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How not to travel to Moscow

Posted by Rob (#1) on March 13, 2007 14:49 CET

My business trip to Moscow was wonderful, but only in the most sarcastic way imaginable. And it all started so well: I managed to get up at six and arrived at Schiphol ten past eight.

Hurray? Not really. Less than a minute after picking up my SAS tickets the nice lady at the check-in counter informed me to look outside and understand that there was too much fog for them to not cancel my flight to Stockholm. Fortunately I was transferred to a KLM flight to Stockholm which would actually get me there sooner. Or so I thought.

Less than a minute after checking in my baggage (two demo machines required for my trip) and paying the overweight charges, it became clear that this flight would have a delay. I would miss my connection to Moscow. So I got transferred once again, this time to a direct flight of Aeroflot. The only problem: because of different overweight fees between carriers, I'd have to recollect my baggage at arrivals and check it in again at Aeroflot.

Half an hour gone: no baggage. One hour gone: nada. Five minutes before final check-in opportunity: nothing. So I didn't check-in at Aeroflot as going to Moscow without the demo machines would be pointless. But hey, don't despair, they would surely arrive soon and then I'd book a very late flight with Lufthansa. That would still give me time for the demo.

Another hour passes and I decide to check at the service desk again. Where they told me that due to all the delays and cancellations cargo had no time whatsoever to sort things out. Ergo, I would not get my machines any time soon and in fact, yes, in fact, they were actually on their way to Stockholm despite me not being on that flight.

That was the final straw. I cancelled all flights and am back where I started earlier this morning: Rotterdam. Our machines? Not sure where those are. Maybe Amsterdam, maybe Stockholm, but definitely not Moscow. Our business trip and launch in Russia? Delayed for at least a week because my visa expires on Thursday. Me? Completely knackered from walking half the distance to Moscow itself between all the different desks and counters at Schiphol.

I hate the word, but suffice to say this trip was totally meh.

PermaLink: How not to travel to Moscow
Tags: work, Schiphol, KLM, Aeroflot, SAS, Moscow, baggage claims
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Political show - Donner forced to resign

European Union

Posted by Rob (#1) on September 21, 2006 17:52 CEST

I discussed with Neil the resignation of two Dutch ministers over a report on immigrant deaths in a prison fire at Schiphol airport a year ago. And he makes it very reasonable to believe it's all for show.

Donner actually disagrees with most of the report and said most policy decisions that led to the disaster were made by his predecessors. So basically, he takes the fall even though he clearly sees no clear blame.

Neil Stevens: see, it's all for show
Neil Stevens: the style of resignation trumps the substance of fixing the problem
Neil Stevens: how many people will now think "Oh, THAT old problem? Well, that minister resigned, right?"

Our zillionth round of elections in a few years time (the CDA/VVD/D66 cabinet already fell earlier this year, we're a parliamentary banana monarchy) are November 22nd.