Travelogue: Amsterdam - Part I Getting To Amsterdam

The story of my trip to Amsterdam actually started yesterday. As I have mentioned the custom here in Thames Ditton is that on your birthday you bring the cake(s) into the office to celebrate. This has a certain logic to it as if you don't want people to know or to make a fuss, you simply don't bring a cake.

It is not so much that I wanted people to make a fuss, but I wasn't feeling like shutting-out my mates at the office either. So I baked two cakes and brought them in. I shared the news of the presence of cake to my colleagues at the office via an email informing people that I was celebrating my birthday and was turning 29 (base 18) so if they wanted some, they should come on up and get some.

Now I admit that I am something of a math geek, I love numbers and the things you can do with them; this is one of the things I have been doing for years. When I was a kid they used to teach number theory as a regular part of the elementary school math curricula. Back in the sixties, they called it the "new math" as if teaching children how numbers worked instead of just having someone learn by rote memorization the tables of the math results was some revolutionary idea.

I guess though, that this has fallen out of fashion as more than once yesterday I got the question: "What did your note mean you're 29? You look older than that!" or queries along those lines. Distressingly, some of these queries came from people I'd have assumed would have been familiar with numbering systems that were not based on 10. Computer programmers! When I was taking programming in college, I learned hexadecimal and binary numbering systems. I guess in these days of compiled code, they no longer teach the logical underpinnings of the system to the programmers.

A number of people asked my plans for the weekend. I explained that as I had wanted to do a lot of things while I was in Amsterdam for the one night that I spent there last October that I had no chance to do. The rain prevented me from walking around outside and the hours I was there precluded me from getting to the museums I wanted to see. So, I was returning for a couple days and nights and staying at a hotel in the central city so as to have a better launching point for exploring.

At 18:30 I printed my hotel reservations, my airline bookings and my itineraries and made a copy to leave back home. I then went to the villa to meet-up with my colleagues for a birthday dinner at the King's Arms and a few pints with friends. We had a lovely night that, perhaps - just perhaps, lasted a bit longer than it should have. Saga went home with my friends who were taking care of her for the weekend and I returned home last night at 23:00 and, after tossing a few more things into my carry-on, went to bed.

04:55 came real early today! It seemed that I had no sooner put my head to pillow than the alarm rang. Surprisingly, I was not really tired, on the first few notes of the tune my mobile phone plays as an alarm, I was up and getting ready for my day.

This morning I shared a cab to the airport with a colleague who was departing for the states and with whom I needed to have some discussions anyway. So, even on my day off, my Birthday, I was working. We had a good chat covering all the things we needed to discuss and then made arrangements to talk next week. I was deposited at the airport at 07:15 plenty of time to make an 08:35 flight since all I needed to do was walk up to an automated kiosk, hit a couple keys and check in (I had already printed my boarding passes yesterday at the office) and walk straight to the plane.

Have I ever told you that plans that I make tend to go awry? Sometimes this is a good things, sometimes this is a bad thing, sometimes it is just an interesting thing. Then there was this morning when it was just a frigging frustrating thing! The check-in kiosks were all off-line so I had to present myself to a check-in desk. There was only one person at the check-in for the premier status members of the airline I was flying so I went there.

Unfortunately, this woman was one who had never heard the old adage that one can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Apparently, the trouble had started when the KLM agent had tried to charge her an extra £130 for her excess baggage. She was trying to check three suitcases, you see. This was bad enough as the limit is two. God only knows what she had in there, but I am reminded of the character from the musical, The Music Man and the repeating gag where the Anvil Salesman is always dropping his bag with a heavy metallic clunk.

So, all of the bags were over the 23 kilogram (50 pound) base limit, two of them were in excess of the expanded limit for business class which adds another 9 kilos (20 pounds) to the allowance. The squabble went something like this:

KLM Agent: "I'm sorry, but that will be an extra charge for your excess baggage."
Disturbed Flyer: "But I am flying business class!"

KA: "That is why you are being charged only for the overage of two of the three bags and the extra bag fee."

DF: "But I am allowed extra baggage! It says so on your website!"

KA: "It says you may have two pieces not exceeding thirty-two kilos a piece. You have three pieces. That will be an additional baggage fee of £50.00 then you are over the limit on the other two. Your bags weigh forty kilograms a piece. You wull be charged £40.00 per bag extra."

DF: "But I am allowed extra baggage! It says so on your website!"

KA: "I am sorry, madam, the extra allowance allows you to have two slightly heavier bags. Not three massively over the limit bags."

DF: "What I am I supposed to do now? I need to fly and I am allowed to have this much luggage!"

…and on in that vein for the next at least twenty minutes. A second position eventually opened and I checked in. The row was still going on, the KLM Agent calmly explaining the rules, the passenger acidly fighting a losing (and ultimately wrong) side of a battle until I had checked in and was out of earshot.

I cleared the security checkpoint and was through to the gate with plenty of time to spare. I sat at the gate collecting my thoughts to write the articles for my blog and it was at this point that I realized that I had left my PDA at the office! DAMN! I dug out a note pad and started jotting notes. All weekend I would have to jot myself a note the old fashioned way to make sure that I remember the things I want to blog about.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. I sat and waited. My flight was called and oh! I got a number of birthday greetings text messages from friends as I was waiting to get on the plane. The 45-minute flight was smooth and pleasant enough. By 10:00 I was in Amsterdam.

I think that this is getting pretty long for a single entry so here is where I will break the story. My arrival in Amsterdam tomorrow.

I hope that wherever you are having an excellent weekend - or will when it begins.

Don Bergquist - 16 February 2007 - Amsterdam, Holland, The Netherlands