Home

My business trip to the Netherlands
November/December 2007

Friday, November 30, Saturday December 1, 2007

I left the house at 10:30 am on Friday November 29. Even though Jeanie was trying to get ready for her own trip out of town (to the Melvin annual Christmas / Birthday gathering in Savannah and then on to North Carolina and Virginia to visit Robby and Bob and Wendy) she volunteered to drive me as I was running a little late and was a bit stressed.

The trip started out well with Delta upgrading my leg from Jacksonville to Atlanta to first class.

I had intentionally booked a flight that gave me a three and a half hour layover as opposed to a fifty-nine minute layover for two reasons. First, I felt that an hour (or so) was too little time to make a connection for an international flight - especially being pretty sure that I would arrive in terminal A-D and the flight out would depart from terminal E. Second, I knew that I needed to purchase a set of power adapters to allow me to deal with European electrical sockets which have different plugs than US sockets. Having done some research prior to leaving, I was able to learn that at least for this trip, I did not need a power converter to transform the 230 volt, 50 Hz power common in Europe to the standard 110 volt, 60 Hz power common in the US. The reason for this was that all of the electrical devices I was taking with me (my old cell phone, my new cell phone, my Creative Nomad Zen MP3 player and my work laptop) had A/C adapters that were rated for 110 - 240 volts.

Luck was once again with me, as there was a large Brookstone right in the terminal I arrived in, right before the escalator down to the tram to terminal E.

While I was not fortunate enough to get bumped to business class on the flight to Amsterdam, I was fortunate that there were stronger than normal tailwinds that reduced the flying time about an hour - from 8 ½ hours to 7 ½ hours. I ended up in a good location in the Delta 767-300ER - row 31, seat E (an aisle seat in the center group of three seats). I say the location was good because it was about ½ way between the lavatories and galley in the center of the aircraft and the lavatories and galley in the rear of the aircraft. I won't say sitting in that coach seat for 7 ½ hours was the most comfortable experience I've ever had, but at least I got a warm meal that was tolerable. The first half of the trip wasn't too bad, as they kept us pretty occupied between giving us our drinks, serving dinner and giving us more drinks. The second half was a bit more trying, as by then I was tired and uncomfortable and the person in the row in front of me had fully reclined her seat so I couldn't use my computer. I did manage to nap for about an hour which helped pass the time.

The landing was the smoothest I've ever experienced. Had I not been watching, I would not have been able to tell we had touched down prior to braking.

Getting through the airport, getting my checked bag and going through immigration were non-eventful. The immigration person took a quick look at my passport and didn't even stamp it - the full extent of our dialog was her saying have a nice day (or something to that effect) and me saying thank you. Customs was even easier - I joined the line for "nothing to declare" and next thing I knew, I was standing in the outer terminal of Schiphol Airport!

I did get a little tense waiting for my baggage. I had bypassed a couple of currency exchanges and ATMs in the terminal so that I could get to the baggage carousel as quickly as possible, expecting that there would be someplace to get Euros after I got my bag. No deal. Fortunately, to my great relief, once through customs, I found myself in a very large outer terminal with lots of shops and more importantly ATMs. I had expected to use my corporate AMEX to get cash, but none of the ATMs I saw at the airport accepted AMEX. Fortunately, my personal ATM card worked just fine.

I was very fortunate to get lots of travel tips from Harry, another TSM working this engagement. He seemed well versed in how to navigate Amsterdam, even though he is from New Zealand and works in Australia!

He let me know that the best way to get from the airport to the hotel in central Amsterdam was to get the train from the airport into Amsterdam Central (€4,10). Although there are many kiosks from which I could have purchased a ticket, I choose to go to the ticket counter for two reasons: I didn't have change or the proper credit or smart cards for the machine, and I needed a little hand holding. One of the amazing things about The Netherlands is that it appears that just about everyone speaks English - well. The train ride was maybe 15-20 minutes. After boarding the train, I remembered that there are typically two classes in the inter-city trains in Holland and I didn't have a clue which class I had purchased nor which class car I got in. A quick look at my ticket stub revealed that I had purchased a second class ticket. The "2" on the wall of the car I was in led me to believe that I had ended up in a second class car by sheer luck. After looking at a few other trains that we passed along the way, I think that the class of the car is printed in large numbers on the outside of the car - but I am not sure as some cars appear to be both first and second class, and at least from the outside, I couldn't tell much difference between the two. After arriving at Amsterdam Centraal, I then had the option to catch a #1, 2 or 5 tram and get off at Leidseplein for the Marriot Amsterdam (the trams announce and display stops) but, since I was brain dead and saddled with luggage, I elected to get a cab (€20) which was easy to do as there were many standing outside of Central Station.

Once again I was lucky in the fact that even though it was barely 9:00 am, there was an available room in the hotel. The hotel was quite nice, with a nice room, good amenities and a great view of the Leidseplein.

Even though I was quite tired, I felt that it would be a mistake to go to bed, both because it would just perpetuate the six hour lag between local time and my body time, and because it would waste a day that could be spent seeing the sights.

My luck continued weather wise. The forecast had been for rain with temperatures in the forties. While the temperature did in fact stay in the forties, the sky was partly sunny, although it was a bit breezy. Fortunately, Jeanie had packed undershirts and a sweater for me, so with them plus my long sleeved shirt plus gloves, a hat and a scarf, I stayed toasty warm.

The hotel concierge was nice enough to provide a great little street map of Amsterdam and to even draw a "you are here" star for me. Map in hand, I headed out to see the sights. For the first of my two sightseeing walks, I headed up Leidsestraat past lots of high end shops and then walked around the flower market on Singel. I then walked down Reg Dwarsstraat to the Rembrandt Plein which is a park with a large statue of Rembrandt plus lots of person sized statues of what appeared to be early Dutch explorers.

I then went back to the room and took a one hour nap.

For my second walk, I once again headed back out up Leidsestraat, then walked through the really high end shopping area on Kalverstraat. I then walked past the Paleis and large monument on Damstraat and headed over to tour the Red Light District. It was just like the tour guides described it - lots of "coffee shops" selling soft drugs, lots of drug paraphernalia shops, lots of shops selling sex toys and videos, lots of man hawking live sex shows, and the famous street window prostitutes sitting behind large picture windows in their underwear beckoning passerby. Rather than being exciting, I found the experience to be uncomfortable, and while I am glad that I can say I saw it, I was also glad to leave the area. I have never thought of myself as a prude, but I guess I am more prudish than I had thought.

