4/7/2010, 12:54, Amsterdam Centraal

Landed in Amsterdam early this morning without incident.  I got a little bit of sleep but now I will be staying up much more than usual for me.  There is a 6 hour difference here so it is about 7 AM now according to my body.  Amazingly enough I am not crashing yet, despite over an hour of sleep in the form of a nap.

After arriving at the airport, I got my bag and got through customs.  Note to self: No beef jerky for a snack when traveling overseas, meat and milk products cannot be brought into the EU.  Of course I should have checked on the rules on that.

We took the train to Amsterdam Centraal and after stashing our bags in a luggage locker, myself, RP, and RS set out to explore the city.  We saw the Dam, the flower market, and a number of historic buildings, along with going through the red light district.  Of course, at 8-9 in the morning, there isn't anything going on there :-P  We also found where their Chinatown section was.  Amazingly enough we ended up running into KB (my bosses boss who is running the meeting) on the streets.  She had an extra map of Amsterdam which she lent to us, and that made exploring the city easier for the rest of the morning.

Some things to note about Amsterdam, it is very dedicated to bicycling.  There are bike lanes everywhere and tons of people get around by bike.  In fact, when you cross the street, you often cross a bike lane, then the car traffic lanes, then a bike lane on the other side before reaching the sidewalk.  Be sure to look both ways for all the lanes.  Restrooms are pay restrooms so have some Euro coins on hand.  Meals at cafes are a laid back affair.  A luggage locker is handy if you have time to kill in Amsterdam before heading to your destination.

So I have tons of pictures already, and I know there will be more as time goes on.  Maybe I should work on them now before I get to Heerlen.

4/6/2010, 18:11, UAL Flight 946

So here I am starting my European adventure.  To say I am excited is a major understatement.  I have never left the US so I will have nothing but new learning experiences.  I am writing this in a journal that TT has given me for the trip, because I had expressed the idea that I wanted to keep a journal of everything that was going on.

One thing that I was pleasantly wrong about was the length of this flight.  It is a 6 hour flight, not a 9 hour flight like I had thought.  However, it does mean that when we land it will feel like 1 AM since I will still be on East Coast time.  I should try to sleep on this flight a bit so I am not too badly lagged.  I read some advice to stay up until it is time to go to bed at the local time of the destination you are at; it does make sense.

Surprisingly enough I have no one in the seat next to me.  Either someone didn't make their flight or that seat wasn't sold.  Now that is something I do not see on Southwest Airlines.  I am feeling a bit odd now as I did not realize just how much I was connected to my cell phone (it's staying home for this trip) until today.  I kept on thinking of things to tweet and I could not do it.  Couple that with no wi-fi available at Dulles and there weren't much that I could say.

Right now there isn't much out the window, we just passed over NYC and are at 36,500 feet so below all I can see are clouds.  This plane is a 777 (my first ride in one) and it seems nice so far.  There is a good selection of movies, I plan to watch "Up in the Air" when that comes on.

So since we are landing so early, this means a bonus of being able to explore Amsterdam.  I don't know exactly what to do yet, but I will find stuff. I know there is a roller coaster available nearby the train station, but that may wait until another day.  At some point we still have to get to Heerlen.

The first part of this trip is for business, and it should be a good meeting with StatNeth.  I will be talking about CARI and my co-worker will talk about Blaise NG testing.  My presentation is in order and I hope to make a good impression for them and for the folks back home, especially since I will have to report on this meeting next month.

So let's see what happens on this adventure.  I hope for lots of good thoughts and stories in this journal and also great pictures.