Thursday, May 25, 2000

We woke up early in order to pack, clean, and mop in time for the SSH rep to come at 9 am. We started with one suitcase packed out of four and managed to pack everything in time, though we had just started mopping at 9 am.

The SSH rep arrived, and told us (too late) that we didn't have to mop. I suppose I should have guessed; when I mopped, I removed spots that were on the floor when we arrived. He said that cleaners were supposed to come later in the day to clean up after us.

He found several things wrong, all of which were wrong when we came. We found that the flannel oversheet from the matress that we washed was not the one they meant; when they were talking about was a normal mattress pad, and we did not have one in either room. He wasn't satisfied with the collections of crockery we were left, either. For example, we had one mug and two glasses in each room, but it turns out that he couldn't accept the idea of a glass mug (we had one) or a crockery "glass" (we had one of those, as well). In his mind, "glasses" could be made only of glass, and mugs could be made only of crockery; no exceptions. He sent us down to the communal kitchen to exchange for items that fit his narrow conceptions of these implements. Fortunately, he doesn't try to charge us for anything; only fair, as we had not broken or lost anything.

We wrote notes to one of our housemates giving him the code for the unused time on the phone meter, and letting him know what food we left (to use or throw, but we're not very good at throwing food away. We then decided that the smoky, smelly kitchen wasn't a good place to wait for several hours, and left immediately for the train station, on the theory that things might go wrong on the way and a train station would be a better place to wait than the house.

The bus driver was amused by amount of luggage, but he let us on the bus with all our luggage, and didn't even try to drive away while were were lugging it all onto the bus. We did some last minute gift shopping (intentionally; buying food as gifts and then leaving it in the smelly fridge would very much devalue gifts...) and then went down to the platform (spoor) to wait for the train.

Exactly when our train to Rotterdam was supposed to arrive, a freight train arrived at our platform and stopped for about five minutes. All the cars were the kind they use to carry gravel, crushed rock, etc., and so they each had a platform on both ends; people all up and down the platform mimed climbing up onto the freight train. A few minutes after the freight train pulled out, our sneltrein to Rotterdam pulled in. As we pulled into Rotterdam, we saw the same freight train pulling in as well.

The change to the stoptrein for Hoek van Holland Haven was uneventful. At one of the first stops, some junior-high-aged kids got on the train. We found that our previous categorization of the university students at Utrecht as "seventh graders" was pretty apt. They were all headed for the Hoek van Holland Haven station, but not for the boat, we discovered.

Because we set out so early, the Stena station was empty and all the official stations (ticket, baggage check, etc.) were closed. As I wandered around the station, I found a copy of the bridge by the Tower of London--done in Legos. I saw the discrete lego approximation of catenaries, and took a picture in case Kim wanted to show it to her calculus students.

After they opened the baggage check, we checked our baggage and headed across the street to the Albert Hein to buy some food for the boat, and found a few last postcards as well. Of course, we then forgot to write them and mail them from the Netherlands.