I was very pleasantly surprised that I actually managed to find my way back to the hotel without having to resort to pulling out the map.

After returning to the hotel, I did some stretches to try to loosen up my back a little, then took a nice hot shower.

Around 6:00 pm, Harry rang my room to ask if I wanted to join him for dinner. I gladly accepted his invitation, and we ended up at a Tapas restaurant just a few blocks from the hotel (once again up Leidsestraat) that Harry selected. We ordered calamari in a spicy tomato sauce, shrimp in garlic butter, chorizo in wine sauce and sautéed mushrooms along with a basket of bread with garlic butter. It was all delicious. The (I think) owner of the restaurant played guitar and sang for most of the dinner which made conversation difficult, but was entertaining. It was interesting sitting in a restaurant filled with cigarette smoke - it has been a long time, and I could have done without it - but it wasn't so bad as to spoil the meal and I guess I'll have to get used to it while I am on this trip. I was pleasantly surprised that the man sitting next to us asked if his smoking would bother us before he lit up - it's nice that manners still exist in some places.

After dinner, I decided to call it a night. Tomorrow, I'll plan on meeting Harry at 2:30 pm in the hotel lobby so we can ride to Eindhoven together. Leaving at 2:30 should allow us to catch the 3:07 direct train, which will give me an opportunity to see the country side before it gets dark around 4:30 pm.

Before then, I might go to the Van Gogh museum as Harry says that everyone should see his Sunflowers in person. He also informed me that I can buy a 24 hour bus/train/ferry pass for about €6,30 (they sell these at numerous places including the hotel conceirge) They are stamped the first time you use them so it doesn't matter when you buy it.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Got a solid eight hours of sleep - awoke around 7:00 am. Even though I got a full night's rest and slept like a log, I still felt tired when I awoke, but I decided to get up to try to force my body clock to reset as quickly as possible. I continued to feel a bit tired for the entire day, but not so much as to interfere with the day.

Since the weather was dreary - cold (not unbearable) and quite rainy / windy, I decided to take a "tram tour" i.e. I purchased a 24 hour public transit pass and rode the trams around the city. Starting at Leidsestraat, I took the #2 to Central Station, then the #9 southeast. I ended up going past where I had intended. Unfortunately, the map I got at the hotel, while quite good, didn't show the full extent of the tram lines, so I didn't know exactly where I was or where I would end up if I stayed on the tram, so I elected to get off and wait for one back in the other direction. When I got off, I saw a map of the entire Amsterdam public transit system and realized that I would have only gone a few more stops before the tram would have turned around. Fortunately, there was a shelter to stand under at the tram stop, so I didn't get too wet waiting. Deciding not to push my luck, I made sure to ask the tram operator which stop I needed to get off at to catch the #7 tram which I knew would take me back to Leidsestraat.

The best thing about the tram tour was getting to see "regular" neighborhoods. One thing that struck me as I rode around was how much Amsterdam reminded me of the lower part of Manhattan. The buildings I saw were reminiscent of New York brownstones. It wasn't surprising though…once upon a time, New York was called New Amsterdam.

I didn't want a full breakfast, but I had trouble finding a bakery, so I ended up buying a Dutch donut (oliebollen) from a street stand for breakfast. In case you're wondering, a Dutch donut is basically a fried ball of sweet dough with some powdered sugar dusted on top.

I ended up going back to the hotel and purchasing six postcards which I promptly wrote, addressed and mailed. It will be interesting to see if they get to their recipients before I get back home.

After posting the cards, I decided to get some lunch. I started out walking west on the street the hotel is on, but after a few blocks I decided there wasn't much in that direction, so I walked back to the hotel and continued east, in the direction of one of the big art museums.

I quickly realized that I had not in fact gone to the high dollar shopping area yesterday. While yesterday's shops might have been pricy, today's were ritzy. There were only a few restaurants in this area and they were all expensive, so I decided to go back to Leidsestraat where I knew there were lots of restaurants.

I was a bit cold, wet and tired, and since I had my 24 hour pass, rather than walking, I took the tram back to Leidsestraat.

I was hungry, and I wanted something warm but not too heavy, so I ended up having a nice warm bowl of tomato soup and some rolls with butter for lunch at a little Italian place off of Leidsestraat.

On the way back to the hotel, I bought a package of Daelmans Stroopwafels Bereid Met Roomboter (i.e. Caramel Wafers) for desert. I didn't realize they had a caramel filling - I was expecting just crunchy cookies, but they weren't bad, although definitely not crunchy. Not quite what I was in the mood for, but tasty.

I met Harry at 2:30 for the trip to Central Station to catch the train to Eindhoven. Since it was raining, Harry suggested that we take a cab instead of the tram as we had planned. Given how crowded the trams were earlier in the day - I supposed because of the inclement weather - I agreed that trying to deal with luggage on the trams wasn't worth trying to save the company a few Euros.

Two things were interesting about the cab ride to Central Station. The first was that it took much longer in the cab than in the tram. Apparently the trams have a pretty straight shot to the station, but cars must take a more circuitous route. The second thing I learned was that the first taxi driver ripped me off. The fare from the hotel to the station was only €15, not the €20 I had been charged from the station to the hotel the day before.
Tagging along with Harry made getting the train to Eindhoven much easier as he knew the ropes and was able to guide me to the ticket counter, and then guide me to the right portion of the right track. Apparently, at times, multiple trains will queue up at the same platform for a given track, so you not only need to go to the right track, but the right section of the right track.

Carrying luggage on the train was a bit of a hassle, but not insurmountable. Even though there is space overhead to put stuff, the spaces are very small. They are much too small even for my backpack, much less my suitcase. Fortunately, the train wasn't that crowded, so I was able to roll my bag down the isle and just place the large bag on the seat next to the one I sat in. Because we chose a set of facing seats, Harry and I were able to chat along with way.

Visibility wasn't very good, but it was still interesting to see what I could. In the small towns, quite a bit of the housing is still multi-family multi-story apartment style, but there are also what appear to be duplexes and even some single family homes. Every now and then, we'd pass large cultivated areas. In these areas, the housing was single family homes.

