from the 16th to the 17th of january i had a very nice trip to graz. in the course of our tamperproof design lectures at the university of applied science in hagenberg an excursion to the philips plant in graz, gratkorn was planned. it was scheduled for the 17th of january (including an exam). so i thought it's a good idea to visit my brother and have a look at the house he and his wife are currently erecting. this is why i already left for graz on the 16th in the afternoon. unfortunately when i arrived it was already getting dark. nonetheless i got a good impression of how the completed house will look like. (in case you're interested, here are some pics of the house and the time we spent afterwards). the next day i had to get to gratkorn (which is about 20km distance from graz) to the philips plant. as i brought a colleague to the hotel the day before i already knew the way. the day at philips itself was pretty interesting and loads of fun. we got a good pizza, loads of coffee and soft-drinks, cookies, etc, etc, etc. of course i took some pics there. seing some stuff we heard about in the lectures in practice was pretty interesting. the atmosphere in the company was pretty relaxed and cosy. there are areas where people can meet to take a break. in these places taps for softdrinks (like ice-tea, orange juice, soda, apple juice, etc) are situated and every employee can get them for free. additionally you can find cookies, fruits, etc there too - and again for free. pretty impressive.