Netherlands November 2025

Why Netherlands and London this November?

I had to make a tough decision this year - I wanted to go to another European Pinball Tournament. There was the Austrian Pinball Open in the middle of September, the UK Pinball Open at the end of September, and the Dutch Pinball Open in November.

I went to the Dutch Pinball Open last year and had great fun. I did lousy because these are the best players coming from all over Europe, but they were so friendly and I was (I think) the only American there. It became my pick, especially since I could book a fairly cheap flight due to returning ON Thanksgiving (not many want to fly that day).

I also wanted to go to the Dutch Pinball Museum in Rotterdam and the M.C. Escher Museum in The Hague. After the tournament, I had 3 days left over - I could have done more Netherlands or pop to Brussels OR I COULD GO SEE STRANGER THINGS: THE FIRST SHADOW again!!!

I kept checking the theatre web site until the date I wanted opened up and I quickly snatched a first row balcony seat. This show plays on multiple levels and to see the whole thing, it's best to see it from the upper levels (in my opinion).

Of course, food tours were required all around. My first one is in Rotterdam, followed by a food/history tour by the venerable Nigel Homer of Homer's Odysseys Tours (https://homersodysseys.co.uk/), the Sherpa Food Tour in London and one in Amsterdam when I get back from London. I'm coming back one day early to Amsterdam from London so I don't miss my flight home as happened in 2024 due to an airport delay. Since I return to Amsterdam early the day before my flight, I squeezed in a food tour and an English language comedy show.

But, but, but... You may ask about chocolate. Well, I have booked with Jen (https://www.jenniferearle.com/) again. I would like to go to London Chocolate (best dark chocolate!) as well as Charbonnel & Walker (Pink Champagne Truffles). I plan to bring a big suitcase to fit my purchases. I may be trying other places as well. Jen is awesome and I highly recommend her tours.

Trip Day 0-1 - November 18-19, 2025 - Atlanta -> Amsterdam -> Rotterdam

I managed to snag a window seat with nobody next to me. Unfortunately, it was right 2 rows from the loo.

The flight was good but there was some delay at the tarmac in Schiphol (Amsterdam) and we had to take buses from the plane to the terminal.

I ran into a problem getting my new phone plan with AT&T to work internationally. I had tried setting it up in Atlanta, but failed, so I had no cell service when I got to Amsterdam, though I had WiFi at the airport and other public spots. This led me to requesting a car with built-in GPS. The first car's GPS didn't work, but the second one did. It's a brand new BMW SUV and I got it with no upcharge because the first didn't work.

It's a great car, but the drive to Rotterdam took a long time due to traffic and due to me getting a hotel downtown. It's miserable driving here. Just 2 or 3 cars get through every traffic light.

Because of all the delays, my 2 PM expected time to the Dutch Pinball Museum was delayed to 3. What a place! 144 games, many functioning, a lot of pinball history, and super creativity by the owner Gerard.

I had to leave early to get to my food tour. It was a private tour with Bite Me Food Tours. Michele was my guide and we had a lot of laughs, fun, and good food tasting. I really neglected to take a lot of photos.

Trip Day 2 – November 20, 2025

My original plan was to go to The Hague, back to Rotterdam, pack, then drive to Eindhoven. After yesterday’s traffic frustrating snail pace, I decided to simplify life, pack and load the car, go from Rotterdam to The Hague then straight to Eindhoven.

Had a nice slow morning: breakfast, packed up, hit the road around 11:30. An hour later I was in The Hague at the Escher in The Palace exhibit and it was incredible. Mind-bending art everywhere. Like stairs going nowhere and hands drawing hands. Escher was all about Infinity and Eternity. His work was prodigious. I did get bored, because art is not my thing, but this museum was worth going to.

From there, I drove straight to Eindhoven and made it right after check-in opened, only to find out I had booked the wrong hotel. Not off by a street. Not off by a block. Wrong neighborhood. Wrong city - Eindhoven instead of Veldhoven. Same chain - NH Collection. Serhat, the receptionist, told me I wasn't in their system. I pulled out my email and he pointed out that I had booked Eindhoven. I had been wondering how I managed to book a room on the 5th floor when last year, the hotel only had 2 floors (duh!) Thankfully the receptionist was a superhero and got me switched over after calling the downtown hotel. Same chain, different location.

The room they gave me (one of the last available) had twin beds and vibes straight out of a 90s youth hostel, but with the Dutch Pinball Open happening this weekend, I’m lucky to be on site at all. Though totally my fault, I'm not unhappy with the room. It's at the very end of a long corridor, so it's quiet at night, and the stairs lead down to just outside the pinball venue! Check my before and after photos after I "set" up my mess. Complete tech hookup as usual with PC, phone, and Echo Spot to play music and "pink noise".

Once I moved my luggage into the room, I took my bowling shoes that I brought with me and went to bowl at Mega Bowling. Then a little shopping run. Eggs aren’t refrigerated here because Europe doesn’t scrub the protective coating off them like we do in the U.S.