The train ride was very impressive. The train departed exactly on time. I couldn't tell exactly how fast we were going, but it seemed to be a pretty good clip. What really amazed me was how smooth and quiet the ride was. There was none of the clickity-clack that I've always experienced on trains in the US.

The ride took about an hour and a half. The Holiday Inn was just a short walk from the train station. The Holiday Inn wasn't close to the niceness of the Marriott, but it wasn't horrible. I've stayed in much worse.

For dinner, Harry and I walked to the center of Eindhoven. We ended up at a café and after being seated, realized they only served pancakes. I had read that the Dutch liked their pancakes so this seemed like it might be as close as I would get to "authentic" Dutch food this trip, so we decided to "go for it." Turns out, Dutch pancakes (Pannekoek) are similar to American pancakes in name only. My first hint was the fact that there were dozens of different pancakes on the menu. Options were grouped into general categories such as "sweet," "savoury," "sweet and savory," "international" and "specialty." Sweet included options like apple, banana, sugar, syrup, etc. Savoury included various combinations of cheese, bacon, ham, onions, peppers, etc. Sweet and hearty had options like bacon and pineapple, bacon and raisin, cheese and apple, etc. International had options like Asian stir fry, veal ragout, Italian, etc. Specialty included a number of variants on what we would call a garbage pizza. Speaking of pizza, when our orders arrived - I went for the bacon and cheese, Harry for a specialty variant - the pancake looked more like a pizza. The pancake itself was thin like a crepe and was laid flat and covered the entire plate. The bacon - which was round like Canadian bacon but had a lean to fat ratio more like American bacon - and the cheese were cooked right into the pancake (like in a blueberry pancake), but because it was so thin, it looked just like American pizza toppings. The pancake itself had a nice flavor, although it is hard to describe - it wasn't sweet, it wasn't bready, it didn't have a noticeable flavor of grain. All together, the pancake was very tasty. Forget what they say about small European portions though, neither Harry nor I were able to get through more than half our portion before we called it quits.

After dinner, we stopped off at a bar along the way back to the hotel for "a coffee." I ordered a cappuccino, which I hope was not a mistake given that I consumed it around 9:00 pm. I guess I'll find out in just a bit…


Monday, December 3, 2007

The cappuccino was a bad idea. I fell right asleep, but only slept for two hours before I awakened. I tried a number of techniques in an attempt to go back to sleep: just laying there, progressive relaxation, even listening to Enya's Shepherd Moon which I have used successfully for years. Sadly, it turned out to be only the second time ever that I have made it all the way through the CD. I did finally go back to sleep after being awake for four hours and go two more hours of rest before I had to get up to get ready to go in to the office.

Today was my first day at the work site. It just amazes me how well all of the team members speak English. Out of maybe twenty people, only three were mono-lingual; all of whom were from English speaking countries. The rest of the team spoke at least two languages fluently, and many spoke three or even four. Sure made me feel like the slow one in the group.

For breakfast, I decided to do the breakfast buffet at the hotel as I was tired and hungry. The selection included various cold cereals, various breads and rolls, scrambled eggs, bacon, English sausage links, some cut fruit, quite a few cheeses and lunch meats. There was also a griddle where you could fry your own eggs. It was definitely not worth the €22 that I later discovered it cost.

For lunch, I walked the block to a local chain grocery store - Albert Heijn. I bought a couple of bottles of water and a bag of Zaanse Mini Krentenbolletjes - small raisin bread rolls. I had a couple, shared one with a team mate who hadn't gotten to go out for lunch, and kept the rest of the bag to eat for breakfast over the next few days.

For dinner, we went to a lovely little restaurant. I had a pan-fried fish dish of some sort that was quite good. My share of the bill, including two beers, was €25

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Today was another productive day at work. I even managed to figure out how to call a US 800 number from the office.

For dinner, ten of us went to an Indonesian restaurant a few blocks from the hotel. We all decided to do the buffet. It was absolutely delicious. I had a small sample of literally everything on the buffet, and there wasn't one thing that I didn't find delicious. My share of the bill, including two beers, was €25

After dinner, I decided to do some laundry in the hotel's washing machine and dryer. Even though the company will pay for dry cleaning on extended trips, I just can't swallow the thought of paying €5,50 per shirt, €3.30 per T-shirt, €3,30 per undershort and €3,30 per pair of socks. Just to have washed four days worth of underware and socks (on a couple of days I wore two pairs) would have been €46,50. Fortunately, there was a very nice lady who explained how to use the front-loading washer, as it was all in Dutch, and was very different than our Sears top-loader at home. I was able to figure out the dryer without any damage to my clothes. While I was watching the wash go round and round, I think I was able to figure out most of the options, i.e. wool, permanent press, temperatures, etc. Granted, it did take me a little over an hour to do the laundry, which ended up getting me to bed well after midnight, but €2 for a packet of washing soap seemed much more reasonable to my tight fisted sensibilities.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Today was the most productive work day so far. We were able to accomplish quite a bit as a team.

For breakfast, I had the last of the Mini Krentenbolletjes. For lunch, I went back to Albert Heijn and bought a couple of hard rolls and some sort of medium soft French cheese (Chaumes?). The rolls were very good and the cheese was fine, but a bit messy to eat with no fork. For dinner, Harry, Bill and I went to a Thai restaurant and had the buffet. Once again, I took a little bit of everything, and once again, there wasn't one item I didn't enjoy. Particularly enjoyable was the dessert soup - sweetened coconut milk with sago (which is similar to tapioca) and lychees.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

I spent the morning working in the hotel room.

Just before noon, I checked out of the hotel, and Harry and I walked over to the train station. We had about twenty minutes before the train was scheduled to depart, so we stopped into a coffee shop in the station and got a light lunch, which, for me, consisted of the Dutch equivalent of pain au chocolate and a cup of coffee. Speaking of coffee, it is always interesting to me what things are similar and what are different. Here, almost all of the coffee appears to be made one cup at a time - even in the coffee shop. There is no Splenda or Equal, but there are at least two variants of artificial sweetener - one that comes in the form of very small tablets, and one that is powdered and comes in long narrow packages like at Olive Garden. The cream for the coffee is yellowish rather than white like at home. My guess is that is because they don't skim out any of the butter fat. It makes the coffee quite rich, but doesn't lighten the color as much as I am accustomed to.

