# Denver to Amsterdam

Source: https://sumnerevans.com/posts/travel/2023-amsterdam-retreat/denver-to-amsterdam/
Published: 2023-03-24
Travel, Trip to Amsterdam, Denver, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Today I once again am venturing across the pond for a work retreat. This time,
in Amsterdam, Netherlands. I'll get there mid-day Saturday and I'll spend the
afternoon and all of Sunday sightseeing before meeting up with coworkers on
Monday for a week of in-person work!

My dad kindly took me to the airport this morning. Security was pretty crowded,
but I have TSA precheck which makes it so I don't have to take everything out of
my bag and take off my shoes. I got to the airport in plenty of time, and I had
brunch at Panda Express before heading over to my gate.

The boarding process on the flight to Toronto was pretty slow. The line
management was horrible; they had queues set up for each of the zones, but then
just ignored them and used a single queue. They were also checking everyone's
carry-on bag size as they scanned tickets. They needed to do that, though
because there were definitely people bringing bags that were way too large onto
the plane.

I managed to take a short nap and then worked on this blog post and cleaned up
my inbox. I knew that I would be flying approximately over Waterloo which is
where a couple of my coworkers live, so as we were approaching Toronto, I was
looking out the window to see if I could see it. We were approaching a small
city and I took some pictures, thinking it might be Waterloo. The live map
wasn't working, but I was able to manually pan around the disfunctional map and
match up the terrain. I had actually taken a picture of Waterloo! I sent the
picture to my coworkers once we landed in Toronto and one of them said that they
could see their house in the picture I'd taken!

My layover in Toronto was quite long: almost six hours. Luckily, my Venture X
card gives access to Plaza Premium lounges and there was one in the terminal
that I was in, so I spent my layover in relative comfort.

On the second leg of my journey, I was super lucky because there wasn't anyone
in the middle seat on my row. I managed to get got a couple good hours of sleep
on the plane.

After arriving at the airport, I bought a SIM card for data and then got a bus
to my hotel. I'm staying at
[De Bedstee Capsule Hotel](https://goo.gl/maps/ENFhRYhpvPdXu8nE7). It was one of
the cheaper options close to the city. It's literally right across the street
from the Van Gogh museum. I dropped my bags off and then walked to lunch. I went
to a restaurant called [Small Talk](https://goo.gl/maps/Fk24v8Ek3XQuFwfXA) and
had a really fantastic steak. Then I headed back to the hotel to wait for when I
could check in. I tried to work on my blog a bit, but ended up having an
accidental nap in the lobby.

Once I got checked in to the hotel, I tried to stay awake for a few hours before
I fell asleep for good around 18:30. I slept for a long time (it was very easy
to do so because the capsule is so dark inside) and only woke up at 07:00 the
next morning, but that's a story for the next post!