Our meeting on UML and Service-Oriented Environments on December 12 went very well. That night I went out for walk and a pizza and some welcome quiet time (I am an INTJ after all).

December 13th was my shopping day in Amsterdam! I found everything I was looking for in one frenzied 4 hour walking trip from the Liedseplein to Centraal Station to the Amstel River.

The canals were partially frozen, unusual for this early in the season	Here are the locks between the Amstel River and the Prinzengracht
Here is an old bridge over the Amstel River	Gary and I met up with an old colleague and his wife Friday for dinner
The memorial in Dam Square

I took an hour nap and went back out walking. I walked about 2 hours, then strolled back to the hotel and finished Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.

Gary and I have one thing in common – we both like to be early to the airport for international flights, especially if we need to make seat arrangements. So, we met up for breakfast at around 7AM and checked out and go on the road by about 7:45AM. We both got our preferred seats (aisle), and each of us had our luggage opened once by security.

Our flight was delayed – for two and a half hours! So, we sat around Schipol for a while and shopped the duty free stores a bit. We saw (and heard) the announcment for the new Rijksmuseum store in the airport.

Eventually we took off. The flight was uneventful. I tried to call Aviva from the airport using 1-800-COLLECT; we talked for about a minute and then AT&T disconnected me and wouldn’t let me reconnect! We shared a cab into the city and that ended our trip.