As with our trip to Eindhoven, the train departed exactly on schedule. The weather was a bit worse than on Sunday, but I guess I was paying better attention, as I "saw" more on this trip. Maybe it was because I was facing "forward" rather than "backward," or maybe it was because Harry was working on his computer, so I wasn't running my mouth. On the trip I noticed quite a few fields with various farm animals such as cows, pigs, sheep and even some horses, a really pretty bridge similar to one going into Jacksonville, many more single family houses, and just more "stuff" in general. I even saw a few honest to goodness old fashion Dutch windmills! I also realized there was a lot more "countryside" than I had perceived on my first trip.

Dinner tonight was the first meal I was disappointed with. We ended up going to a Mexican restaurant, but I ended up (I have no idea why) ordering their dinner special - green salad, ribs and french fries. For the rest of the trip, I'll try to remember to stick with selections that I can't get at home, or at least that have a reasonable chance of being better than something I can get at home. For dessert, I bought an order of poffertjes (mini pancakes) from a stand on the Leidseplein. An order consisted of a "row" of poffertjes which is twelve. They are only about the size of a quarter, so it's not that many, although I could have easily done with only half a row. They are served in a paper tray, topped with butter and powdered sugar. They were okay, but nothing overly special.

Friday, December 9, 2007

The weather was miserable - cold, rainy, and very windy. We took the #2 tram west from the hotel to the office. The ride was about twenty minutes. We have a large presence in Amsterdam, occupying two entire multi-story buildings. The buildings and office space are very nice. There is a cafeteria in the building, which is very convenient.

One thing that I found interesting is that you can't use cash in the cafeteria - you have to add money to your ID badge via a special ATM like machine in the building. The badges are different than the one I have in a couple of ways. In addition to the magnetic stripe, they also have proximity capability and they also have an embedded smart chip. That's how your available balance remaining on the card is tracked / updated.

The team had a nice large team room reserved, complete with multiple phones, power outlets, network ports, etc. This was a refreshing change from the US sites I've worked out of for the last two years.

For lunch, I had a cup of soup, a piece of a multi-grain batard, and a cup of black cherry yogurt. I learned that there are a couple of different types of yogurt. The one I selected was in a cylindrical cup, and was similar to what you typically find in the States. There is also a type that comes in a rectangular container that has a thicker consistency - almost like custard. I plan to try it on Monday.

For dinner, Harry, Bill and I went to a Thai restaurant. We decided to order and share a couple of entrees and start with soup. Since Harry and Bill are very familiar with Thai food, I left the ordering up to them. The soup was a slightly spicy shrimp and vegetable soup that was very tasty. For the entrees, we had chicken in a green curry sauce and pad Thai. The green curry was nothing like what I always think of when I hear the term curry - something in a yellowish sauce that tastes like "curry powder." I thought they were both very good, but Bill said that they were nothing like real Thai food because they had gotten the seasonings all wrong. After dinner, we stopped at a bar for coffee. Since it was Friday night, I decided to take a risk and have an espresso; the risk being whether I would be able to go to sleep and/or stay asleep. I felt the risk was reasonable, since if I had ended up having sleep related problems, I'd have the weekend to get sorted out. Turns out the espresso didn't affect me too much - I fell right to sleep, and only awoke briefly one time. On the way back to the hotel, I bought a waffle from the one sweets kiosks that I hadn't tried that are side-by-side on the Leidseplein for desert. It looked like a Belgium waffle, but was slightly denser and sweeter. Of the three, I decided I like the oliebollen the best.

Saturday, December 9, 2007

I decided to spend the day sightseeing on my own. Although it was cold, it was not raining (at least not until the late aftertoon), and every now and then, the sun even peaked out. Between my undershirt, medium weight outer shirt, sweater, lined trench coat, scarf, hat and gloves, I was quite comfortable.

I took the tram to Spui and then walked through De Negen Straatjes (The Nine Little Streets) (http://www.de9straatjes.nl) - a series of alleys that criss-cross Amsterdam's main canals and that are full of tiny shops that sell everything from vintage merchandise to trendy fashions to the truly unique. My favorite shop was the one that sold only toothbrushes. You'd have to see it to believe it. Who knew there were so many regular and novelty toothbrushes! I also liked the shop that sold vintage electrical appliances and office stuff. The toasters were fascinating, and I wish I had saved some of those old Boston pencil sharpeners like we had in grade school - whoda thunk they'd be fetching €45. I then walked up the Prinsengracht past the Nieuwe Kerk (new church) - they call it new because it's only a couple of hundred years old, as opposed to the Oude Kerk (old church) which is about twice that old. I continued on to the Anne Frank huis (Anne Frank House) but decided not to go in, both because there was a long line, and because I thought it would upset me. I know that many people find her story to be uplifting - hope in the face of dire circumstances, finding beauty in the midst of utter ugliness, the kindness and selflessness that we as humans sometimes demonstrate - but in the end, I can't get past the misery of the situation, the evil that we as humans often demonstrate, and the reality that ultimately, she did not survive. I thought of Wendy as I stood there, and was tempted to go in just for her sake, but I just couldn't bring myself to do so.

I then walked down Rozengracht past the Mosque. The Mosque was very disappointing. If I hadn't been looking for it, I wouldn't have noticed it. Were it not for the small crescent sitting atop the roof, I wouldn't have realized it was the Mosque. I then headed north to explore De Jordaan. This area was quite cool in that it seemed more like a place where regular people live, than the more tourist / high end areas nearer the hotel. Next, I headed east on Westerstraat. I found an open air market that was blocks and blocks long. As expected, there were booths with merchants selling dry goods - clothes, lots of bicycle related stuff. Not expected, were the very large (10-15 meters long) booths selling fruit, vegetables, baked goods, and most surprising of all, poultry, meat and even fresh fish! At the seafood booths, in addition to the fresh fish, they also sold cooked fish. I purchased a small tray of freshly fried fish nuggets. I have no idea what kind of fish it was, but it was delicious. Continuing my wanderings, I encountered a flea market which I found to be somewhat dull. I guess anywhere you go, junk is junk.

One other interesting thing I saw was a canal full of house boats.

I got the impression that these are not houseboats like in the US, but are people's full time homes that happen to be boats. This made me think of Jamie's friend Lisa, who is from The Netherlands and happens to live on a boat. I have been thinking about Jamie quite a bit this trip, between the pedicabs, the nightlife, the vintage shops, the bicycle culture and the city in general. I think that she would really like Amsterdam.