A little more about the car - it is a BMW X3 30e. It has a HUD of the navigation and the speed. I took a pic while stopped, though I was tempted to take a pic while exceeding the speed limit because it beeps at me when I go over.

Tomorrow? First the Philip's museum, then the Pinball adventure begins.

Trip Day 3 – November 21, 2025

Escher lit up my brain, Philips lit up the world, and pinball lit up my night. 💡🎨🕹️

Though I originally had 3 things planned today, I only did 2 — the Philips Museum and the Pinball Main Tournament qualifying round. I bowled yesterday and wanted to rest up for pinball.

Talking about them out of order: the qualifying round was head-to-head with 11 players. I lost 4 but won 6. The top player went 8–2. Petra also went 6–4, so we were tied — but she beat me on Sopranos, so she’s ranked higher. No big deal — the top 3 move on. The 2nd and 3rd place players face off, then the winner meets the top seed later (I think!). So Sunday morning at 9:15 AM, I’ll be back playing!

The Philips Museum was incredible. I had a private tour, and my guide, Betten, told me all about how it was founded by Gerard Philips with financing from his father Frederic. His brother Anton joined later. Gerard was the engineer, Anton the smooth-talking sales guy. They started with lightbulbs but expanded massively. They created the cassette tape (60s/70s/80s) and, with Sony, developed the CD. Radios, TVs, medical equipment - they did it all. Eventually, they slimmed down because the company grew too broad.

Philips transformed Eindhoven from a village of 4,000 into the major tech hub it is today. It’s even called the “Brainport” because of all the innovation, and Eindhoven Technical University exists thanks to Philips.

The museum sits on the site of the original 1891 lightbulb factory, though the building today is modern.

Now Philips mainly focuses on medical and health/body care devices (think MRIs, toothbrushes, shavers). They sold off their lightbulb business.

Best surprise of the day: I accidentally wandered into a backstage area (whoops)… and ran into Gary Stern, Steve Ritchie, and Jack Danger. Absolute pinball royalty! They were super friendly and didn’t seem too bothered that I just showed up in my unmistakable bright-yellow gear like I belonged there. 😄

Tomorrow: more pinball - Classics qualifying in the morning, and Pin Golf if I don’t make it through!

Trip Day 4 – November 22, 2025

This was a draining day - as in pinballs draining straight down the middle. Okay, it was Paragon and the drain was on the left outlane, but still draining.

Today was Classics - basically, playing older machines. Each person gets 10 entries, and based on their score compared to the other players, points are earned. 100 for first place, dropping to zero around position 90. I was 130th and 138th on Paragon, so no points there. Out of my 10 entries, only 7 counted. There were 332 people entered.

Do I sound bitter about Paragon? Just a weensy, teensy bit, yah!

I also tried Pin Golf. The goal is to hit the target score as quickly as possible - fewer balls = fewer strokes - either 1, 2, or 3 if the score is reached. If the target score isn't hit by ball 3, up 7 strokes can be awarded. I didn’t finish the full set, but I did have a strong game on Ghostbusters: target was 200 million, and I put up 1.3 billion by ball 2 (no need for ball 3!). Still had Star Trek left, but the line was long and my overall score was a toss-away anyway.

I sat in on two panels - one with Steve Ritchie describing his 50-year career designing pinball machines, and one with Gary Stern & Jack Danger - that one felt more like a sales pitch though Gary did talk about his business journey some. Stern wants to expand their European presence with a new exec in Amsterdam, and they’re pushing Stern Insider and Stern All-Access pretty hard. Feels a little too “Big Brother” for my taste.

Tomorrow is the Main finals at 9:30 AM - a 96-player bracket. Top finishers get byes. Players in positions 2 and 3 face off first, three games per round. I’ll know more tomorrow.

Trip Day 5 - Part 1 – November 23, 2025

Well, didn't make it past round 1. It was 4 players per round playing 3 games. Top 2 moved on. After 2 games at third and fourth place, I was eliminated.

Good news is, I got to walk around the floor a bit, play some, then will be able to pack and head timely to the airport for my trip to London tonight.

Trip Day 5 - Part 2 – November 23, 2025

Arrived in London easy peasy and had a limo take me to the Hotel Radisson Blu on Mercer Street, within walking distance of the theatres.

I'm glad (not happy) that I didn't make it to the finals. They were still playing at 8 PM when I took off so had I been good enough to make it, I would have missed my flight.

The top 4 are all wizard level. You can look them up at https://www.ifpapinball.com/players/find.php

Anyway, the next 2 days in London will be completely non-pinball related.

Trip Day 6 - November 24, 2025

A chilly day in London started with rain. Walked down to Westminster near Big Ben and met up with Nigel Homer there. Nigel took me on a tour in February and we saw the regular tourist places. This time, I wanted to see the Prime Meridian and then some off the beaten path places.

