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Amsterdam

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.

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

airport

These two had to walk all over the airport dressed in
tights and announce the new store

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.

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