Amazingly, I didn't end up getting lost. There were times that I didn't quite know where I was, but between a couple of simple hand-drawn maps I had scribbled on the hotel tablet paper, which I did to avoid having to look like an idiot standing on the street looking at the big map given to me by the hotel, and my trusty compass watch, I managed to find my way to a tram, and back to the hotel.

I just happened to be near a church at noon, which is why I guess I realized that it was noon - the bells served as my hint. For some reason, I happened to notice the position of the sun just then, which caused me to pause for a moment; rather than being overhead, or nearly so, as one would expect in Florida, the sun was no more than 30° above the horizon. It occurred to me that this explained both why the days are so short - the sun doesn't rise until almost 0830 and sets about 1630 - and why it is so cold.

By the time I got back to the hotel, my back was quite sore. I did some stretches, and then put on the flexible back brace that I had fortunately thought to pack. I then headed back out on a pair of shopping related missions.

On Thursday, I ended up installing Skype on my work laptop. Bill had been talking about using VOIP on his laptop, and I remembered that Matt (a TSM with whom I worked for the last two years) had raved about Skype as a means to talk with his family affordably while he was on the road. So, I went to http://www.skype.com, downloaded the software and installed it - all of which was simple. If you want to use Skype to speak with someone else who is on their PC, the software and "service" are free. If you want to use Skype to "call" a telephone, there is a small per-minute fee. To call a telephone, you must first purchase "Skype Credit" to which the per-minute usage fees are applied. Much to my surprise - after I had shelled out the $10 for the minimum amount of Skype Credit - I learned that it can take up to twenty-four hours for the credit to actually appear on your account. Since I wasn't going to be able to use Skype right away to call Jeanie, I decided to investigate what other options there might be. I remembered that international calling with OneSuite - the long distance "service" we use for most of our long distance calling at home - was quite affordable. OneSuite is similar in concept to a calling card. You prepay by adding money (in increments of $10) to your account. You then call a local access number (if there is one in your city using the local number reduces the per minute charge slightly) or a toll free number to access the service. You then key in your access code and then key in the number you wish to call. One of the cool features of OneSuite is a feature they call ZipDial. It allows you to register the telephone numbers from which you regularly access the service so that you don't have to enter your access code - it automatically recognizes you from the caller ID. Rates for long distance calls in the US run about 2.5 cents per minute. Anyway, I figured Jeanie could use OneSuite to call me for cents per minute rather than me calling her on my work calling card and costing the company dollars per minute. I figured I'd make things easier for her by going to the OneSuite site and looking up some local access numbers for her, as well as figuring out exactly how to use the service for international calls and determining exactly what the cost per minute would be. Imagine my surprise when I got to their web site and discovered that OneSuite offers VOIP calling as part of the package we already have! So much for that $10 I had just spent buying Skype Credit… Well, actually, it wasn't a waste as I can still use it, it just seemed ironic to me at the time. Since Thursday, I have used both the Skype and OneSuite VOIP from my computer - albeit with the built-in microphone on the laptop - and both appear to work fine. Sound quality isn't as good as a land line, or even a cell phone, but for pennies per minute, it is more than tolerable.

So, back to the missions…

Mission number one was to get a microphone. I had seen a headset at the street market for only €3,50 but I decided not to get it since it was too large to carry around in my briefcase. In retrospect, I wish I had purchased it, but, hindsight is 20-20. I ended up going into a couple of computer stores, and settled on a really low-end earbud/microphone setup similar to what usually comes bundled with a cell phone. It cost €3, and as with every such setup, the earbud is quite uncomfortable and the microphone quality is marginal. The package did have a Skype voucher for thirty minutes worth of credit - so the net cost was about €2,75. The one upside is that the setup is small enough to easily put in my briefcase. I suppose if I get really motivated, I can purchase a 2.5mm jack from RadioShack and cannibalize the plugs from this setup to make an adapter and then use my regular cell phone Jabra hands-free with my computer.

Mission number two was to get a cell phone. I was just plain tired of people not being able to reach me. I didn't like the fact that Jeanie had no way to reach me in an emergency, and that the only way Harry and Bill could contact me was for them to call my room which meant that either I had to sit in the room waiting for their call, or had to keep coming back to the hotel to check my messages. I had thought about renting a cell phone, but after I arrived here, I realized that renting is really only viable if you do it prior to leaving the US, and it is expensive. It turns out, cell service in Europe is in many ways similar to the US. The two big differences are that in Europe, they use GSM technology rather than the CDMA technology used by most of the carriers (including both Verizon and Sprint), and that you have the option of buying an unlocked device. An unlocked device means that you are not tied to only one particular carrier - you simply purchase a SIM card with whatever carrier you want, and select the options / service plan that best suits you. You can even purchase pre-paid SIM cards that can be used to provide a local number for the country you are in if you will be staying in just one country, or can provide international roaming. The downside of purchasing an unlocked phone is that they are expensive, since the cost of the phone is not being subsidized by a carrier. As in the US, you can also sign up for a contract with a carrier, and in exchange for the obligation, get a nice phone for little or no cost. Of course, it would make no sense for me to do this, so my options were to purchase an unlocked phone and a pre-paid SIM card, or purchase a pre-paid phone. The advantage of a pre-paid phone was that this was the most economical option. I found one for only €19,95 but unfortunately, the store was out of stock, so I ended up getting a Sony Ericsson J110i for €25 which included the phone, a charger, and €10 worth of time (which amounted to about 50 minutes) from Vodaphone. The disadvantage was that the pre-paid phones are locked - both to the carrier and to the country. So, other than in The Netherlands, the phone is useless. Also, the €10 worth of time expires in 90 days. But, considering the cheapest unlocked phone was well over €100, I felt that I chose the best option; especially in light of the fact that it might be years before I leave the US again, and if I do, it is likely to be to come back to The Netherlands within the next month or so. Also, incoming calls and calls to local toll-free numbers do not count against the pre-paid time. Since I got it mainly so I could receive - not make - calls, this should extend the value of the purchase. For an effectively €15 phone, it is not bad at all. Of course, as would be expected, it is very basic, but, it is much more feature rich than the pre-paid cell phones I have seen in the US, and it is nice and small and light. It easily and comfortably fits in a shirt pocket.