We took the Uber boat up the Thames instead of the Tube and it's a great way to see the sites. We walked up the hill to the Greenwich (pronounced Grin-itch) Observatory which is in Greenwich Royal Park. There are 7 Royal Parks in London. 21% of London is green which makes it officially a forest. I found substantiation here - https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/did-you-know-that-london-is-the-worlds-largest-urban-forest

Brits like giving their buildings nicknames. I tried to catch a few as seen in the pics.

After Nigel dropped me off near my hotel, I took the Sherpa food tour. We had a number of stops but I had to leave early to get to the play I had booked. Timing wasn't great.

The play, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, was excellently played. They actually put up a representation of the Berlin Wall which I could not photograph. All I got was the actors at curtain call.

Trip Day 7 - November 25, 2025

Today was a Chocolate Tour with Jen Earle. It is such a pleasure. She is very knowledgeable about chocolate. We started at London Chocolate and then went to a couple of other places. I bought a few treats.

Afterwards, I wanted Sticky Toffee Pudding and decided to go to Gordon Ramsey's restaurant at the Savoy Grill. Nothing on the menu there interested me so I stopped at Honest Burger and had their regular burger first. Then I spent 30 quid on a dessert. To tell you the truth, the one at the Mug House Pub under the London Bridge was better. So that will be on my next trip.

Finally finished at the Phoenix Theatre with Stranger Things: First Shadow. I had hoped the front row balcony would be better, but they are very tight and uncomfortable seats. There's also a rail going across which does interrupt the view. However, the play so awesome even for the third time. I saw things I didn't see the first 2 times. I'm ready to see it again!

Tomorrow is an early flight to Amsterdam and will be my last day of cavorting in Europe.

Trip Day 8 - November 26, 2025

Got up extra early to catch my flight to Amsterdam and everything worked great except I thought I lost my passport. Everything was going so smoothly too. I paid for business class and hung out in the lounge for 90 minutes and got to the gate just as they opened up business class boarding and then couldn't find my passport. I thought it was in my pants (it wasn't). Then I searched my backpack. Multiple times. Finally, I found it in my jacket pocket. Phew!

Got into Schiphol (pronounced Skep-hole fast if you want to sound like the Dutch - try it) and grabbed a cab to the Hampton Hotel which I booked for 2 days (77 Euros a day which is why I picked it).

Grabbed an Uber downtown - actually had to call for 3 of them. One canceled, the second called me saying he had car problems and I should cancel, and the third took me downtown, but I was charged 2 cancelation fees. After I disuputed it, both charges were reversed. The third driver said that many drivers, once they realize the trip is to downtown during rush hour, will cancel because they don't want to go downtown.

I got to my food tour in time. We did cheeses, deserts, main items including chicken saytay which was wonderful, and chocolate! Marie was a wonderful guide. A former Ukrainian who had moved to Western Europe, gotten married, and had a 3-year old daughter. There are a lot of Ukranians here.

I finished the day with Victor Patrascan, Stand Up Comedy in Broken English. This was a serious funny show. Victor picked various members of the audience who volunteered, asked where they were from, what their country was famous for and what the biggest problem was and how to fix it. Of course I put up my hand. And actually got a lot of sympathy from the crowd. Victor's main message was that we are very alike but that the nationalism driven into us as children have put us on an "us versus them" setting. If you get a chance, see him. Here's his site: https://victorpatrascan.com/

Tomorrow, I will fly back to Atlanta and I'm sad, yet glad, if you know what I mean.

Trip Day 9 - Thursday, November 27, 2025 - the last day and Summary

My flight was pretty uneventful getting me in Atlanta at around 5 PM. The airport was very empty. I was first in line with nobody in front of me at Immigration. Though I have Global Entry, I would have had to walk to the end of the hall and it was faster to go through the open booths. I picked up my car from long term international parking and it felt good driving my own car on streets I know. I was very tired when I got home and got to bed at 7 PM, since I had stayed up on the flight watching almost the whole of Stranger Things Season 4 in preparation for Season 5.

Summary of my trip:

2 plays:

- The Spy who came out of the Cold

- Stranger Things: First Shadow (for the 3rd time) and I want to see it again

Comedy Show with Victor Patrascan, but though it was funny, it was very, very serious.

3 Food Tours - Rotterdam, London, Amsterdam

Chocolate Tour with Jen Earle

Walking Tour with Nigel Homer

International Pinball Tournament - The Dutch Pinball Open

Went bowling in the Netherlands

Attended 2 panels - one with Steve Ritchie, an incredible pinball machine designer, and Jack Danger (a new generation designer of Foo Fighters and Uncanny X-Men) and Gary Stern

Things I saw:

- Prime Meridian - I straddled it

- Dutch Pinball Museum

- Escher in the Palais Exhibit

- Philips Museum

- A Rocky Horror Pinball Machine (Homebrew)

Goofups:

- booked at the wrong hotel in Eindhoven

- didn't put my phone on roaming so didn't have international cell service until I did so

Favorite food to try:

- chicken satay

- stroopwafel