This has been my busiest trip to Europe ever in terms of travel. I arrived in Amsterdam a week ago, sick as a dog. Fortunately, the worst of it hit me on Sunday and I was OK to go on Monday, even though my nose acted as live faucet. The frequent travel did little to help.

Sunday morning started with a long train ride to Hannover from Schiphol Airport. After the Domotex it was time for Cologne, riding in style on Deutsche Bahn’s (DB) ICE train. The two days in Cologne were very busy and I didn’t have a chance to explore the city the way I normally do.

From there it was onward to London, via Brussels, which turned out to be a long ride. This was only my second time in the UK, but hopefully not my last. I stayed with my old friend Niclas for three nights, saving big money on hotels but, more importantly, enjoyed the company of a quality guy. Also, using Commercial Street as a base from which to explore London is never a bad thing!

Friday started with a breakfast appointment not far from Niclas’s apartment, followed by a ride on Stansted Express and a noon flight to Glasgow. After a good customer visit in Scotland, the customer lent me his car to drive around the area before taking me back to the airport. I was hesitant at first as I have never driven a car with the stick shift on the left. It turned out that the left-side driving was more of a challenge, even though I’ve done it once before (with an automatic). But it all ended well. Now I can say that I’ve been to Scotland, although six hours doesn’t do it justice. I hope to return.

After a late dinner, a movie and conversation into the wee hours with Niclas last night, it was time for a solid brunch at noon today. I took a cab from his place to London Bridge, where I met up with an old college friend, her husband and six-month old son.

By my calculations, it’s been seventeen years since I last saw Diane. They showed me around Borough Market for a couple of hours. We shared good conversations, English cider, raw oysters and mussels. All-in-all, a great way to finish the UK experience!

Now I’m off to Amsterdam, another night’s stay at citizenM hotel and then home to Portland, via Seattle. I’m

I remember going through a similar procedure with US customs in Montreal many years ago but I don’t know if those procedures have changed since 2011.

This certainly makes train travel more of a hassle than it is on the continent and I’m not sure I would chose this method again to reach the UK. Of course, I don’t have to drive to and from airports, so there is something to be said for it.

I have been up since two and want the restaurant downstairs to open for breakfast! After that I’ll be ready to take on the day and look forward to starting the business portion of this trip.

I booked a one-night stay at citizenM’s Schiphol location for this trip and was initially a bit skeptical of the ultra-modern and minimalistic look. After staying here for a night, those worries are gone and I’m happy I already have a room booked for my return trip next Saturday.

If you’re traveling via Amsterdam and have a layover, I highly recommend this hotel. It’s a short walk to the right of the arrival hall. The staff is friendly and upbeat, the check-in and check-out process is very fast and smooth. I have nothing negative to say about this place and foresee myself coming back here many times in the future.

I developed a full-blown cold on the way over and my hearing is much reduced and I feel like a wreck. After an early check-in and four hours in bed, I walked over to the airport and took a train into the city. Amsterdam is always fun to walk around and the exercise served me well.

After a good meal I’m back at the hotel and will try to get some sleep. Onwards to Hannover tomorrow by train.

The most dreaded word on German radio when you drive on the the Autobahn is STAU. It’s German for traffic jam. Yesterday (Tuesday), I ran into the worst one since I started traveling in Germany more than ten years ago.

My last appointment of the day was with a customer west of Münster in the afternoon and I had a long drive ahead of me to Magdeburg in former East Germany. My estimated ETA was 20:30. But it was not meant to be…

East of Hannover I ran into 13 km of STAU that took close to three hours to get through. You know it’s a bad one when men get out of their cars to relieve themselves against the divider in plain view. I arrived at my hotel past eleven o’clock at night and everything was closed, so no dinner.

Fortunately, I have been stuffing myself full with breakfast in the mornings and haven’t needed lunch. It’s not a good long-term diet, but it works when you’re on the road like this. Yesterday was a bit extreme, though, with a diet consisting of breakfast, a Twix bar, five paprika chips and too much coffee.

This is my first time in East Germany and there was a marked difference driving through the streets of Magdeburg compared to any equally sized town in West Germany. Wide, boring boulevards, void of people and with an architectural nod to Stalin.

Driving through the countryside to see my customer this morning was also a big difference from what I’m used to. In West Germany you can’t drive for more than a few kilometers before coming upon the next nice village or small town, with well-maintained streets everywhere. Not so in the East. There’s much more open space and I thought my Opel rental car was going to fall apart on some of the roads. Houses in the rural villages are still dilapidated and depressing.

You can’t undo forty years of Communist mismanagement and destruction in twenty years.

My first visit to Berlin was so brief it barely qualifies as me being there. I made it to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) just in time to drop off my rental car and hop on the EC-train to Poland. It’s not fast, but 1st class is quiet and clean. The restaurant cart is run by poles but the tickets checked by Deutsche Bahn. I pre-booked this with DB for a mere €40. Beats flying any day!

I followed the script from my last trip and went to bed as soon as I arrived here and got three hours of solid sleep before dinner. After a lovely poached salmon and a glass of good white wine, I strolled the streets of Bonn for an hour. This is my first trip to the former capital of West Germany. It’s not Cologne, but nice enough of a city and in fairness I didn’t have time to cover much of it. The scene crossing the Rhine on Kennedybrücke as I drove into town was quite nice.

Time for some sleep now. If I get up early tomorrow morning I will probably do a few laps in the pool downstairs.

Have a few hours to kill here at JFK (which has actually improved much since my last layover here over a decade ago).

My stay in Sweden was fantastic. The weather was stellar the entire time, allowing for plenty of outdoor activities, including sailing on Lake Vänern on Friday. I had the chance to visit with many old friends and family members as well. The whole trip was a rare treat.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and this end is less than pleasant. After two hours of sleep, I got out of bed at 3:30 this morning and my mother dropped me off at Arlanda at 4:30. After learning that my flight to Amsterdam was canceled, I waited four hours to get rerouted. What did I get?

Stockholm-New York-Portland with Delta all the way. I can’t think of a much worse scenario. The flight to New York is scheduled to take 8h and 40min, followed by a 4+ hour layover. The flight to Portland is more than six hours. Contrast that with the flight from Amsterdam all the way to Portland, which takes just about ten hours.

Also, the trans-Atlantic flight is on a 757. I’ve never liked the idea of flying a small airliner across the ocean but I am about to find out what it’s like.