AMS & Nike’s European Headquarters
This morning I had to be up at 6 am to catch my flight to Amsterdam. London has three major airports and today I was leaving out of Gatwick. Getting to the airport was fairly painless. Public transportation is really quite good in London. I took the Tube to Victoria Station and then just took an express train to Gatwick. I arrived roughly an 1:45 minutes before my flight and was feeling good about the progress of my morning.
At the British Airways checkin there were lots of self service machines available with no line, so I decided to use one of them. I had no trouble pulling up my record. When I went to print my ticket it said that I needed to see a customer service agent. So I grabbed my bags, the stub it printed out for me and headed over to the counter. I didn’t like the look on the woman’s face when I gave her my receipt. She made one of those “sucks to be you faces.” She called someone on the phone and had a discussion in virtual code. When she hung up the phone she told me. Amsterdam is a very popular weekend destination for Londoners and my flight was in an oversold situation. I said, “well okay, what do we do about this?” She said she was still hopeful that something might open up but for now we just had to wait. I’m looking at my watch and thinking I have 55 minutes until my flight boards and I have to go through customs still. She then tried to encourage me by saying, “Well I know this doesn’t mean much to you but at least the flight is only oversold by one person.” I knew getting mad at her wasn’t going to do me any good, so I just asked, “If I can’t get on this flight, what is my next option.” The next flight from Gatwick wasn’t until the evening but there was one from Heathrow in approximately four hours. In some instances that wouldn’t be a big deal. However, my total trip in Amsterdam was only going to be 32 hours, so losing an eighth of it to an oversold flight didn’t sound great to me. I told her that in the event I DID get on the flight I RESERVED I would need to use the restroom first. So in the interest of using time more economically I went while she continued to try and “create” a seat for me.
I was gone roughly ten minutes. When I arrived back at the counter the woman was helping someone else. Her coworker spotted me waiting patiently, grew a big smile and passed me a printed boarding pass. They found me a seat and it was in BA’s “business” class. That worked for me. I was finally on my way through customs.
At my gate I saw something truly great. There was this very homely looking little Jewish man with his trying to be stylish homely looking Jewish wife. I know they were Jewish because he was wearing a yamika. What made this great is that the back of the the black yamika said in BRIGHT YELLOW thread “Really Gorgeous”. This man and his wife were sooooooooooo far from gorgeous that I was truly dumbfounded. I wanted to ask the guy why it said this but I was worried I would be offending him. Have any of you ever seen a yamika with writing on it? No less one that says “really gorgeous”?
My trip full of fun plane characters continued as we were unloading in Amsterdam. I was seated in a window in row five. When the arrival bell sounded a large guy (6’ 2” - 230 lbs) seated in row six started taking out the two guys from the aisle of row five in an effort to get to his stuff. The dude was legitimately pushy and totally in the way. As the people from the front four rows starting deplaning one of the dudes from aisle five, a nerdy looking 5’9” 160 lbs Asian guy, called the pushy guy “a prick.” The big dude turned around, dropped his bags, got right in the Asian guy’s face and said, “What did you call me?” The Asian dude looked like he was going to crap his pants and then apologized. Finally, the big guy turned back around and got off the plane.
Customs in Amsterdam were a breeze. They don’t even require any landing paperwork. The guy basically just looks at your passport and stamps it. Makes sense I guess since virtually nothing is illegal in Amsterdam.
On the flight into AMS I read in my Lonely Planet guide that the Dutch are typical fairly rude and not very customer service oriented. It didn’t take me long to experience that first hand. I asked a customer service agent where an ATM was and he told me with a deadpan expression and no hand gestures at the end of the hall. This would have been fine if we weren’t at the center of circle with eight halls.
Evidently in Europe all of their credit cards are issued with pin numbers. The pin numbers are now used as identification as opposed to checking signatures or ID’s. This concept is kind of cool, unless of course you are from the States and don’t HAVE a pin number. All of Amsterdam’s rail system requires a pin to use a credit card. The only other option, which is only offered on roughly one third of the ticket issuing machines, is coins. This of course means you can’t even use paper Euros to buy tickets. One would think that coin machines would be readily available throughout the train stations. One would be wrong.
Once I finally procured a train ticket my ride into Central Station was painless. I followed my map and easily located my hotel. It was roughly 1 p.m. when I arrived and fortunately my room was ready. It was a very standard European in the sense that it was tiny. However, it was very clean, came with free wi-fi and was in a super convenient location, which is the primary reason I selected it. After freshening up a bit I went back to Central Station to catch a train to meet Felix out at the Nike European campus.
