External Link: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxCUuwp

Here’s a link to the set in Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fxtn/sets/72157628598354357/

Click HERE to view the whole album in a separate window.

Click HERE to view the complete album in a separate window.

Navy did very well. Over 10 miles on a small bike. Not bad for a 5-year old!

Above: Vernonia Lake. For all images, click here.

The last couple of days have been very hectic and borderline chaotic, but also very good. On Monday and Tuesday I visited customers in Belgium and Holland.

After my last appointment outside of Brussels on Monday, I drove up to Antwerp and checked into a hotel in the middle of the city. I’ve never seen Antwerp before but have heard good things and wanted to check it out for myself.

It didn’t disappoint. A very nice city with lots of neat architecture, good restaurants, pubs, shops, etc. For some reason I hadn’t expected it to be filled with many foreigners, but it was. There were tons of Americans (who are hard to miss since you can hear them above the din of conversation at any restaurant they go to). There were also immigrants of several ethnicities. I was approached by two beggars, neither of whom were Belgian. One was Irish (or so he said) and tried to fleece me on two different occasions, which I kindly pointed out to him.

I managed seven hours of sleep during my second night. Not bad, and further proof that you don’t need to stay up to a normal bedtime the first night to get into a rhythm. It works the other way around for me.

Put Antwerp on your list if you’re thinking about a visit to Europe.

Yesterday was odd.

My first appointment turned into a guided tour of the Westmalle Trappist Brewery. This was an exclusive opportunity, since the abbey and the adjoining brewery are not open to the public and don’t do tours, but had made special arrangements for this occasion (I was not the occasion, but there were other things going on).

It was fascinating to learn about the abbey’s history and role in society over the years. The brewery is a non-profit entity and revenues in excess of expenses go to various charities. The exclusivity of the the Westmalle brand (they limit their production on purpose) is why it’s so hard to find outside of the country. I could go on and on about this. Just a great experience.

Yesterday afternoon/evening was not so great. The plan was to drop off my rental car at Schiphol and roll into Cologne on in ICE’s first class around 9 pm after a nice meal in the bistro. Unfortunately, I missed the connection in Utrecht and had to hop around on four different regional trains in Holland and Germany.

I got in at midnight, starving hungry. A quick cab ride to the hotel, and a brief visit to a Turkish kebab house to pick up a gyro, which I brought back to the hotel, and then into bed.

As I write this, I’m on a train to Münster to visit a customer. I made some last-minute changes to my schedule and will be at the Interzum in Cologne tomorrow and Friday. Love the Rheinland. This will be uploaded tonight.

After some meetings and walking the floor for several hours, I had a chance to take the S-train over to downtown. Approaching the Köln Hauptbahnhof, situated right next to the Dom, is always an impressive sight. Both building are downright intimidating.

I have a late dinner with a customer tonight, so I stopped at small family establishment close to the cathedral for a bowl of tasty cream/paprika soup and Kölsch to carry me over the afternoon. I also scored a couple of small beer glasses to take home!

Ticket to Munich was booked and I’m ready to head down to Bavaria tomorrow.

Getting from Schiphol Airport to Amsterdam Centraal was a breeze. Schiphol has a full fledged-train station below the terminal, from which you can go anywhere in Europe, including downtown Amsterdam. Comparing this train to Portland’s MAX is like comparing a brand new Audi to a horse and buggy. It’s fast and extremely quiet.

I had booked a hotel within walking distance from the train station in Amsterdam. My room is tiny, but clean, which is all that matters.

After getting settled in and taking a much-needed shower, I walked back to the train station to buy a ticket for Hannover tomorrow. I also managed to score a cheap SIM-card to avoid AT&T’s scam on international travelers. Free incoming calls and roughly 15 cents/minute to call the U.S. Compare that to AT&T’s $0.99/minute for both incoming and outgoing calls.

After an early dinner, I’ve retired to the hotel and will try to make it until 7 o’clock. Going on 27+ hours without sleep now and this bed feels really good.

I haven’t had the time or the energy to dabble much with website work in a while but I did get around to uploading some old pictures (from April) to our SmugMug account today (click here to view).

I know some friends drop in here from time to time. For now, I’m posting tweets. The column on the right only lists the last five tweets but if if you click on the title (the one that says “Tweets”) you’ll go straight to my Twitter account. This serves as a mini-blog for now. As for Facebook, I’m giving serious thought to shutting down my account.

Come January, I’m heading to Europe for a week and should have some cool pictures and travel anecdotes. Until then, I’ll try to get some more pictures (and maybe a video or two) up.

Click HERE for pictures. A direct link to the video HERE.