Work trip to Zeist, Netherlands - 29th to 30th November 2007

This was a slightly strange work visit, on which I got to spend more time than I'd ever wanted, sitting in traffic on the motorways of the Netherlands. I flew into Rotterdam airport, a place so small that there was at least one member of staff for each passenger. As my plane parked on the tarmac, there was only one other plane at the airport, and it took less than 2 minutes to get from the plane to a taxi. I wish all airports were as easy to get through as this one.

120 Euros in a taxi, and 45 minutes later, and I was at the end of the earth - or more specifically, the very end of the Port of Rotterdam. The port is massive, and takes an absolute age to drive to the very end of. We were on a motorway for the whole journey, and the number of lorries, container harbours, and warehouses I saw was incredible. This used to be the busiest port in the world, and it seemed like every company in the world has a site somewhere in the port.

I eventually got to my destination, a chemical plant, which was purpose built a few years ago. It is so big that Eon agreed to build a dedicated power station next door, and another company built a dedicated waste management plant on the other side. The whole thing is next to a huge private dock, at which ships arrive to deliver raw ingredients, and cart off the finished product, always in large quantities. The sheer scale of the whole operation was incredible, and they don't even make anything you'd ever heard of - their product is a chemical that is then used by other people to make synthetic plastics and other things.

After the chemical experience, I got a lift for the journey of 100km or so, to my company's office near Utrecht. This took 2 and a half hours, such was the nastiness of the rush hour traffic. Getting out of Rotterdam port itself took over an hour, and that included some decent spells of unhindered driving. It really brought home how crowded the Netherlands is - even more so than the UK, if you look at the population density figures. Luckily, they have decent public transport.

Finally, at my hotel, I experienced a classic case of Dutch weirdness. In my room was a toy squirrel, and outside the room was a big shelf saying "Do Not Disturb". Apparently, if you don't want to be disturbed, you have to put the toy squirrel onto the shelf. Why on earth they couldn't just give you a label to hang on the door handle, I have no idea. Still, the champagne for breakfast was very nice....!