A family of travellers
I have a family of travellers. Not only for holiday travel, but also work-related travel. This was always something that was part of my life when I was growing up here in Holland. My Mom works for a Dutch company called Philips as a Global Quality Control Manager. Dad works as a Process Engineer for DuPont de Nemours Dordrecht - The Miracles of Science. When we were younger we sometimes tagged along on their business trips. Because my parents were (and still are) ambitious and always striving to reach the top, they pushed my brother and I to do the same. Let's face it... as a black person, you have to work twice as hard to prove yourself before you can climb up that carreer ladder. My parents did it and they reached the top at a point that they have a very comfortable life. So if our parents can do it, then so can Junior and I. I have a lot of ambition and I am dedicated to reaching the top in my field. My parents pushed us to finish school and obtain a good degree. After MAVO in Holland, I got my Associates degree at Aruba Hospitality Management School. Later I took some middle-management courses at Haagse Hogeschool in Den Haag and Communications at World Travel School in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Junior, my brother, did MTS and HTS... yeah he's a lot smarter than me :-)... and since last year he works as an International Product Technician for a shipping company called P&O Nedlloyd in their support & logistics department in Rotterdam. So as you can imagine our house always has suitcases open and when one arrives, the next one leaves. That's why we as a family decided it is very important to keep in touch with each other, no matter where we are. We have SIM cards from almost every country we visited and loan them to each other and we all have laptops from our jobs. Mom and Dad travel mostly to the USA, Middle-East, Africa, South-America and Europe, Junior travels mostly within Europe and the USA and me....I'm all over the place.
So talking about travelling... this morning I dropped Mom off at Rotterdam Airport (RTM). She was going on a one week business trip to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Philips is a Dutch company based in Eindhoven, but sell their electronics on a worldwide scale. They have many manufacturing plants in Europe, Asia, Africa and South-America, so Mom travels to those places to make sure the quality is kept up to the standards that is set by Philips. This time it was Ho Chi Minh.
Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven
But before starting her journey to Vietnam, she needed to be in London for a meeting with LG Electronics, a Philips partner, this afternoon. So she will travel to London today and tomorrow evening continue to Ho Chi Min with Korean Air (London Heathrow-Seoul-Ho Chi Minh City).
As usual RTM is full on the weekend. We first went to the ticket office to pick up her tickets. It is interesting to note that SkyTeam handles all flights on behalf of Philips worldwide. Read about it here. After KLM issued the tickets all the way to Vietnam, we drank a soda at the bar and then I told Mom goodbye. I went up to the observation deck to waive her out.
Air France-KLM ticket office
The Transavia.com & KLM check-in counters. Busy as usual
Mom waiting for her turn to check-in
Boarding for the LHR flight
While I was looking from the observation deck I spotted ATCBOX members Frank and Gerard! Frank and Gerard work for Transavia.com Technical Services, but they perform line maintenance on the KLM 737's at RTM.
Frank & Gerard from HV Technische Dienst
Safe flight & happy landings Mom
From RTM I drove straight to Rijswijk to work. Freddy and me started to do the preperation work for the 25th of January... the big day. (I'll talk about it in a next post).
Winfred (Freddy) My colleague, team-mate and good friend
After work, Freddy and me passed by the Turkish restaurant, bought shoarma and döner kebab and headed to Dordt. Now Freddy and me are going to eat and relax in front of the TV.
And in case you were wondering.... yes... it is a Philips television :-)
So talking about travelling... this morning I dropped Mom off at Rotterdam Airport (RTM). She was going on a one week business trip to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Philips is a Dutch company based in Eindhoven, but sell their electronics on a worldwide scale. They have many manufacturing plants in Europe, Asia, Africa and South-America, so Mom travels to those places to make sure the quality is kept up to the standards that is set by Philips. This time it was Ho Chi Minh.
Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven
But before starting her journey to Vietnam, she needed to be in London for a meeting with LG Electronics, a Philips partner, this afternoon. So she will travel to London today and tomorrow evening continue to Ho Chi Min with Korean Air (London Heathrow-Seoul-Ho Chi Minh City).
As usual RTM is full on the weekend. We first went to the ticket office to pick up her tickets. It is interesting to note that SkyTeam handles all flights on behalf of Philips worldwide. Read about it here. After KLM issued the tickets all the way to Vietnam, we drank a soda at the bar and then I told Mom goodbye. I went up to the observation deck to waive her out.
Air France-KLM ticket office
The Transavia.com & KLM check-in counters. Busy as usual
Mom waiting for her turn to check-in
Boarding for the LHR flight
While I was looking from the observation deck I spotted ATCBOX members Frank and Gerard! Frank and Gerard work for Transavia.com Technical Services, but they perform line maintenance on the KLM 737's at RTM.
Frank & Gerard from HV Technische Dienst
Safe flight & happy landings Mom
From RTM I drove straight to Rijswijk to work. Freddy and me started to do the preperation work for the 25th of January... the big day. (I'll talk about it in a next post).
Winfred (Freddy) My colleague, team-mate and good friend
After work, Freddy and me passed by the Turkish restaurant, bought shoarma and döner kebab and headed to Dordt. Now Freddy and me are going to eat and relax in front of the TV.
And in case you were wondering.... yes... it is a Philips television :-)
posted by Traveller at 6:23 PM
3 Comments:
Once again, a great post Ryan. It is true; we as people of color have to work twice as hard to prove ourselves, before we can climb that social and career ladder.
Les
I find Rotterdam an ideal airport when travelling to London, Berlin and Oslo. Short queues, easy access and easy parking.
Give me Zestienhoven ovder Schiphol any day!
Mel
Yep, Lisa I agree. When I go to London, I prefer RTM, but KLM flight to London are expensive from RTM. Unless you are travelling on Transavia.com to London Stansted. If you are travelling with VLM to London City or KLM to London Heathrow you can pay triple the price! Then it's better to take KLM or British Airways from Schiphol for €129,-.
For the cheapest return flight to London, Eindhoven is unbeatable with Ryanair for €28,-!!!!! No food, no drink, just the flight. Who cared it's only 1 hour anyway.
Ryan
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