In Cologne for the Kick Off meeting!
Door: Linda
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Linda
01 Maart 2015 | Duitsland, Keulen
1st of March 2015
Hi Everyone,
This morning I was up at 7:30 and my dad took me to the train station in Arnhem at 8:30. My train was leaving at 9:07 and it left on time! I had a seat on the ICE which goes from the Amsterdam to Basel. It was smelling really bad!! When I told my dad about it, he asked me if it smelled like German beer, but I told him it was more like what happened when you had too much of that German beer!!! It was really bad! Fortunately they turned the airco up and it was not even a 2 hour train ride to Cologne, so it wasn’t all that bad!
We arrived at the main train station in Cologne, which is right next to the Cathedral in the City centre. I recognized this from when I was here with my grandma during our rivercruise! Unfortunately this wasn’t where the Avalon meeting was being held.
This time I decided not to go about the hard way, but I took a taxi to where I was supposed to go. Not that I have a lot of luggage with me, it is only for 10 days, but I did bring my big suitcase, because they are going to hand out uniforms this week and it will be easier to put everything in one suitcase!
I’m glad the cabdriver had a GPS in his car, because he didn’t really know where it was and he said something about thinking it was further away, that we had to go to a highway. Luckily for me his GPS found the address before we ever got to a highway!! We are near the Ford factory, so maybe I can pick out a nice new car and drive myself home at the end of the week!!
The first familier face I saw was when I got out of the taxi at the gate! The guy who replaced Geanina as Night auditor last year, is still working for this company! To be honest I couldn’t remember his name, but he looks a lot like Gru from Dispicable Me, but of course I couldn’t say that!
From the gate to the ship wasn’t that long a walk, it was just that the stones I had to drag my suitcase over were not very easy to walk on! Then I had to climb some stairs to go over some sort of earthen wall, it was really scary! And then the gangway to the ship was over the water, because there was a gap between the ship and the shore! Not very funny let me tell you!
I had to check in on the first ship and my room was on the third ship, all 4 ships are docked next to eachother. And here again I had to go up and over 2 ships to get to my room on the Avalon Affinity!
But I made it, it’s a nice room, which I’m going to share with another Senior Receptionist. I’ve unpacked my suitcase, which makes things easier and I had lunch at one of the other ships.
I met Geanina, she’s going to work as a Nighty again this season, she told me she’s going to the Creativity again. Then in the restaurant I saw Martin the Maitre’D from last year, who is now going to be Hotelmanager….on another ship as where I am going to work on!
Jayson had already told me that he was going to work with Svjetlana (last years HM) on the Poetry II in the south of France. In our room we all have a schedule of this week, telling us what to do and where to go at what time. ( it looks a bit shabby if you ask me! Some things are printed upside down and some things are really dark!) It also has a list of who’s coming to this event. So I saw my name under Receptionists with ATQ in front of it. Turns out this means I’m going to be Senior Receptionist at the Avalon Tranquility II and that’s not where Martin is going to be a Hotelmanager..he’s going to the Scenery, which is also in the south of France. So they’re all going to be working together except me.
I found that hard to swallow at first, some cruisedirectors told us they were going to make it happen, that we would all work together this year. But the Tranquility cruises from Amsterdam to Zürich and back and from Amsterdam to the Cote D’Azur (south of France) and back.
So in the end I will also be in the south of France and no doubt I will have time to see the others. Plus who knows, they thought it would be nice for me to work in Amsterdam, see my home country. And I have to admit, Amsterdam is only a little over an hour away by train!!
I’ve already checked out the itinerary, but I couldn’t make out how it works, all I know is that the first cruise starts on the 27th. I’m going to meet the HM I will be working with at this meeting as well, so I’ll introduce myself later today and I’ll try to get to know him.
So I’ve had lunch and now I’m in my room on my bed, writing my Dutch and English stories of today’s events for my blog. Nothing will happen until 6pm this evening, when there will be a formal Welcome on one of these ships.
For the rest of the week we will have different sessions from 8:30 am till 6/7pm and the rest of the evenings are off. Since we are in the middle of nowhere…at least nowhere near the city there won’t be a lot to do in the evenings!
