Gribbs take The Netherlands...part I...

Ok ok, so this happened literally at the 1st of the year and I'm just getting around to writing about it - but better late than never!

So for the second year in a row I got to go over to our European offices for our sales meeting with our European crew. The difference in this year's trip was that Andy got to join me at the end of it - yay!

My part of the trip started with a New Year's Day flight to Amsterdam. Pretty uneventful travel experience and just like last year I met up with my fellow US colleague, Adrian, in Amsterdam and we took the train together out to Almelo for the business part of the trip. We got in a day earlier than every one else so it was nice to have a little down time as we adjusted to the time change. It was nice to have a little time to explore Almelo as well - a very walkable town with a lot of history.

The meeting part of the trip went really well. My European colleagues are just as passionate about what we do and they bring some fresh perspectives as well - so it's fun to spend some time in person with them. They are also crushing it - so it was fun to get to celebrate another consecutive year of sales growth with them. Not to mention our evenings were spent enjoying some great meals and camaraderie.

Of course the trip got all the better when Andy arrived! He had quite the epic day of travel as he had to fly from here to Newark and then Newark to Amsterdam - but he arrived and got to sneak in a nap while we were all still at the office. The guys all loved meeting Andy and he even got to participate in our team building "trivia night" which was a lot of fun. A bonus for both of us was getting to also see Desire who Andy got to know a few years ago when she was still working with me and came and stayed with us to work for a week. So fun having friends in different countries!

While we thoroughly enjoyed our time (a short amount for Andy) in Almelo we were really excited to get to Amsterdam - I couldn't wait to introduce Andy into this beautiful city....