I was working in the Amsterdam offices for a few days last week (a longer trip than my unscheduled visit 2 weeks ago).  Schiphol airport is a great place to be if you have to wait for flights, there are a huge number of shops to choose from, a casino, a museum, restaurants, bars and even a spa.  However one of my favourite things about the airport is that it is a walk-able distance away from the new Microsoft offices…

The Amsterdam offices are unique due to the fact that the entire Dutch subsidiary effectively works from home, but uses the office as a social hub to meet colleagues and customers.  There are no offices, or even any assigned desk spaces, instead everyone simply turns up and finds a spot in one of the variety of different styled working areas around the two buildings. 

It is surprising to see how this environment makes everyone in the office naturally socialable and chatty (or perhaps that was because they are Dutch?!).  Everyone kept saying hello to me, which confused me at first because the first couple of times it happened I thought they were people who I had met, but forgotten.  Whether it was the receptionist (who perched on a random spot in the atrium with a laptop), women serving coffee in the common area, the random stranger in the lift or the people sitting around the area near us, everyone was constantly smiling, saying hello and never trying to avoid social interactions with those around them (unlike in other office buildings I have been in). 

The mix of funky decor, friendly Dutch people and a flexible working philosophy definitely seems to have worked in Amsterdam and creates a very dynamic working environment.  Here are a few of my favourite pics from around the office…

The atrium can be seen in the bottom of this pic, with a funky fabric wall above it on the 1st floor…

Here is a hot desk area with soothing low lighting, cool coat hangers and another fabric wall in the background…

And yet another style of working space, with yet another set of colours for the fabric wall (I loved those walls! )…

There is even an Asian style low table which can be used for meetings, lunch or anything else you like…

Definitely a new way of working, which REALLY works in my opinion.  I wonder when we will get the same  concepts in the rest of the world?!

Had a bit of a travel knightmare on Friday

We were in Munich all week whilst southern UK had it’s heaviest snow storms in a couple of decades.  Heathrow and Gatwick have had closures, hundreds of flights have been cancelled/delayed and Munich airport was expecting heavy snow on the day we were travelling.

We woke up in the morning in the hotel and checked BritishAirways.co.uk to find out that our flight had been cancelled After calling American Express travel we found out that all BA flights to Heathrow were cancelled/unknown, so our best option was to fly to Amsterdam with KLM, and then from Amsterdam to Heathrow.  We booked the flights, but decided to head to Munich airport to see whether Serena’s “I’m a gold card member’ line made any difference with BA.

On arrival to Munich airport it became apparent that NONE of the planes which should have come from Heathrow had arrived at Munich, so there was little chance of getting on a BA plane.  Serena did try the BA Gold Card line, but the response was “We can’t change the weather, not even for Gold Card members” – fair enough   Our thoughts were that BA would have been hit worst by the problems, since they have lots of flights from Heathrow and Gatwick, so they are having to cancel/reschedule lots of planes to clear up the mess.  So, we decided to head to Amsterdam using KLM.

KLM flight went well.  The Dutch flight crew were pleasant enough and they served drinks and snacks even though it was a relatively short trip.  Serena did a bit of preparation reading for our unexpected trip to Amsterdam (airport)…

Thankfully on arrival to Amsterdam our KLM connecting flight was on time, although we still had 3 hours to kill.  The British Airways flights from Amsterdam Heathrow were all delayed, so in this instance KLM was definitely the right option.

The airport was enormous.  It is split in to three different sections each of which host many shops, bars and restaurants.  We grabbed some food in a little noodle bar…

…and then split up to do a little shopping.  Well, more accurately…Serena did shopping and I went and sat by the gate, listening to tunes on my iphone and caught up on email/blogs on my netbook.

Travelling is one of my favourite times to read or catch up on work, so I’m not a big shopper.  However if you do prefer to shop in airports, then Amsterdam is a great place to be…

There is even a museum…

After a few hours waiting/shopping in the airport, we finally took off (on time) and got back to the UK at about 5pm.  Unfortunately we landed at Terminal 4, and my car was in the business car park of Terminal 5, so we had to go on mini mission with a couple of buses to get back to the car.  I got a nice pic of a snowy English country side as we made our approach to Heathrow…

Based on the amount of abandoned luggage, I am assuming that there were quite a few disappointed travellers missing their essentials…

Two of my friends were having a leaving party in Reading in the evening, so I got back home as soon as I could (which took a while thanks to the lack of grit on any of the roads in my area), got showered and changed and headed to the train station, where I had to wait for another 45 minutes due to cancelled trains.

I eventually got to Reading at about 9:30pm, missing the buffet, but in time for wine, champagne and plenty of dancing Crazy travel day, but still lots of fun