I’ll keep you posted!
Love
Linda
Hi Everyone,
This morning I was up at 7:30 and my dad took me to the train station in Arnhem at 8:30. My train was leaving at 9:07 and it left on time! I had a seat on the ICE which goes from the Amsterdam to Basel. It was smelling really bad!! When I told my dad about it, he asked me if it smelled like German beer, but I told him it was more like what happened when you had too much of that German beer!!! It was really bad! Fortunately they turned the airco up and it was not even a 2 hour train ride to Cologne, so it wasn’t all that bad!
We arrived at the main train station in Cologne, which is right next to the Cathedral in the City centre. I recognized this from when I was here with my grandma during our rivercruise! Unfortunately this wasn’t where the Avalon meeting was being held.
This time I decided not to go about the hard way, but I took a taxi to where I was supposed to go. Not that I have a lot of luggage with me, it is only for 10 days, but I did bring my big suitcase, because they are going to hand out uniforms this week and it will be easier to put everything in one suitcase!
I’m glad the cabdriver had a GPS in his car, because he didn’t really know where it was and he said something about thinking it was further away, that we had to go to a highway. Luckily for me his GPS found the address before we ever got to a highway!! We are near the Ford factory, so maybe I can pick out a nice new car and drive myself home at the end of the week!!
The first familier face I saw was when I got out of the taxi at the gate! The guy who replaced Geanina as Night auditor last year, is still working for this company! To be honest I couldn’t remember his name, but he looks a lot like Gru from Dispicable Me, but of course I couldn’t say that!
From the gate to the ship wasn’t that long a walk, it was just that the stones I had to drag my suitcase over were not very easy to walk on! Then I had to climb some stairs to go over some sort of earthen wall, it was really scary! And then the gangway to the ship was over the water, because there was a gap between the ship and the shore! Not very funny let me tell you!
I had to check in on the first ship and my room was on the third ship, all 4 ships are docked next to eachother. And here again I had to go up and over 2 ships to get to my room on the Avalon Affinity!
But I made it, it’s a nice room, which I’m going to share with another Senior Receptionist. I’ve unpacked my suitcase, which makes things easier and I had lunch at one of the other ships.
I met Geanina, she’s going to work as a Nighty again this season, she told me she’s going to the Creativity again. Then in the restaurant I saw Martin the Maitre’D from last year, who is now going to be Hotelmanager….on another ship as where I am going to work on!
Jayson had already told me that he was going to work with Svjetlana (last years HM) on the Poetry II in the south of France. In our room we all have a schedule of this week, telling us what to do and where to go at what time. ( it looks a bit shabby if you ask me! Some things are printed upside down and some things are really dark!) It also has a list of who’s coming to this event. So I saw my name under Receptionists with ATQ in front of it. Turns out this means I’m going to be Senior Receptionist at the Avalon Tranquility II and that’s not where Martin is going to be a Hotelmanager..he’s going to the Scenery, which is also in the south of France. So they’re all going to be working together except me.
I found that hard to swallow at first, some cruisedirectors told us they were going to make it happen, that we would all work together this year. But the Tranquility cruises from Amsterdam to Zürich and back and from Amsterdam to the Cote D’Azur (south of France) and back.
So in the end I will also be in the south of France and no doubt I will have time to see the others. Plus who knows, they thought it would be nice for me to work in Amsterdam, see my home country. And I have to admit, Amsterdam is only a little over an hour away by train!!
I’ve already checked out the itinerary, but I couldn’t make out how it works, all I know is that the first cruise starts on the 27th. I’m going to meet the HM I will be working with at this meeting as well, so I’ll introduce myself later today and I’ll try to get to know him.
So I’ve had lunch and now I’m in my room on my bed, writing my Dutch and English stories of today’s events for my blog. Nothing will happen until 6pm this evening, when there will be a formal Welcome on one of these ships.
For the rest of the week we will have different sessions from 8:30 am till 6/7pm and the rest of the evenings are off. Since we are in the middle of nowhere…at least nowhere near the city there won’t be a lot to do in the evenings!
I’ll keep you posted!
Love
Linda
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
