“Hello, it’s Sjaak…are you in the area?…could you pick us up in fifteen minutes?…Great, see you soon.”
This is the way to get a free boat trip in Amsterdam: call up your friend who works for a tour company, and get him to stop outside your house. We don’t do this sort of thing often, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Iain Majcher’s birthday was on Good Friday, and we’d chartered a boat to take us on a round trip about the canals, as a surprise on Saturday afternoon. However, the boat company, in their infinite wisdom, did not anticipate the wintry weather causing problems to their fleet. Cue a phonecall from them to cancel, and hence our project leader making the cheekiest request, getting us a free tour for nothing. Just as well, we’d hired an open-top vessel, and it was snowing over the weekend.
What would you think as a tourist, having just paid €10 for your cruise, only to see fifteen people later jump on in a rather impromptu fashion, sing Happy Birthday, and get dropped off again? In any case, Iain had a great time, and our thanks go to Amsterdam Canal Cruises for their very generous assistance.
Monday saw Sjaak’s day-long birthday/house-warming party, and he had (officially, this time) chartered the same friend to take 50 or so people on more or less the same route as Saturday. Two free boat trips in two days – you can’t say fairer than that.
Good Blog. I will continue reading it in the future. Nice layout too.
Hi Iain!
We’ve met once in the MH…just ask Iain.
I must say I’m a bit ashamed of my self for forgetting Iains birthday.
I lived with the nice bastard for a year. Yet it seems you people get a long great and that’s what matter. Yes I’m just no lurking around way too late the MH website and reading what you people been up too.