BOLOGNA, Italy -- The Station is in Europe for a few days ahead of the humongous CeBIT 2009, which opens Monday in Hannover. You think CES is big in Las Vegas? This place has 28 -- yes, 28 -- pavilions and 4,300 companies showing their wares. In fact, Hannover exists for the trade show business, hosting this event plus several other large (machinery, industrial technology) shows during the year.

Before getting to Germany, however, we had other IT business to do. In London, we visited a sharp network management company, Entuity, and in Paris we checked out a bold young virtualized storage company, Seanodes.

Next up -- tomorrow, in fact -- we're on a visit to check out American Power Conversion's new refurbishment of the Ferrari data center in Maranello, Italy. This will be the first opportunity for any members of the press to get an inside look at what is said to be a world-class, cutting-edge enterprise data center. Look for a complete report here at eWEEK later tomorrow.

One curious travel story to share: When our fully loaded Embraer 190 landed at the Bologna airport yesterday on the 1-hour, 10-minute trip from Paris, all passengers were herded aboard a single bus transport to take us from the plane to the terminal. Since the Embraer 190 holds 116 passengers, that was some crowded bus.

When everybody was finally aboard and packed like sardines in a can with all our luggage mixed in, off we went -- for all of 40 feet -- from the Tarmac to the terminal door. It was about a 10-second ride.

As we debussed in a place to which we easily could have walked, we shook our heads and smiled. We were not in Kansas anymore.