I was surprised how small the campus was. This is the headquarters for all of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). It is basically the size of five of the smallest buildings on the World Campus in Portland. I showed amazing restraint and only purchased two things in the employee store, one of which very well might be a gift. That was probably in part a reflection on the size of the store (it was fairly small).
After completing our tour of campus Felix and I headed to downtown Hilversum to grab a drink at a local bar. The place we chose had a bunch of outside seating adjacent to a primarily pedestrian street. I say primarily because there were also quite a few bike riders on the road. Most people in Holland ride bikes as opposed to driving/riding anything with a motor.
I had a very nice time catching up with Felix. He is always easy to talk and is obviously super knowledgeable about European culture. We also chatted about the economic realities Nike is currently experiencing. On Tuesday of this coming week it will be laying of 5% of its staff worldwide. Felix is feeling okay about his position but it was obvious on the campus that there was an air of uncertainty around the place.
After we finished our drinks and appetizers we moved on to a different place for dinner. Unfortunately we chose the exact wrong time to move. The sky opened up and dumped absolute buckets on us. We were both wearing Gortex coats but we still got soaked. I’m pretty sure my jeans are still wet. We ate at a little Italian place that had surprisingly good service.
Felix and I called it a night after dinner and I headed back to Central Station on the train. I was pretty tired at the end of the meal. By the time I returned to my hotel room it was roughly 9:30 p.m. I thought about falling asleep but then I realized I was in Amsterdam for so little time that it was probably better for me to go out and see a little more, especially since this was my only night in town.
I’m pretty sure that on my walk I saw a little more than I bargained for. Most of you probably know that Amsterdam is know for its pot and its prostitution. During the day I hadn’t smelled too much pot but in the evening I certainly smelled it radiating from the “coffee” shops.
One thing any first time visitor to Amsterdam should do to completely experience the place is walk through the Red Light District. The Red Light District is the part of town where the prostitutes sell their services. It is so named because the ladies all stand in front of glass windows that are all lit up with red lighting. My guide book said that the red lights are used because on the whole the light makes the girl more attractive, particularly when mixed with black light that makes white features (like teeth or lingerie) glow.
The whole experience is really hard to describe. The mix of people on the street was very interesting. There were plenty of people who, like me, were just there to see the scene. There were the obligatory bachelor parties found in any seedy place anywhere in the world. And then there were people there to use the services. In all honesty I can’t understand in this day and age of sexually transmitted disease how this industry still exists.
I was also surprised on the whole of the attractiveness of both the prostitutes and the patrons whom on occasion I would see leave. For the most part these weren’t bad looking people. I am certain that they could have had plenty of sex for free. Obviously one would argue that the women do it for the money. If you are wondering what they make, again my tour book said on average it is 40 Euros for an encounter. Currently that is in the neighborhood of $54. I don’t know how many guys on average a girl could do in a “shift” but based on traffic flow on the Friday night I was in Amsterdam I can’t believe it is more than one or two. That puts a yearly salary, assuming a 30 hour work week (it’s Europe, there is no way they work 40+ hours), between $80K - $160K. I recognize that is a nice salary but when you see what these women are doing it is not nearly enough.
My overall feeling while walking back to my hotel was one of sadness. I felt sad for all of the people involved in the whole charade. Even though the women in the windows put on their happy face, the majority of the them seemed to have very sad eyes. Frankly, the men leaving the establishments never looked overly happy either.
Something else random I noticed that I had never seen before was that Amsterdam has urinals on the street corners. It is totally random. I guess public urination was such a problem that someone decided it would be better to just put up a stand where guys could hop in and go. It is really strange to walk by four guys standing in a makeshift plastic bathroom on a bustling street corner. Thankfully the urinals themselves didn’t seem to smell.
As I approached my hotel I realized that I was pretty hungry. I didn’t really want a meal, I just wanted something that I could grab and take back to my room. Waffles are supposed to be semi-traditional in Holland, so I decided to get one from a little local shop. It was truly amazing. Probably the best waffle I have had. It was similar to what we would think of as a small Belgium waffle covered in icing and rainbow sprinkles. It was warmed to a perfect temperature and literally melted in my mouth. It was a great conclusion to an enjoyable action packed day in Amsterdam.
Until tomorrow,
Katy
You know you are in a good country when the javelin throwers get a little love.
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