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Yesterday:
Total catastrophe. Paul wanted to leave a day early for Amsterdam, Wednesday afternoon instead of Thursday. I went ahead and added a day to the hotel reservation without considering: Flash’s dogsitter reservation, my car going in for maintenance, my hair appointment; in addition, Paul later informed me, his colleague’s going away party in the afternoon.
I had to prepay the room in order to not pay (seriously) over 700€ for the night, with the city being 96% booked.
A friend saved me with flash, visiting him yesterday and taking him to the sitter today. We left. We sat in holiday weekend-rush hour-construction traffic, turning our 4.5 hour drive into 7+ hours.
My last half hour was total tension–Amsterdam is a NIGHTmare for driving with–even after 10:00pm–bikes out the ying-yang and pedestrians wandering the narrow streets in gaggles. I arrived at the hotel frazzled, only to find out that due to a reservation agent error, the hotel was unaware of Sequoia. This translated into Sequoia curling up on a chair in our room, waiting for a rollaway bed to arrive. I was: livid.
I called reservations and bitched, only to learn that the hotel would have to deal with it since I was already checked in. Fortunately I had retained my original reservation confirmation email, showing the rollaway bed request. I resolved to deal with it in the morning, lay in bed seething, and eventually fell asleep.
Today:
First thing in the morning, I headed down to guest services. Fortunately, the gentleman was able to turn my sour puss into a smile. His compensation for my troubles had me returning to Paul in a very good mood. He was from Philly. That’s how we do.
We headed out to the city. I must say, Amsterdam is a big city. It’s not a cozy little city. It’s a crowded, fast city in which bike riders are hell-bent on killing me. But it’s a cool city worth seeing, and we have a few days here, so there’s no rush. So far we’ve checked out, among other things, Madame Tousseaud’s. I had no idea it was so interactive! We went to give Sequoia something interesting to do, but I think I was the most entertained!
It is worth noting that Amsterdam kicks ass in the free wifi department. Best in Europe, I think.
P.S. Will I try pot before I turn 40? Stay tuned!
