Amsterdam Anyone? - Updated 11/2 - Complete!
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**DopeyGirl** · 10-27-2004, 09:55 PM

Sounds like you had a fun day with the kids (who are ADORABLE by the way!!!) .... well, except for the traffic and the meltdown (which I know all about!!!

)

Look forward to hearing the European part of the report!!!

simbarel · 10-27-2004, 10:09 PM

What a great way to spend your Pre day. DD is as "camera shy" as ever.

Great photos, can't wait to hear more!!!

statelady01 · 10-28-2004, 01:47 AM

Great way to get some Mommy- kiddo time before leaving Marnie- looking forward to more!

**chezp** · 10-28-2004, 02:02 AM

Great start Marnie - I'm so glad you decided to share your experience at the aquarium with us, as there were loads of great photos in there.

Coinbeach · 10-28-2004, 05:48 AM

Wonderful start....love the photos....and your kids are very cute!!!!! Can't wait for more....

BritDisFan · 10-28-2004, 05:53 AM

It looks like you and the kids had a lovely day Marnie, the photo's are great

.

Karen

**Colexis Mom** · 10-28-2004, 12:41 PM

Now onto Germany/Amsterdam!

I won’t bore you with all the details of the trip (does anyone want to talk bearings?

) but it was an uneventful flight over to Amsterdam Monday night. Thankfully the plane was only half full, and I had an aisle seat in the middle section, and thankfully no one sat in the middle seat. I experienced severe sinus pressure/pain like I’ve never had before, and was in quite some pain until the Advil finally took over. Thankfully I was able to sleep on most of the flight over, so the flight wasn’t really that bad. Before you know it, we were landing in Amsterdam!

Now my boss suggested that we just bring a carryon, so that we didn’t have to deal with claiming luggage and such, which was a great idea, but I had a lot to pack into that carryon. Thankfully I managed it, and he gave me the suggestion to bring an empty backpack in the bag for your trinkets and such when we leave. I had already pulled out the backpack before we even left Philly, but I digress!

We make it thru customs without any issues, and head over to the rental car place. Wouldn’t you know, they don’t have his reservation

Whatever, he blamed it on corporate travel, not sure whose fault it really was (you’d think if you didn’t see it on your itinery, that you’d realize you don’t have a reservation)! We finally get that all worked out, and of course, there is only an automatic transmission, he wanted a standard. We ended up with a Ford Mondeo station wagon for 4 days, for the low, low price of over 700 euros

. Good grief, that’s highway robbery, and more than our plane ticket cost!

I got to be navigator, and we finally made it out of Amsterdam and headed for Germany. Gosh, I’ve never seen so many sheep and cows in my life! And everything was so green! Did I mention how cold it was? Holy mittens Batman, it was freezing. I guess we had been spoiled with higher than normal temperatures in CT for most of the fall, but it was only about 45 degrees! I had thought about bringing my gloves, and now was kicking myself for not doing it. We made a stop at a gas place to get some bottle water and some candy! And what did I see (too bad I didn’t have the camera) was an ice cream case, and it had Nestle Mickey Bars in there

I went all the way to the Netherlands for a Mickey Bar

The drive to Bielefeld, Germany took about 2 and a half hours, and that was going pretty fast. My first experience on the Autoban, and I think we made it up to 180 km/hr (about 110 mph

), but that was just for a short distance. Too fast for me, thank you very much, but I will give them kudos on their driving. For the speed they go, everyone I saw used their signals and we didn’t see any accidents. We made it to Bielefeld, and wouldn’t you know it that the boss only knows the name of the hotel, but not the address (since he didn’t get confirmation from corporate travel – are you seeing a trend here)! After an hour of going around in circles, we were finally able to find it. And thank goodness that they had reservations for us! We went up to our respective rooms, for a while, and then met back downstairs to walk around the town and go get some dinner.

The hotel was very nice, modern, although the room was a little small. Still very comfortable, except that it was a smoking room! Yuck! Thankfully, it didn’t stink too much. It even came with a rubber ducky! Oh, and I forgot to mention how high the bathtubs are. I almost tumbled out every day, wondering if my feet were ever going to hit the ground!

After a much needed shower and change of clothes, I headed back downstairs to meet the boss and head out to see the sights. We walked all around the town, which was very nice. We stopped at an old cathedral and went inside (more to get out of the cold than anything else) and there were pictures from the early 1940s. Of course the text was in German so we couldn’t read it, but it looks like the cathedral must have been hit in the bombings of WWII, and had been rebuilt. It was beautiful inside, and there was a huge pipe organ as well! Since we were still cold, we headed to a café and got some hot chocolate. We sat in the window, and watched about 3 groups of young adults try to cram themselves into a old style red telephone booth that was right near the cathedral. It was funny to see, and more funny to watch all these kids walking around carrying cases of beer and such. Not something you see everyday in the states

Bielefeld is home to a university, so we chalked it up to that!

