Last week I was in The Netherlands. I landed in Amsterdam at Schipol Airport at about 9:30PM. Grabbed a Big King Menu (Double whopper, fries and a coke) and bought a baguette and some cheese for the next morning's breakfast.
I headed to the train ticket machine and didn't have enough coins so had to go to the teller. She gave me a ticket and told me what platform I needed to get a train to Deuvendrecht which is where I needed to change to a train that stops in 's Hertogenbosch (the 's is at the start, don't know how it is pronounced) which luckily the Dutch also call Den Bosch. As this was my second time going to Den Bosch in a week I knew which stop to get off of for Deuvendrecht. The ride took about half an hour.
By now my watch says 10:42PM. I look at the clock next to the train schedule board and that one says 10:51. I look on the schedule and the train I wanted passes through at 10:46. Did I say passes? I meant passed. So I look at the board and panic becuase I can't find a train that goes to Maastricht. A bit more deciphering and I see I can grab a train to Eindhoven and it will also stop in Den Bosch. That train comes at 11:11PM. As I wait for the train I hear the tail end of an announcement which says "..there will probably definitely not be any trains." I assume this is some time in the future. As the 10:59PM train passes through the platform the schedule board goes blank and stays like that. 30 seconds later the board changes and shows the train that I need to get.
I get on the train and fight sleep for an hour. The last thing I need is to end up in Eindhoven. Finally I get to Den Bosch and I head out for a taxi. The taxi ride cost 30 Euro which is about $35. I get to the hotel that I stayed at the week before. As I checked in they informed me that breakfast is served in the restaurant in the morning. I told him that I'd be leaving at 6:15AM. He told me that breakfast is served from 6AM. I passed anyway.
In the room I unpacked my suit, repacked everything other than toiletries and went to sleep. At 5:15AM my wakeup call rang and I got up, had my baguette with cheese, shaved, showered and packed my toiletries. As I was closing the door on the way out the phone rang as my ride to the meeting in Antwerp had arrived. I met our partner and we drove an hour and a half to Antwerp, Belgium. He told me that the recording I had heard was about today. There is a train strike. I was supposed to sleep next to the airport tonight since I need to be at the airport at 5:30AM. Since he drove me last week I'm hoping he'll drive me again this week.
We arrived an hour early for our meeting so we sat in a conference room and prepared for the meeting. After the meeting we drove an hour and a half to their offices where I caught up on email and started working on the Solution Description for this prospect in Antwerp. We walked over to the sports center to get a sandwich for lunch and then hopped in the car for the drive to Schipol Airport, just outside of Amsterdam.
As we were about to get on the major highway we noticed the traffic was bumper to bumper. It was decided to take a back road. Eventually the backroad comes to a river. We stop at a spot along the river and wait until a ferry comes. We drive onto the ferry, a guy comes and stamps his ferry pass, and four minutes later we drive off on the other side of the river.
I get to the hotel at about 9PM. I get my room key and as I'm heading to the room I see a bunch of lockers for keeping your stuff. I wonder if it is safe to keep my stuff in my room. The bed was quite uncomfortable, the bathroom was a seamless piece of plastic with a shower and toilet and whatnot. I work on my Solution Description and go to sleep. At 4:15 my wakeup call rings and I get up, shower, pack and head to the airport shuttle.
Getting my seat and through security goes pretty quickly. As my connection was about 45 minutes in Zurich they put a "Short Connection in Zurich" tag on my bag. I head to McDonalds in the Duty Free area to grab some breakfast. They don't start serving breakfast until 8AM. I grab a sandwich at another place and head to a table. The stench of smoke is overwhelming so I try to find a non-smoking section and interestingly while the smoking section was filthy and full of trays from the night before the non-smoking section was clean. I guess no non-smokers spent the night at the airport.
After boarding the flight they started to server drinks and gave out chocolate before the doors were closed. This is a bit odd until the other shoe dropped. the flight would be delayed for 30 minutes. Apparently German law limits the number of planes that can land before 9AM on Saturdays and Holidays. Now, the last time I checked Zurich was not in Germany but I guess they are close enough that they have to pay attention.
As the plane was landing they were showing the connection gates. Last week the plane from Amsterdam landed at the same terminal as the one that took off to Tel Aviv. This week the plane to Tel Aviv is taking off from a different terminal. It is now 15 minutes after my flight was supposed to leave and I have to take a train to the other terminal. I run through the airport, lots of loud American "Excuse Me"'s to get past people and get to security at the other terminal. I try to cut in line but security is having nothing of it. Luckily someone in line said, "Don't worry, there are lots of us to Tel Aviv". By the time the plane took off it was about 45 minutes late. I was doing a good job of working on the Solution Description on the plane until woman in front of me decided that she wanted to recline. Lucky for me I was smart enough to make sure to lower my screen a bit so that if she did decide this it would fold the screen and not catch the screen and crack the LCD. With no other choice, I watched "Be Cool" and "Wedding Date". The food was not bad, but then I like Brie on a plane ride.
When I got to the airport in Israel I found that Mozhi and the kids were still on the way and then she missed the exit. I must have stood around waiting for them for 45 minutes. Finally we arrived home at about 3:45PM.
They do have nice cows in The Netherlands, but I don't really get to see much of the cities. Then again, I'm not complaining.