Aukje de Vries' Diary Day 69

In the morning I do my grocery shopping and then do some work on the diary. Late in the afternoon Martje comes over. We have to fill out a form on the computer to book our trip to Japan. After we have had some tea with a delicious piece of cake, which Martje has brought, we go to my study. As usual there are some surprises while we fill out the form, but we run into real problems when we try to book a room in the city where the congress will take place. The travel agency does not have any connections in that town, but I have got the names of three hotels recommended by the congress organisers. We try to find them on the internet. The information is limited, although there are many sites on which we can find the hotels, but when we try to book two single rooms the problems begin. The prices are higher than the congress organisers have indicated, we are told that the hotel has no rooms available (could that be because we want single rooms – that has happened to me before), the website says the price may be raised or lowered, so that we do not know what we sign up for and we notice that on most sites we are not connected directly to the hotel but to a booking agency. No wonder this makes it more expensive. It is already quite late when we decide to give up. I’ll get in touch with the congress organisers. I cook a meal and after we have eaten Martje goes home. It will be a short night: one hour less because tomorrow summer time begins.