Trains, Pains and Amsterdam
Today was a travel day as we woke to packed suitcases and an eye on the clock. Having walked miles and miles last night for our night photography adventure, this morning saw us both a little worse for wear nursing stiff muscles fighting a strong desire to sleep in and risk missing our train. But as luck had it, French rail workers failed to reach a deal on labor reforms triggering an initial wave of scattered walk outs across France and Belgium with a full on strike to kick off on Thursday.
The controversial labour reforms that sparked the strikes would maintain the all-important 35-hour week, but they would allow companies to ask staff to work up to 46 hours a week, or 60 in exceptional circumstances. The worker would be compensated by working some shorter weeks so they averaged 35 hours a week over every three-month period.
So, with all of this talk of strikes, delays and cancellations, we decided to get a taxi to the train station pronto, and get ourselves on the road to Amsterdam.
I even wore my lucky Social Media Marketing World tee shirt for the occasion.
It was actually a pretty easy journey. One hour from Brugges to Brussels Central and then 2 hours+ to Amsterdam. Arriving in Brussels we could instantly feel the presence of armed military and armed security, and as we sat at the Pano drinking coffee. To our left we could see the entrance to the Metro. On March 22 this year, three coordinated nail bombings took place in Belgium: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station in Brussels. In these attacks, 32 victims and three perpetrators were killed, and over 300 people were injured. When we heard of the attacks we changed our plans and spent more time in Brugges instead of Brussels, and it was the right decision based on what we saw of the surrounding area.
The terror attacks have taken a bite out of Europe' slow economic recovery. Taking France as an example, in my friend Richard Spindler's recent post he cites a report from the French Board of Tourism which said Japanese tourism was down $56% in the first quarter, Russian down 35% and Chinese down by 12%. When we asked the local photographer who took us on a photo tour of Brugge if his business was off, he told us he had seen it drop by a good 20% across the board, and now with rail strikes threatening to cripple transport for most of France and Belgium, 2016 is not shaping up to be a good year in this part of the world.
Arriving in bustling Amsterdam this afternoon however; a city with a vibrant tourism industry, it's hard to believe tourism is down, but it is, and unions aren't doing the rest of us any favors.
In our case, the luck of the Irish was on our side on this trip with none of our train rides affected. Our hotel is in the heart of Amsterdam, it's small, but not overly small. It is the kind of small that has us stacking suitcases on top of shelving to clear floor space so we can get around each other. The bathroom is surprisingly roomy, with a beautiful big shower, which in my opinion is the most important thing next to a comfortable bed. In bedding we didn't make out so good. We have two twin beds, and it's what we will make do with for the next 3 or 4 days. We took a long walk around the city just now after enjoying a beer at Cafe De Jardin on the water. The service was slow and forgetful so we left to go and find dinner. Burger Bar was great.
Tonight I think we are going to lay low and get ready for our first tour. We need to find breakfast as the place we are staying does not offer it. Some work friends will be arriving tomorrow, so we are going to try and meet up for "coffee."
Well that's all I can recall for now. More updates as soon as we have interesting news to share from Amsterdam.
The controversial labour reforms that sparked the strikes would maintain the all-important 35-hour week, but they would allow companies to ask staff to work up to 46 hours a week, or 60 in exceptional circumstances. The worker would be compensated by working some shorter weeks so they averaged 35 hours a week over every three-month period.
So, with all of this talk of strikes, delays and cancellations, we decided to get a taxi to the train station pronto, and get ourselves on the road to Amsterdam.
I even wore my lucky Social Media Marketing World tee shirt for the occasion.
It was actually a pretty easy journey. One hour from Brugges to Brussels Central and then 2 hours+ to Amsterdam. Arriving in Brussels we could instantly feel the presence of armed military and armed security, and as we sat at the Pano drinking coffee. To our left we could see the entrance to the Metro. On March 22 this year, three coordinated nail bombings took place in Belgium: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station in Brussels. In these attacks, 32 victims and three perpetrators were killed, and over 300 people were injured. When we heard of the attacks we changed our plans and spent more time in Brugges instead of Brussels, and it was the right decision based on what we saw of the surrounding area.
The terror attacks have taken a bite out of Europe' slow economic recovery. Taking France as an example, in my friend Richard Spindler's recent post he cites a report from the French Board of Tourism which said Japanese tourism was down $56% in the first quarter, Russian down 35% and Chinese down by 12%. When we asked the local photographer who took us on a photo tour of Brugge if his business was off, he told us he had seen it drop by a good 20% across the board, and now with rail strikes threatening to cripple transport for most of France and Belgium, 2016 is not shaping up to be a good year in this part of the world.
Arriving in bustling Amsterdam this afternoon however; a city with a vibrant tourism industry, it's hard to believe tourism is down, but it is, and unions aren't doing the rest of us any favors.
In our case, the luck of the Irish was on our side on this trip with none of our train rides affected. Our hotel is in the heart of Amsterdam, it's small, but not overly small. It is the kind of small that has us stacking suitcases on top of shelving to clear floor space so we can get around each other. The bathroom is surprisingly roomy, with a beautiful big shower, which in my opinion is the most important thing next to a comfortable bed. In bedding we didn't make out so good. We have two twin beds, and it's what we will make do with for the next 3 or 4 days. We took a long walk around the city just now after enjoying a beer at Cafe De Jardin on the water. The service was slow and forgetful so we left to go and find dinner. Burger Bar was great.
Tonight I think we are going to lay low and get ready for our first tour. We need to find breakfast as the place we are staying does not offer it. Some work friends will be arriving tomorrow, so we are going to try and meet up for "coffee."
Well that's all I can recall for now. More updates as soon as we have interesting news to share from Amsterdam.
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