So I made it back, and seemingly in plenty of time too. What I thought may be a nightmare journey turned out to be pretty reasonable really.
I managed to finish up with ze cliente a bit early and arranged for a crazy dutch man oddly called 'Barry' (i can't imagine that is a particularly popular name in holland?) to drive me to Rotterdam central. He spoke better english than my Dutch, (limited to Ja!) and we had a chat about london, amsterdam, current dutch politics and some of his personal interests including some rather odd news stories circulating around his region.
Once I got to Rotterdam central station I met a lovely lady with a mobile ticket machine, who couldn't sell me a ticket, and didn't have the english to explain why. She managed to direct me to the main ticket office. Where like at a deli counter you get a ticket. 'A ticket to buy a ticket' how novel I thought, eventually I manage to get to a desk with a very helpful lady who decided it was quicker for me to catch the slow train. I thought about questioning it but decided that I'd trust her and bought the specific ticket I needed.
I digress slightly here to make a point around the trains in Europe...
Firstly I must point out that in my experience they are wholeheartedly more appealing, reliable and less rickety, crammed and smelly than in our own country. However there are definitely some regional differences, In Belgium they just do what they say they will, in Germany the myth of German efficiency is exactly that. I'm not sure in my circa 20-30 German train trips I have got the train 'on time' more than 5 times! In Holland however it seems to be different, the trains are the same double decker jobs that haunt the rail systems of most of western europe but in Holland they are on time and usually pretty good. My challenge however is with the complexity of the ticketing systems. It seems there are 4 different places to buy up to 6 different types of tickets for 3 different rail networks with machines that don't seem to take any UK credit cards. All in all Rotterdam central station slightly scares me. So god knows what it does to a less seasoned traveller turning up for the first time! this was my 3rd trip to rotterdam and it still confused me!
Anyway, having said all that I made it to Schipol airport with plenty of time for my flight. Now Schipol is massive. Im not sure the stats but I know in terms of airport size its up there with heathrow, JFK and others so after checking in I had what felt like a 3 mile hike to the 'spur' of gates I was departing from, I grabbed some noodles and went through security to the waiting area.
Now here is where the only interesting thing from the trip home happened. It turns out that I was on the flight with non other than Terry Pratchett, Now he's unmissable with his black hat and white beard and I realised that this was not the first time I'd been on the same flight as him, He must travel back from amsterdam quite regularly because Ive definitely been on several flights with him over the last year or so. I came perilously close to saying hello and making some twatty statement like 'Ive read loads of your books and they are great' or 'Hey Terry, love your creations' but then I remembered that 1.I wasn't 100% sure it actually was him (I googled his image when I got home to be sure!) and 2. would he really care what some guy he has never met thinks? Of course I could open with 'Ive been on the same flight as you lots of times Terry me old mucka' but then I'd be sure to have some kind of law enforcement waiting for me at the other end with a stalking related accusation!
Of course he was in Business and I wasn't but still had the plane gone down at least I'd have been a stat in a somewhat bigger news story.
So once we landed back in the UK, got picked up and brought home and was very happy to get into my own bed. Just a shame I had a meeting the next morning but hey ho life goes on... It can't all be the excitement of ham and cheese rolls and travel wash bags now can it?
Until next time...
Joe
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