I got back to the hotel around 1530, and called Harry and Bill to see if they were interested in getting together for dinner. Harry was feeling a bit under the weather, so he decided to stay in, but Bill was interested in meeting for dinner, which we did at 1900.

In the interim, I succumbed to the last connectivity related struggle I had been having - lack of Internet access. Paying €88 for seven days of wireless access feels obscene, but I just couldn't stand the thought of going all weekend, and all evening each day for the rest of the trip, without it. I justified the expenditure to myself by realizing that it would not only allow me to be more productive from a work perspective as I could use the connectivity to do email and to check train schedules, and such, but would also allow me to continue to use Skype for my daily call home rather than having to resort to using the company calling card.

We ended up at an Argentine steak house. Neither Bill nor I were that hungry, so we decided to order a few starters and have them for dinner sort of like eating tappas. We ended up ordering a green salad, chorizo, calamari in tomato sauce, Spanish rice and bread. It was all quite good, and just the right amount of food.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

I decided to make today a work day. I have quite a bit of work to do, and this is a work trip after all. Besides, even though the skies are mostly clear and the sun is shining, it feels much colder than the 47°F it is claimed to be outside. Maybe it's because of the 15 mph winds, or maybe it's because even though the sun is out, because it is so low in the sky, it never actually seems to shine on the sidewalks.

I know how cold it feels because I went out to each lunch around noon. I was in the mood for another Pannekoek (Dutch pancake). The restaurant I really wanted to eat at wasn't open, so I ended up at another. The restaurant was small and only had a few tables, most of which were six place rectangular tables. I ended up sitting at an empty table, but within a few minutes, an American woman who was not very friendly at all was also seated at the table. It wasn't that she was unpleasant, just not pleasant, and she emanated a "leave me alone!" vibe. I ordered a bacon and cheese pancake, but here, the bacon was more like American bacon. It was okay, but had I to do it over again, I would have gone elsewhere and ordered something else. I was also unpleasantly surprised at the cost - €12 for the pancake and a teeny cup of coffee. I think I would have been happier having gone to the grocery and buying another bag of Mini Krentenbolletjes and a bottle of milk.

After lunch, I spent a good part of the afternoon working, except for an hour or so I spent napping.

For dinner, Harry, Bill and I went to an Italian restaurant. I would have preferred something else, as there are a number of decent Italian restaurants at home, but I didn't feel strongly about it, and what I was in the mood for was Chinese food from Chinatown, which was too far to go to given the weather, so I didn't object. The restaurant we ended up at was the same one I had the tomato soup at last week. I ordered carbonara, which wasn't spectacular, but wasn't bad. For desert, I bought an oliebollen that wasn't enjoyable at all, as it was cold and greasy.

Monday, December 11, 2007

Harry and I took tram to the office. It was a bit of a hassle because I had my suitcase and briefcase and the tram was quite full. Nevertheless, we managed to get to the office without too much ado.

I spent a few hours meeting with team members and made some progress laying down the foundation for our portion of the engagement.

For lunch, I didn't have much money left on my badge, so I only had a hard roll with butter, and a container of the yogurt in the rectangular package. I had strawberry. The consistency was in fact similar to a baked custard. I found it quite enjoyable.

Around 14:30, one of the local TSMs drove Harry and me to Schiphol Airport where we caught the train to Eindhoven. The office is quite close to Schiphol - it only took a few minutes to drive there. As usual, the train was on time departing and arriving. I asked the conductor how fast the train goes, and learned that its top speed is 130-140 kph (81-87 mph). This trip, we ended up in a train car with only a single level, rather than the double deckers we had been in previously. I found the single level car to be much more convenient, as the overhead space was a long open shelf rather than a bin and the opening was large enough to accommodate my briefcase. I didn't try, but I might have even been able to get my suitcase overhead.

For dinner, Harry and I went to a tappas restaurant that was pretty good and then went to a bar and had a cup of café latte before returning to the hotel.

I started a load of laundry in when I got to the hotel around 5:00pm. I put the clothes in the dryer just before six. The load wasn't quite dry at 7:00, so I ran it for another cycle, and went out to dinner. When I got back around 10:00, one of the two dryers was still going. This resulted in some of my shirts and one of the pairs of pants having firmly set wrinkles because they ran so long. Guess that's what I get for trying to save the company a few Euros.

I ended up working very late. I had a call with a team member in US, then spent some time getting SameTime VoiceSuite working. After completing those tasks, I spent time with support asking questions about ordering new Blackberry. Before going to bed, I called Jeanie. I finally got to sleep around 2:00am.

Tuesday, December 13, 2007

The company was in the middle of moving our offices to a new building at the HTC (High Tech Campus) in Eindhoven, so we all had to cram into a small open temporary work space in a building in "The Strip." The working environment was less than ideal, but manageable. At least we had wireless connectivity.

For lunch, a group of us walked over to the nearest cafeteria. I didn't write down what I had and have no recollection of the meal, so I guess it wasn't anything special one way or the other.

For dinner I was in the mood for Greek food. This was the first time I asserted myself regarding a dinner selection. Harry wasn't thrilled with the choice, as he had recently sailed in the Greek Islands and didn't find the food to be very enjoyable, but he was nice and agreed to give it a go. I had a sampler with four kinds of meat that was very tasty. Harry had a pork dish that he thoroughly enjoyed.


Wednesday, December 13, 2007

Even though our new building was still not ready, we decided to walk over to take a look. We found a room that we could meet in, and found a few desks that did have connectivity, so we decided to work in the new building, amidst the movers and technicians.

For breakfast I had a raisin roll in the room at the hotel. Even though the breakfasts were ridiculously expensive, if I asked nicely, they would let me take a cup of coffee (or two) to go. So, each day, I would go downstairs and get two cups of coffee and take them back up to the room. At home, I rarely drink a cup of regular (as opposed to decaffeinated) coffee. On the rare occasion when I do have a cup of regular coffee, I find that it makes me jittery. On this trip, I probably averaged four cups of coffee a day - and I'm talking strong coffee - but as long as I only had the coffee in the morning, I had no ill affects.

For lunch, we went back to the cafeteria in the strip. I had half a personal size pizza that was okay, a Coke Lite (sugar free and way too sweet and syrupy for my taste) and a cup of chocolate pudding.