We had dinner at a nice Argentinian steak house, and thankfully they had English menus. After a full meal, we headed back to the hotel, and turned in for the night. It had been a long traveling day, and some much needed sleep was required. My cell phone still wasn’t working even though it was supposed to (I couldn’t call out, but calls could come in and I could check my voicemail) so I called home on the corporate MCI card before I turned in for the night!

Most of Wednesday was spent in the office at the plant, well all of it actually. We were there from 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM and then headed out to dinner. Thankfully, one of our German colleagues visited with us during lunch (he wasn’t taking part in our meeting) and we figured out what we had to do to get our phones to work. Apparently, all the numbers need a +1 (area code and then number) if you are dialing into the states. Lesson learned there. I spent some of the time reprogramming my phone to change all the numbers to have +1 in front of them. And I finally checked my voice mail number (remember how I could call that one) and it had +1 in front of it

Okay, back in business. We left for dinner around 8:30, and one of our German colleagues was with us, thankfully, because he suggested a nice restaurant just down the road, but not much English was spoken. He translated the entire menu for us, and I ended up with another steak. It was good, but I didn’t care for the mushrooms it came with. But I had a great chocolate mousse dessert, so that made up for it. I even tried a little bit of salmon for the appetizer, which is a big step for me (picky eater here

)! It was a late night, and when we got back to the hotel, it was lights out.

Thursday was again spent in the plant, having a few more meetings and getting a tour of the plant. I did learn quite a lot so it was time well spent. We only managed to stay in the office today until around 5:30, and then a colleague took us to an old German castle a few miles from the plant, before we headed for dinner at his golf club. The grounds of the castle were great, but the castle itself hasn’t been kept up. Apparently, his grandmother used to be the “children’s dresser” at the castle, many, many years ago. It was cool that he had a connection to it.

Dinner was great, and the golf club restaurant was an Italian one. I could read that menu (in Italian) much better than the German ones, but they had it in both. I ended up with some bruschetta for an appetizer, and just spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. All these late meals are catching up to me, and I’m starting to feel like I’ve gained 10 pounds already. It doesn’t help sitting in an office all day. I’m much more active when I’m home. We made it back to the hotel, and packed, as tomorrow was our last day and we’d be headed out to Amsterdam again.

Friday saw the same ritual. Into the plant, had a few more tours, and then we pretty much wrapped up things after lunch. We were nervous about the traffic on a Friday afternoon, so we decided to head out a little early. Not to mention that apparently it was the start of a two week vacation for German schools, so the roads were destined to be busy.

We hit a lot of traffic on the back roads, but once we made it to the autoban, it was smooth sailing. We were headed back to the airport to drop off the 700 euro car, as we should be okay in Amsterdam without a car. After getting a receipt, we headed inside the airport to get train tickets to Central Station in downtown Amsterdam. Of course, it was at this point that the boss lost his Passport, and I was thinking we were going to be spending Saturday at the consulate getting a new passport. After checking, rechecking, and unloaded his clothes, he found it in the pocket of his pants that he had worn out the night we walked around Bielefeld! That solved, we headed to the train platform. We ended up getting on the wrong train (unknowingly) and had to get off at the next stop, head back to the station, and get on the correct train! Did I mention this trip was full of adventure

We made it to Central Station and then hailed a cab to the hotel (Renaissance Amsterdam). In hindsight, we should have walked, as it was less than a 5 minute drive (I think for 15 euros)

We checked in, went upstairs to unpack, and then met back downstairs to look for some dinner. Here are some pictures from my room and looking into the courtyard.

Coming up next.....details of Amsterdam

MontiMouse · 10-28-2004, 01:43 PM

Nothing like a yummy Mickey Bar to warm you up on those cold nights abroad!!

Can't wait to hear more about your trip - hurry back!

karmic · 10-28-2004, 02:53 PM

Yoyr descriptions bring back memories of the business trip to Germany that DH and I went on in 2000 complete with tours of engineering plants. The autobahn takes some getting used to- we had a German driver who went 100+ miles an hour all the time and there were other cars passing him. Quite an experience!

WEDway Guy · 10-28-2004, 05:03 PM

Great report Marnie! I've never been to the Mystic aquarium but it looked nice. I just started taking the family down to Rocky Neck SP beach this year. It's a nice beach area. I like the way the water depth gradually increases. Take 395 North out of there up to MA and you're practically at my house.