After 14 hours of the traveling, finally, we got to Eindhoven, Netherlands. We actually flew to Dusseldorf, Germany and drove a rental car to Eindhoven. The flight from Detroit to Dusseldorf was sold out so it was very crowded and not comfortable to spend 7-hour red eye flight in a coach class old seat. And the guy next to me kept falling asleep and leaning his head on me. I did not sleep that mcuh.We got to Dusseldorf fine. This was my first time ever to Europe continent (previous trip to UK does not count I assume). It was just quite different about everything. We rent a car but almost could not find "the" car since the sign was very not clear.
Eventually, we found the rental car. Then, we could not find the way to get of the aiport parking lot. After consulting the local policeman and woman, we were heading to the highway. However, they forgot to mention that there was no East/West/North/South direction sign on the highway here so we got lost on the highway and drove to the opposite direction. Fortunately, my co-worker who drove/rent the car actually had a Microsoft GPS and live map stuff with him so we finally got to the town after several incidence of passing the exit. Of course, it did not help that we were actually very tired from the flight. We got to the hotel around 1:30pm but could not check in so we went out for lunch.
Almost all the stores were closed so we could only pick one of the few restaurants that was open. The service was super slow and the food was not even that good but expensive. We finally got back to the hotel about 3:00pm. I spent 25 Euro on buying one-week internet pass. I took some pictures but my new computer does not read the flash memory card from my camera so I can only use the picture of the hotel I stay now from its website. I will upload more pics I take once I get back home. The lady in the picture of the front desk actually was there to check us in. After checking in, I took a shower and several hours of nap. My co-worker and I then went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. It was small but very nice atmosphere. The menu was not that familiar to me since most of the dishes were not seen in any US Italian restaurant. Anyway, I eventually found something familiar, Calzone, so I ordered it. It was not bad but I did not like the sour olives in it. My co-worker ordered something similar to the Mexican enchiladas. Another strange thing is that they don't seem to refill drinks here. I had to order 2 servings of the tea since each time they only gave me about 3/4 cup of hot water with a bunch of tea bags. And the meals did not come with water. The only water available to drink was bottle water, which was more expensive than the beer. And it comes with gas (bubbles) or no gas. Strange.
After the dinner, we ordered some desserts. I had a homemade vanilla ice cream with fruit melon. My co-worker ordered the tiramisu. Overall, I think most of the resturants here are much more slow paced. It seems that nobody is in a hurry to give you a bill or check on you.
Thanks to the tea (no decaff choice), now I am wide awake, which is not good. Anyway, I will try to get more sleep since tomorrow I will have to start to work.