For dinner, I had planned just to stay in and get some work done. I went down to the bar to get something light to eat and there was the CSE and the VP for the deal. They had just ordered drinks, so I decided to have one too, even though I knew it would impact my work plans. One thing led to another, and they invited me to go to dinner with them. I felt it was an opportunity I shouldn't miss, and that it might seem antisocial if I said "no," so I went along. We ended up going to an Indian restaurant which I thoroughly enjoyed. We started with some Indian bread, which was very thin and crispy - more like a large round cracker. For the entrée, I had lamb ragan josh. Even though I ordered it "hot," it wasn't that spicy. The waiter let us know that the cook didn't want to make it too spicy, but that he had prepared a dish of sauce that would get our attention should we wish to increase the intensity of the dish. This additional sauce, applied judiciously, did in fact add just the right amount of "character" to the dish. Along with the entrée, we were served rice and pureed lentils. We also were served a different kind of bread that was also round and flat, but much softer - kind of like pita, only better.

I didn't end up getting any work done, but I did feel the evening was productive in a "soft" sense in that I had an opportunity to socialize with some of the other team members and build some relationships.


Thursday, December 13, 2007

I spent the early morning packing and working on some non-deal related work stuff. At 10:30, I met Harry in the lobby and we shared a cab to the office. I had a couple of meetings with coworkers, then a bunch of us headed over to a different cafeteria in the Strip building than we had eaten at yesterday. We were a bit late for lunch, and much of the food had already been put away. One of the items that was left was classic Dutch herring. I had one piece, just to say I'd tried it. It wasn't horrible, but I didn't go back for more either. It was a little, but not much, fishy tasting, but what was more of an issue was the consistency. The flesh was very soft, and there was a slight hint of sliminess.

After lunch, I spent more time meeting with coworkers. I was quite bummed when the Lead TSM mentioned going to dinner with me, and I explained that I had changed my travel plans and was leaving this afternoon to go back to Amsterdam so I could catch a morning flight tomorrow. What bummed me out was that he had made arrangements to stay an extra day in Eindhoven just because my original itinerary had shown that I would return home on Saturday. Since I had been told that the team was only in Eindhoven Tuesday through Thursday, I had assumed that everyone would be leaving this afternoon, and hadn't even thought to talk to Wim on Wednesday prior to changing my plans. He was very gracious, and said that any miscommunication is always an issue with both parties, but I felt like a dog nonetheless.

Harry and I caught a taxi to the hotel where we picked up our suitcases that we had left with the concierge when we had checked out, then headed off to the station. For the first time on the trip, the train was late by a few minutes. The ride to Amsterdam was fine, although since we didn't leave the station until 1800, it was pitch dark outside.

I was glad to learn that the gift shop in the hotel was still open when we arrived a little before 2000. I picked out a few gifts and then headed up to the room to finish and send one item that I had to provide to my manager prior to tomorrow. Unfortunately, I was given a room on the side of the hotel from which the Swisscom wireless network is not accessible, so I ended up having to pay for an hour of iBahn just so I could get my item submitted. Right after I completed the submission, my VPN connection stopped working which was a bit frustrating as it prevented me from replicating one last time. Fortunately, the Internet connection continued to work, so I was able to call Jeanie on Skype and chat for a while.

Harry wasn't interested in going out for dinner, so I had a bottle of water from the hotel gift shop and ¾ of a Ritter Sport Galleta Butter Biscuit. I was hungry, but I just didn't want to venture out into the cold - especially given that I didn't finish working until after 2200. The Ritter Sport was absolutely scrumptious, but I was somewhat glad that the package didn't have any nutrition information, as I am sure I would have been horrified. It was kind of a bummer not to have a decent meal my last night in the Netherlands, but such is life.

Friday, December 13, 2007

I went back and forth about whether to take a taxi or the public transport. I decided to take the public transport, so I walked up to Leidesplein to catch the tram to Centraal Station. I didn't have a pass, so I just paid the €1,60 fare on the tram. After arriving at Centraal Station, I walked over to the ticket booths and learned that you have to take a number when wanting to purchase an inter-city train ticket at Centraal Station, and that the inter-city windows are about a 20 meter walk past the number spitter, to the right, where they can't be seen from the number spitter. Somehow, I managed to muddle through and purchase my ticket. At least I remembered to ask the ticket agent which platform to go to before walking away.

The train ride seemed longer than I remembered, but I guess I was just being a bit nervous that I had indeed caught the right train, which in fact I did.

It is easy to get from the Schiphol train platform to the airport as it is all in the same building. I had to stand in a long line at the airline ticket counter. I found it interesting that there aren't dedicated counters for the various carriers like in the US - instead they are shared, with the terminals and printers provided by SITA - a company I had become familiar with having spent the last couple of years working on airline deals. The agent had a bit of a challenge dealing with my strange ticket change issue related to the wwnership of the reservation by Delta vs. Amex due to my direct change of departure time directly with Delta on the outbound portion of the trip. After getting the ticket situation straightened out, I took the short walk through passport control and into the inner terminal. I was pleased that the passport control person stamped my passport on the way out.

I had hoped to buy some perfume for Jeanie at discount, but the prices of the duty free shops weren't very good - I found that I could buy the perfume in the US - even having to pay duty - for less. I had also shopped for perfume at a drug store in Amsterdam and found it to be more expensive than at home. I guess part of the reason is the strength of the Euro compared to the dollar.

I had considered getting breakfast prior to going to the gate area, but since I wasn't familiar with the procedures, distances, etcetera, I decided to wait to eat until I got to the gate area. I learned, too late, that the selection of shops in the gate area sucks. I ended up purchasing a (what turned out to be) fairly nasty packaged pastry and a bottle of chocolate milk as my last meal in The Netherlands. At least the chocolate milk was refreshingly cold and tasty.

I found it interesting that security is at each gate, rather than at a common security area like in the US. The first step in going through security is a brief individual interrogation by a security person - where are you coming from, where are you going, where did you pack your luggage, how did you get to the airport, who gave you something to carry on the plane (trick question), etc. I then went through the metal detector and got a very cursory pat-down. Once through security, there were no amenities in the waiting area other than a bathroom. There were no electrical outlets either.

