Might go under the heading “aroma therapist”, no ?
It’s not money, Coldie, it’s an already-booked trip to Madrid. But thanks for the offer.
As for you L_C, from what I hear we might be discussing Campbell and/or Ferdinand soon too 
I guess you’ll just have to come to ScotDope!
OK, I won’t hijack this thread any more …
I’m booked in to the Mercure.
First and foremost, thanks to our Cockney Rebel for that excellent summary of Who’s Where and Why.
Well, I finally managed to get a hold of Hannie at the Mercure - she wasn’t in Wednesday night when I walked over there, and apparently spend all day yesterday in meetings.
She confirmed all bookings as you guys e-mailed them to me, so no worries there - you all have a roof over your heads. There’s a few remarks though.
First off, Hannie did not want to lower her prices. You all already have the 50% internet discount, and they have a conference that weekend so the place is packed as it is.
Some of you have a different price quote than others. IIRC, the ones that booked early got a 150/175 quote (single/double). The ones that booked slightly later have a 175/200 quote (right?). This is due to the timing of your bookings, and cannot be changed. The only way of cutting costs is to cancel one of the “expensive” reservations, and shacking up with someone who has a “cheap” reservation (e.g. London_Calling cancelling his and shacking up with kferr. Not saying you should, just describing a scenario). The latter then has to alter his reservation with the hotel from a single to a double. All in all, even 175 for a single room is a decent rate for a hotel THIS good, IMHO.
Diane: The hotel only has double and single rooms. It’s not possible to place an extra bed or anything, so your reservation is looking like it’s gonna be two doubles and one single room.
Any questions?
ruadh, I recall that trip of yours to Spain now. My meory’s giving up on me 
Have fun in España, and I’ll hopefully catch you at another DopeFest!
Sassy, I’ll e-mail you my mobile number, so you can track me down once you’re in A’dam, seeing as how you a rrive a few days earlier. Are you coming alone? Do you have plans already?
Guys, is it time to start booking restaurants for dinner, talking about which museums to visit, design alternate programs for the Hash Group and the Museum Group? In other words, shall we commence the debate on what to do?
Would anyone else be interested in going to the M.C. Escher museum?
The Escher Museum is in Baarn, unfortunately, a one hour journey from A’dam. They have the entire collection online, and it doesn’t look to me like it’s a whole lot, personally.
damn… looks like I’ll have to go to a live sex show instead.
Ruadh – If Sol goes north I’ll walk to Scotdope and eat my 1981 Cup Final programme naked in the pub.
Coldie - Thanks for trying to sort something out.
Diane - if this seems a little expensive(3 rooms, yikes !) maybe try that ‘Amsterdam Apartments’ search on Google (or another search engine) ? Just a thought.
Twisty – How about trying for a live show with Ms Hannie at the Mercure. She sounded quite nice on the blower and a little more discount wouldn’t hurt (leaving a small deposit would be optional) ?
I hear that London_Calling is shacking up with kferr. 
You’re right, there isn’t anyway to get out of booking three rooms. That’s okay though. My little brother has a soccer tournament and won’t be coming. I won’t know for certain about my son until this weekend. If it ends up just me, Kraig, my daughter and son, we will only need two doubles. I will still have reservations for the single if anyone needs it.
About museums. We want to visit Ann Frank’s House and the van Gogh Museum. No definite times or plans and we are open to any and all suggestions. If anyone wants to tag along with us or if they want to drag me and the tribe someplace, we are up for anything. My kids are almost grown and well behaved. It is their mother that you have to worry about taking out in public.
Does anyone know the driving time from Ramstein to Amsterdam? We are leaving my dad’s Saturday morning and I am trying to figure out how long I can sleep in. 
I will check into it LC. I’m always game for things that are cheap (men not excluded).
The aa route planner says that the distance from Kaiserslautern to Amsterdam is 493.5 km and that it takes 5 hr 15 min to drive. You can get full detailed directions at http://www.theaa.com and using their “route planner” service.
As far as museums go, I’ll be happy to fall in with anyone who’s visiting the Anne Frank house, the van Gogh museum or the Maurits Escher museum. In fact, I’ll probably be keeping a car until Sunday, so if anyone wants to go to the escher museum, we can drive there.
I’ve got a car as well, so we could do out-of-city trips, I guess. It’s just that the city itself has so much to offer!
In addition to the Van Gogh Museum (never been there myself, would you believe it??) and the Anne Frank Huis, I would like to suggest the Rijksmuseum. It is, IMHO, one of the most impressive museums in the world. It has 90% of all Rembrandts (including the awesome Night Watch), most of the Vermeers, Frans Hals… all the classic Dutch masters.
Of course, we’ll do a night tour of the Red Light District as well. Don’t worry Diane, it’s child friendly these days. You’ll see women in sexy lingerie, that’s about it. Plus, it’s the safest place in A’dam, what with the 24/7 police watches these days.
Other than those, I’m open to suggestions. I suppose a canal tour by boat has to be done as well, it’s a good way of seeing a lot of beautiful buildings relatively quickly.
The nightlife? I’ll reserve restaurants for Friday and Saturday night. Bars are going to be decided upon at the spot, as far as I’m concerned. There’s SO much to chose from.
What do you guys consider a reasonable amount to spend for evening dinner, including drinks and perchance a dessert? It’ll help me narrow things down.
Well, I’m sure kferr is delightful but unfortunately his dangly bits are it the wrong place for me. However, as your post implies, Diane, some would say sharing a bed with kferr would make me the only man at the Fest sharing a bed with a natural blonde. I, of course, couldn’t possibly comment.
<…runs for the hills…
I’ve no suggestions for things to do, since I don’t know the city at all. I like the suggestions you’ve already made though, and will happily fit in with them.
As regards dinner, I guess up to around 20 quid excluding drinks would be my idea of reasonable, but I’m pretty flexible.
Thanks Coldie, sounds good. That also sounded like a reasonable amount for dinner to me, too, Hibernicus.
Ehm - me, too.
Anyhoo: I’m all for staying in A’dam proper, and Coldie’s suggestions sound quite OK by me. Can’t wait!
BTW, I plan on leaving H’burg around 12ish, which should place me in A’dam between 4 & 5. Whether this means riding directly to Casa Coldie or - more likely - to the stylish watering hole you’ve all retreated to remains to be seen.
S. Norman
You’re arriving Friday, right, Spiny?
Lads, you’re confusing me. Hibernicus, 20 Punts as opposed to London_Callings 20 Pounds? Sheesh!
My estimation that dinner-with-drinks-and-dessert ought to be possible for about 60 or 70 Guilders a piece. Hell, you might as well get used to the local currency - you guys do the conversions.
It hardly seems worth getting used to, since we’ll all be using the same currency in 9 months. (Well, not all; the Brits may have to wait a little longer for the delights of the single currency). Anyway, Coldfire’s 60 or 70 NLG works out at around 20 UK pounds, 25 Irish pounds, 30 euro (or dollars) and 60 DM. Have I left anyone out?
Only those of us who use the strongest currency in the world. How much is that in real money? (U.S. Dollars)
Unless you meant that was about 30 dollars, not 30 eour-dollars. ( Hey, I dunno. Y’all can’t seem to agree on the new currency, maybe you compromised and named it after ours!) Anhoo, at approx 2.3 NLG per USD, that would be about $27. Close enough for the way Coldy’s bank handles funds. d&r