So a bit disappointed I moved on, and headed for the hills in search of a rare lupin used for coffee.
This search led me into the most beautiful area in world I have ever seen, the Tyrollean region in northern Italy for some time was part of Austria, and this Austrian influence is very apparent, with a mixture of Italian and German spoken here, not that it mattered much to me, I speak almost none of either language. But as I have done everywhere it is amazing how far sign language and please and thank you, will get you.
Spending my first night in a little village called Ronzone, I was amazed at how good the road network was with motorway linking up through the valleys, this was posted at 130km/h speed limit but 150-170km/h seemed to be the norm, I guess time will tell if this is right. Next day I travelled over one mountain range across the valley heading east over the next lot of mountains, incredibly steep with the roads cut into the side of the cliffs, at times wishing I had a smaller car.
Eventually finding my way to a tiny village where I believed there was a farmer growing a small amount of these lupins. Success the farmer was home, it was a bit of a leap of faith as all my emails had not been answered, the reason was the farmer did not speak any English, but the whole pictures and sign language routine worked a treat, with the farmer still having some lupins and some of the coffee he makes from these, what a flavour, remarkably similar coffee aroma with a smoothness of chocolate, wow what a unique combination, so with a sample of seed in hand I had to now find my way to Venice airport.
For a start my GPS said I could head east across the mountains to another valley to get back down into Venice, but after 3 road closures and some very sketchy roads I decided on caution and headed back the way I came or so I thought, this time the GPS took me into a logging camp and onto an even worse dirt road where at times I had to take a 3 point turn to get around the corners, no guard rails and sheer cliffs, my god these lupins had better be worth it.
Finally back on the motorway Venice here we come, arrived into Venice and found my Hotel, as Venice is a island city I was staying in Venezia which is the mainland city to Venice.
Across the road from the hotel was a motor cycle shop where the owner restores old bikes, so I had to drop in and see what he was up to. To my amazement he had the most beautiful 1952 Moto Guzzi, we struck up a good conversation, luckily I had my iPad so we were able to share bike stories quite well, he also had a Ducati commander 1972 under restoration, a fantastic guy and great craftsman.
On the bus into Venice to check out the city, again one of those places best shared with someone else, this part of the trip has been the most lonely, having seen all these beautiful places and not having Pam there to share them with has been hard.
Whilst in Venice, we had probably the fiercest storm I have ever witnessed come through, massive wind, torrential rain and hail, roofs ripped off, outdoor cafes flattened the whole bit only lasted about 20mins but what destruction.
Venice itself just as you see in the movies and pictures, lots of young love, you can see the attraction, for me it was wooden boat heaven! Some great examples of fine craftsmanship, and they were used as Taxis, could not believe it! S that was Venice.
Next off to Vienna in Austria to check out some pumpkin seed production.

Ducati factory.

Well I had almost a religious experience when I visited the Ducati factory in Bologna Italy, anyone that knows me knows that I have been a Ducati nut since I first laid eyes and ears on one when I was about 14 years old. Ducati are the most pure motorcycle made there is no doubt, but I am bias.
Interestingly Ducati only make two components themselves they are the crank shafts and cam shafts, they are considered the two critical components to the desmodromic valve train system that has made them famous, all other components are out sourced.
So this means The Ducati factory is really just an assembly line, a very efficient one at that, they produce 42,000 bikes a year, this equates to about 120/ day. Ducati adopted the just in time system of manufacture in 2002 it is based on the "Toyota" systems this enabled them to remain profitable and continue to push the racing side of things. No Photos where aloud in the factory so the ones you see below are from the museum. The racing dept is also handled from the factory in Bologna, however it is off limits to everyone including the production line staff you need a special tag to get in there, all we got to see was inside the door, just a tease really.
The museum is focused mainly on the racing history of Ducati, with standing next to Mike Hailwoods actual bike was awesome, along with every title winning bike that has been made and that is quite a list.
Bologna itself is a town with an incredible history dating back to a millennium before Christ, some of the new stuff was built in the sixteenth century, just amazing.
From here I head north into the alps.

China Reflection.

I thought I take this blog entry to reflect on China after what I have seen in the last 6 years of visiting and doing business in China, these are simply my my views of things and should not be taken any other way.
China has made a significant step forward in the road to capitalism that cannot be denied, there investment in infrastructure is second to none in the world that is a given. It is this investment that will see China step well ahead of other growing nations like India.
Having said that the rise in the middle class and the adoption of cars especially, is incredible but with that comes traffic issues particularly in the cites, parking and traffic management will be big issues onto he future. China also does not appear to have any real refrigerated road transport, which limits some market potential and provides risks to produce quality when opening up markets.
There public transport network is however world class in terms of efficiency and speed. Train travel in china is a good experience unlike in Australia.
The manufacturing capabilities are improving drastically, with a real understanding of the quality and service expectation of western markets, this has increased the costs of most items but the gap in quality is narrowing all the time.
Interestingly where the best education centres are is where you find the best products with the emphasis on innovation, to the point where I see in the near future china wanting to patent ideas and innovation something china is famous for not doing.

On this trip I was lucky enough to take a speed boat ride on the yellow river, what a volume of water that is and surprisingly clean and unpolluted, the colour was dirty but this was just stirring up of sediment not pollution.

Something new was at a Resturant the waitress brings out an iPad with the menu on it , you just flicked through what you wanted then reviewed your entire order and press send and it goes straight to the kitchen. It had a total of your account what was in each dish the ingredients any piece of information you wanted was all there, practical technology use that's for sure.

Next up I head off to Italy, stay posted.