C'mon, give me a smile

I have been in Amsterdam for the last few days. It really is an old and beautiful city. The buildings are all stone, with narrow streets and canals.

I arrived early on Sunday morning and could not check into my hotel. I finally got a room around noon and had enough time to take a 30 minute nap and a quick shower. More sleep would have been better, but I had to get out to the trade show for work. It was feeling like a long day already.

I went to dinner at an Indian restaurant that had wonderful food. I have not had a whole lot of Indian cuisine and all the people traveling with me said to forget this experience...it evidently will not always be this good. After that we found a sports bar with American Football and watched a little bit of the games. Although it was 9pm in NL, the early games were still on back in the US. I finally got back to my hotel around 10pm and went to my room. When I tried my keycard, nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing. No lights, no sounds. Nothing. So I went back to the front counter. After a brief conversation with them - "Yes, I tried to do it slowly. Yes, I tried quickly. Yes, I even tried it backwards. Okay, thanks for making up a new key."

Back up to the room. I hadn't really slept in almost 2 days. I was tired.

I got to my room and tried again. Insert, slide out....nothing. I tried it again, slower. Nothing. I tried a few more for good measure and went down to the lobby again. I walked up to the counter and told them it did not work, so they sent me up with security to give it a try. Back on the elevator and back to the fruitless swiping. The security guy called maintenance. The problem was that the lock only took keycards, no physical keys, and the battery was dead so the whole lock needed to be removed. It was now after 11pm. More swiping and nothing, but this time with master keycards. The security guy sent me down to the cafe for a cup of coffee. After a few minutes, he came back and told me I had two options. 1) I could wait at least an hour for some one to arrive and remove the lock or 2) he would put me in another room. I opted for #2.

Did I mention that everything I had with me was locked in that room? My clothes, my computer, my phone charger. I had a suit, a cell phone and my passport - that's it - still, I just needed to sleep, so I didn't care. I got into my new room, crashed on the bed and slept till morning. When I woke up, I realized that I had been moved into a much nicer room. I went from a shoebox to a larger shoebox, but this one had a semi-balcony and overlooked a neat town square. Look at the picture...it was cool.

I decided that this was going to be my new room at the old room rate. Squatter's Rights. So, I went down to my old room and grabbed my stuff since they had fixed the lock and went to my new room. On my way out that morning I stopped by the front desk, gave them my old keys and let them know I had moved my stuff. No one questioned it, so I headed out. Mission Accomplished.

I got back to my room later that afternoon and some one from housekeeping stopped by my room to make sure "everything was okay" and then left. About 10 minutes later, another person from housekeeping came by and asked the same thing. I knew something was up. Then the phone started ringing, and ringing and ringing. It didn't go to the frontdesk, so I figured it was the frontdesk. I answered the phone. The manager on duty informed me that I was only supposed to be in this room for one night and I could either return to my other room or pay to upgrade into the new room. Evidently a shoebox with a view in Amsterdam is considered an "Executive" room. I declined both options. I then reminded the manager that the evening before her hotel locked me out of my room, away from my stuff and it was very inconvenient. I also told her that I had no intent on changing rooms again and would not pay a higher rate. Thanks for checking with me. She protested. I decided to hit her with the big guns...I heard the words come out of my mouth..."you are charging me $450 a night AND you forced me to sleep in my underwear last night. I am not making any changes!" I heard her frantically typing and then she realized the reason I was in this room and she apologized and let me know it would be taken care of. Done.

So, I have been able to sit in my room with my balcony door open enjoying the sounds and cool breeze from the city. It is really awesome. I am sorry that I missed out on some sleep the first night, but I think this may have made it worth it.

BTW, Amsterdam is a great city to walk and travel by way of public transportation. There are trams all over the city and everyone, I mean everyone, travels by bike. I heard there was an average of 2.3 bikes per person in the Netherlands. It is flat. At sea level and people ride their bikes everywhwere. I was here once February and they were biking in a blizzard. The other thing is that they park their bikes anywhere. Every pole has a bike attached to it and the train stations have thousands of bikes parked out front. It is really something to see.

So, back to the title of my blog post...I only have one complaint about this city; the people don't smile. I have sat in town squares and stood by canals, just watching people and no one (except obvious tourists) are smiling. Now, it is very overcast here most of the year, but still, can't they eek out a "tee hee hee" once in awhile? I just don't get it.

I have a meeting tomorrow near the airport and then I head out to Paris. I have enjoyed my stay in Amsterdam and I hope to make it back here one day in the spring to tour the countryside and see the windmills and tulips.