Hotel IBIS in AMS is right next to the station, very convenient for as mobile as we are going to be. I check in about 6, ask for a second night (at the time of booking was full on Mon. eve), and they say fine. Since ACCOR owns both IBIS and Motel 6 in the USA, they look pretty similar in the rooms--minimal. Have a quick rijstafel after a walk, and come back to the hotel and meet the guy who came down from CPH for the meeting. As we had a tight schedule Monday, we walked back to the station to buy a ticket. NS requires cash for intra-Netherlands travel, so I tried to use my cash card--link to the US down, so then get a cash advance on my VISA card at the bureaux de change--didn't have my passport, so back to the hotel, back to the bureaux, then to the ticket counter...
Groningen is a 2 1/2 hour train ride from AMS in the northeast of the country. One direct train per hour, a couple of connections. To meet our schedule and the people we're meeting, we had to get a specific train (and were successful). Funny, another person came into our compartment. She settled right down, plugged in her earphones, and promptly ignored the 3 of us for the next hour. 2 of the 3 of us noticed that she had some papers from our company (BellSouth), and I got nervous, but she paid us no attention at all and read Carl Jung (!).
We got off at Groningen, waited for someone else coming in then piled into a taxi, where we found our mystery woman at our meeting. Funny coincidence!
Everyone tricked out after the meeting--I got to the hotel by about 830, dog tired. Had some Thai food and early nite for me.
Tuesday, train to Maastricht (2 1/2 hours in the other direction). Again, one direct per hour, others need connection. Have dinner in the Markt section in a cafe (ate asparagus, which is about 1 1/2 weeks from prime--this was from Spain and wasn't terrific).
Wednesday, make meeting. Lunch at their canteen-interesting how they have a cash-free cafeteria (everyone uses their chip card). Latin America isn't this advanced yet--they use a ticket system (nor are we...)
Wander a bit around Maastricht--I'd like to be here with a car, because the mass transit seems tough to understand and is only every 15-30 mins.
Crowne Plaza excellent location, comfortable and quiet. Luscious big beds!
Dinner at a superlative restaurant just down the block--one of the Maastricht Culinair group. 4 courses 80 guilders--total f100 with wine. Starter of a chunk of smoked fish on a toast, then carpaccio of tuna over a anchovy cream with salt crystals, drizzled with olive tapenade, then an interesting baked scallop dish where one big scallop was slivered and stacked with some steamed celery, then the entire dish baked hot and fast and served with a light hollandaise sauce. I loved every drop.
Main course was local veal, roasted and served with truffle sauce and vegetables. Only downsides on this course was the truffle sauce was relatively bland, and the potatoes were over-fried so they permeated the odor of the dish.
Dessert was called "Maastricht Porridge"--essentially a clafouti on top of fresh fruit. Really good.
If anyone is interested, I'll post the name. Well worth a visit.
Thursday, train back to Schiphol to fly to Copenhagen. KLM cancels the 4 pm flight I'm scheduled on, so I stand by for the 530 SK flight. Couldn't get on even with *G, as they actually bumped a couple people. KL put me on standby for the 730 flight, and I got on. Very interesting difference in concept between coach/1C in the US and economy/business in Europe. It felt novel to a)have a ticket coupon that you could b)take across the desk to SK to get on the standby list.
5 across in a 737, though, isn't great.
Right on time into CPH.
Stay Radisson SAS Royal (recommended by travel agent). Normally my co. stays at Angleterre, but it was sold out (duh, the Queen's birthday was Sunday and the Angleterre is RIGHT THERE!). BTW, the tulips were beautiful.
Meetings fine on Fri. Spend the afternoon shopping. I found CPH unusually tough to get oriented in--don't know what I was missing!
Tivoli opened on Friday, so went in about 830p...what a wonderful wonderland. Interesting to see the wide variety of stuff to do and eat--everything from white tablecloth dining to hotdog stands. I recommend this highly!
Noted that the Swissair/Crossair plane that was to make up my flight was about 1 1/2 hours late landing on Fri. evening, but didn't go so far as to call about it. Hindsight is 20/20...
Got up Sat. and headed out to airport. Flight posted 10 mins late departing. I ask at counter, and they say all should be fine (I had a quick 40 min connection in ZRH, so would be cutting it close). No gate posted so I dawdle in the shops, getting VAT refunds, etc, when I hear my name being paged. Airport crawling with people--
start of spring break.
I find the appropriate company's (Servisair) counter, to be told that I'm being rebooked b/c of the delay on the CPH-ZRH flight (it ended up leaving 1 hr 10 late). (I had routed CPH-ZRH-IAD-ATL tktd on DL to get 3 more DL segments) They found a CPH-LHR-IAD-ATL combination that would get me in 4 hours later to ATL and say "that's about all there is out there". (I'm used to having more knowledge about what is where!) I don't have my trusty DL schedule to know where they have early afternoon nonstops into ATL to propose (I can't believe that DL biz class would be as heavily booked outbound on spring break days as the Eurpoean carriers, but they claim that everything else is booked) . I cool my heels for another 1 1/2 hours in CPH (meanwhile calling my travel agent who says that everything IS full--we didn't get too creative, however).
Hmm, wonder what's going to happen w/luggage. Mention it and agent calls down for it.
BA CPH-LHR
When they scan my ticket, they need to see my luggage ticket--good sign, I think.
Flight nearly full on 757, 5 rows of biz class. Lunch was salad with either hot beef medallions or hot shrimp (oh, excuse me, prawns). Fine and painless flight, but I hate connecting at LHR!!! Try to get AA miles on this flight (should be fun)
BA LHR-IAD
3 1/2 hours before this flight we get in, so a lot of time to wait. Stop at the UA connection desk to see if can take UA instead, but will delay me even more into ATL, so I decide to stick with BA (I want my DL miles and bonus, though--any ideas on my luck on getting them
Merry, the lounges at T4 are truly amazing--I was incredibly impressed. The Terraces is really nice--good views, lots of stuff to eat, do, look at, etc. They put the other long-haul ones I've seen to shame. The smaller one near the low numbered gates is obviously an auxiliary, but still is adequate. An entirely full 747-200, still called for boarding on time. Boarded 20 mins before departure time, we delayed closing door b/c of matching psgrs with luggage--there was a big queue at the entrance to the concourse apparently that delayed people, so they were humping all their luggage.
Pre-flight drinks.
Food was
Smkd Salmon/prawn plate, or mixed bean marinated salad with Parmigiano cheese (beans were good)
mixed salad
beef medallion, mushroom lasagna, crusty halibut or red chicken curry (which was really disappointing, but I wasn't hungry enough to press the issue
cheese (rinded, cheddar and blue) and white/dark choc mousse
Mid flight, pass around cup of frozen yogurt
Typical afternoon tea service (I passed)
Arrived about 20 mins late (left 50 mins late). Didn't realize that only UA uses the midfield customs/immigration system, so we go in the buses to the main terminal.
Yes! They have INSPass! Through in a second.
Unfortunately, they don't have any news on my luggage, so tell me I have to wait for everything to come out before claiming (my luggage was tagged CPH-ZRH-IAD-ATL), but I was trapped by customs from investigating further. Finally found out there was no more to be had, then go out to the BA office where a very nice lady seemed very overwhelmed by the problems at LHR0--