Wednesday June 6th

Statue in front of Prague's National Museum

Wednesday morning the group was scheduled to meet up and visit Prague Castle, a historic Czech complex of buildings. However, I was unfortunately wasn’t able to join the group as I scheduled a meeting with a contact regarding public-private partnerships for my thesis. At 9 AM I met with Igor Snopek, a program director with Skanska as well as chairman of the Czech PPP Association. The Czech Republic is different from the other places I have studied PPPs because they have yet to successfully complete a transportation PPP project. In addition, PPPs in general have yet to really catch on in the Czech Republic but Mr. Snopek was very optimistic that they would be seen more and more in the next five years. Mr. Snopek was extremely knowledgeable about PPPs and was helpful in his explanation of his experiences with the alternative project delivery method. He also offered to put me in touch with a few of his associates at the Skanska office in Washington D.C., making my meeting with Mr. Snopek even that much more helpful. After our meeting I made the short walk back to our hotel to pack my bags and prepare for the next few days of travel.

Wednesday afternoon all but one of our group members and I will be boarding a flight and flying to Amsterdam to begin our free days. While everyone else is staying in Amsterdam the entire free days, two other group members and I decided we would rather see Switzerland for a few days. The two other group members and I will be staying in Amsterdam Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon before boarding a train Thursday night to Zurich. After changing trains in Zurich, we will arrive in Interlaken early Friday morning. After the disaster that was the last night train ride we took, the three of us decided it would be well worth it to upgrade to a three person cabin this time. We will be staying in Interlaken Friday night and Saturday night before taking a train to meet with the rest of the group in Munich Sunday afternoon. Once I arrive in Munich on Sunday I will update my blog and recap my free days. Until then, thanks for checking out my blog and follow my travels through Europe.