Bookended by KLM

Yet another of those very long days, and one from which it may take me a little time to recover.

A very early start in the airport hotel, although admittedly not as stupidly early as it would have been if I had not been in the airport hotel and I had been getting the early flight from Edinburgh. Anyway, it was quite pleasant to wander across the car park to the terminal building and go through security with no delay at all.

The flight was on time, more or less, but it took me more than 45 minutes to get through passport control. This is becoming beyond a joke. Onwards by train to The Hague, in terrible rain, and once there I tried to dodge the worst of the rainstorms to get something to eat in one cafe and then respite from the weather in the city library (which had cool Finnish vibes and was equipped with eduroam), before my first meeting at a restaurant.

Then back to the Leiden university building for a meeting with representatives of the Law Faculty before the big event we were all there for - the launch of a joint venture between Leiden and UoE. Finally, a reception, then a quick dinner in a different restaurant, and then four of us crammed in a taxi to get back to Schiphol in timely fashion. No queue at security or passport control to get out of the Netherlands. Thank goodness for that.

When we landed - more than a few minutes late - in Edinburgh, the sky was glowing red. By the time I'd procured myself a taxi and made my way home, it was already Tuesday morning. Inevitably it took a good deal of time to wind down from the journey sufficiently to get to sleep.