The flight home was bearable. I had a window seat just behind the wing on the left side of the aircraft. The young lady in the aisle seat next to me was quiet and kept to herself. Sadly, the weather was mostly cloudy, so I didn't get to see much scenery. I ended up watching two of the three in-flight movies: Hairspray and Transformers. I was fairly far back from the screen, so I had a bit of trouble seeing. Had I been a few rows back, I would have been able to watch on an overhead monitor, but, as it was, I could see well enough. At least, that is, after I asked one of the flight attendants to ask the man two rows forward to stop resting his arm on top of his head.

I hadn't expected to enjoy Hairspray, so I was pleasantly surprised that I did. I enjoyed it enough that I would even be willing to rent it again to watch with Jeanie. Transformers was better than sitting there bored. Not that I would have been willing to pay $10 bucks to find out, but my guess is that it would have been better appreciated in a theater, where the visual and sound effects would have been able to be fully appreciated.

I didn't end up being able to work on my computer as the person in front of me kept her seat reclined the entire flight. I did end up getting to catch up on some of my aviation magazine reading. I was particularly delighted, albeit hugely jealous, to read an article in the October "Plane and Pilot" about the delights of flying Patty Wagstaff's Extra 300S written by our own local aviation renaissance man, Keoki Gray.

As with the flight out, Delta did a reasonable job of keeping us occupied by watering and feeding us regularly. The food wasn't five star, but it wasn't horrible either. I think the main meal was the same as the meal out - chicken, rice and some sort of veggie, with a small green salad and a cold roll. About an hour after the meal, we got a small container of Hagan Daaz ice cream that I quite enjoyed. They also gave us a snack - a little pizza thing - shortly before landing.

I made a point of doing isometric leg exercises every few hours, and I took the opportunity to get up and walk around each time my row mate got up, in an effort to thwart DVT (deep vein thrombosis).

All in all, I would imagine that the ten hour flight would have been much more comfortable in business class, but it was bearable back in the chattel section.

Arrival in Atlanta was different than I had expected.

First off, as good as the landing had been going, that's how bad it was returning. I guess the person doing the landing must have been a carrier pilot.

Since the flight attendants had passed out the standard US immigration forms during the flight and I had filled the form out right then, coming back through customs / passport control was a non-event.

The part that surprised me was what came next. Each passenger had to retrieve their baggage from the baggage carousel and then carry it thirty feet or so to one of two areas - either an area that then sent the bag out to the arriving baggage area in Atlanta for passengers whose final destination was Atlanta, or to an area with a handful of baggage handlers who simply put the bag on a conveyor to go back into the baggage handling system to be placed on your connecting flight. I never saw any area where your bag would be searched by customs as I had experienced in previous international travel.

I guess maybe if I had been "flagged" coming through customs / passport control, me and my bag would have been redirected to an area used for more thorough examination…

Anyway, after I dropped my bag off, I then had to go back through security. The way the lines are laid out is very deceiving. Every time I though I was about to get to the point where I'd get in the short queue to go through the scanner / metal detector, there would be another twist in the line that sent me to another line.

It seemed strange that I would have to go through security again at all, given that I hadn't been outside of a secure / controlled area since going through security in Amsterdam, but I guess this "extra" trip through security is a safety precaution due to the fact that the arriving passengers have come from many different countries, some of which might not have as thorough a screening process as we do in the US.

My connection back to Jacksonville was non-problematic, and once again, Delta was nice enough to upgrade me to first class.

By the time my bag showed on the carrousel, Jeanie was waiting for me in the car, and in no time I was back home.



Impressions / observations

The people in Amsterdam are quite tall and quite attractive

Food seems expensive - actually, everything seems expensive

There are hooks / barn beams on most of the buildings in Amsterdam to allow lifting large items up the outside of the building

There are bicycles everywhere. There are dedicated bicycle lanes everywhere. Between the automobile lanes, tram tracks and bicycle lanes, walking across the street can be exciting. The bicycle really is a primary mode of transportation - if I didn't believe it while in the city, the mass of bicycles - hundreds of them - parked at the train stations confirmed it. They also have pedicabs conceptually similar - although a bit fancier looking - to the ones Jamie used to operate in San Francisco

The toilet in the Marriott Amsterdam hotel is cool - it has two flush buttons - one for little flushes, one for large flushes. It is made by Grohe. The faucet in the tub is really nice. One handle controls volume, other controls temperature. That way, you can leave the temp where you want it and just adjust the volume or turn it off.

Canals are everywhere - not only in the city.

Graffiti - more than I would have expected, and not just on trains.

Not having Internet access at the hotels (it cost a small fortune, so I initially did without) and not having a cell phone (both my current Verizon phone and my new Sprint phone use CDMS as opposed to the GSM generally used in the rest of the world so I initially had none) really made me appreciate the level of connectivity that I have in the US and that I have grown to take for granted. So much so in fact, that before the trip was half over, I acquired both…

As a reference, the exchange rate during the trip was €1 = $1.47. By the time you add transaction fees, ATM fees, etc. it was effectively at least €1 = $1.50.

Speaking of the Euro, how cool is it? The fact that one can now travel to so many different countries yet use the same currency is really cool. It must make traveling between countries in Europe so much easier than it used to be. The currency itself is so well thought out. Each demonination of coin is different from each other - it makes it very easy to tell them apart. Not only are they different sizes, but even the edges are different on each coin. The reverse of each coin is the same, no matter which country minted it, but the obverse is unique to each country. I really like the two and one Euro coins, which are bi-metal. The fact that the inner and outer metals are reversed between the two and one Euro coins is way cool. The paper currency is cool too. Each bill is a different size and color. It makes telling the various denominations apart so much easier. The various security features are also quite cool. This site has a wealth of information and pictures on both notes and coins.

As a reference, the temperatures were in the mid-forties during the day and in the mid-thirties during the night (Fahrenheit).

Floors in buildings are numbered starting with 0. So, the ground floor is 0, the floor one story above the ground is 1, etc. This can be very confusing when someone tells you to meet them on the second floor, as you don't know if they mean the floor up one flight of stairs, or floor number two, which is up two flights of stairs.

It was really nice having a cell phone with a built-in camera. Even though the cell phone didn't have servicein The Netherlands, the camera worked. As can be seen, it didn't take the best pictures in the world, but they were better than none. I still don't think I would want to lug around a full size camera on a business trip, but I might see if Jeanie would be willing to let me take her camera if I get to go on another trip where I might have the opportunity to sightsee.

Home