Canals

A meagre photographic harvest from the second more or less full day conferencing in Amsterdam. It was a long day, up early after a Turkish meal on Tuesday evening with two members of the team. We bailed out of the conference 'reception', when the 100s of people who were already there (in an entirely unsuitable venue) were exhorted to listen to some welcome speeches before we were even allowed a glass of wine or water. We headed out of town towards Albert Cuypstraat for a Turkish meal in a building which was, in a previous life, a Dutch reformed church (although bizarrely it has some writing in Hebrew on the wall) and I recalled that we were on Albert Cuypstraat on 1 April 2012 to have lunch with some friends who were renting a flat on that street.

It was such a relief to have something 'proper' to eat because, man, I really do not get 'Dutch cuisine'.

Wednesday was a long day. Two more sessions in the morning, lunch with my colleague, some emailing, a couple of meetings, and then off to the airport to fly to Budapest. All went smoothly and I was in my hotel room by 11pm. Sadly the room smelled vaguely of cigarette smoke on first entry and I had to use the air conditioning to avoid boiling during the night. This provoked a thought for next year. As next year is probably going to be a bumper travelling year, I decided to do a 'year in hotels' ancillary blip journal - just one of the free ones, just to record the many and varied hotel rooms I stay in during the year, from quirky individual, through slightly grotty, to featureless international style rooms.

A three night stay will then provide the opportunity to record all key aspects, including the bathroom....

Watch this space. I will start next January.