Work trip to Zeist and The Hague, Netherlands - 13th to 14th March 2008

A relatively short trip to the Netherlands, but one which involved a fair bit of travelling around the country, and the chance to see a number of very "Dutch" things. The trip involved a tour of the Randstad, the densely populated network of towns and cities in the centre of the country. Getting around by train also allowed me to get acquainted with the excellent Dutch railway system, which is quick, efficient and cheap.

On landing in the country, I immediately got my first train, from the airport to Zeist, via Utrecht. We went past the Amsterdam Arena on the way, and I saw a few miserable looking Spurs fans on the station there, no doubt recovering from their defeat to PSV the previous night. Zeist is a nice little town, about in the centre of the country, where my company's office is located - in the middle of some woods. Luckily, the walk from the station to the office wasn't too wet and muddy.

The following day, I had a meeting in The Hague, which is where the Government sits, as well as the headquarters of a few big companies like Shell. To get from Utrecht to The Hague meant a tour of much of the country, so I saw lots of windmills, plenty of canals (including lots with big levees to protect the fact that the land is lower than the water level), and greenhouses and flower fields galore. All very Dutch, and we even passed through Gouda on the train as well. After the meeting, another train back to Schiphol and it was back home.

My flight there and back took me through City airport for the second time in as many weeks, and really brought home for me how much (and how quickly) City has gone downhill. As well as being fairly close to the centre of London, it used to have the advantage of being fairly quiet, quick to get through, and not packed to the rafters like Heathrow. Now, the owners seem to have responded to this, and the popularity it created, by filling the place with extra flights and passengers - to the point where it is now an overcrowded, bursting at the seams nightmare.

Everything now seems to take ages there (15 minutes to get through passport control, almost as long as the flight), there is simply not enough space for the planes and passengers that are being put through it, and generally most of the advantages to using the place are gradually disappearing. A real shame, and a classic example of osmosis at work - if an airport is quiet and nice, fill it with extra passengers so that it isn't quiet and nice any more. The experience almost made me nostalgic for Heathrow - bring on Terminal 5!