Crowd have an eventful time in Amsterdam

Following epic all expenses paid party weekends to Dubai, Barcelona, Marrakech and Budapest, this year Crowd headed to Amsterdam for the UK team's Xmas Party. But the 16 that left the office on an unremarkable Friday afternoon had little idea of what lay in store…

To begin with our flight out was cancelled at the last minute due to weather. After some frantic telephoning (more of this to come), our expert organiser Skye got us all booked on a flight on Saturday morning. Not wanting to halt the party, we headed down into Bournemouth to get the festivities started - Amsterdam could wait.

Following a fantastic Mexican banquet at Ojo Rojo, some partied into the night, whilst those who struggle with early flights booked into a local hotel and set the alarm for 3:30am.

Gathering at Southampton airport, we tucked into a company breakfast before finally jetting (propellering?) off to Amsterdam.

After we’d all checked in to the Hilton (no-expense spared), we had the day to explore the site’s and smells of Amsterdam before regrouping for most relaxing canal tour before heading to a team meal (with vegan options of course) at a swanky Amsterdam restaurant.

With a Sunday evening flight home to look forward to, we divided and conquered to cover the more cultural aspects of Amsterdam including a fantastic Banksy exhibition which certainly got our teams creative juices flowing.

We were even treated to some snow which certainly made the place seem much more festive. Little did we know the consequences the smattering of snow would bring!

Flights cancelled.

Again. Another war-room and flights were rebooked for the Monday night. Great! Another night in Amsterdam! This time we went Italian.

So an unexpected day more traipsing about museums, coffee shops and record stores as more lovely, fresh snow fell.

Unfortunately this meant our third cancellation. War-room 3. This time we had to spread out the return flights over 3 days with the last of the team scheduled to return on the Thursday - nearly a full week after we had started the party!

With Northern Europe in the grip of an apparent ice age, we hunkered down in style at the Amsterdam Hilton, which fortunately had fully functioning Mac’s in each room, so some work was possible. We are a resourceful lot!

Luckily the snow began to melt and the team slowly ebbed back to the UK, with a full extraction complete by Thursday.

After our extended snowy adventure, suggestions for next years adventure are for somewhere a little closer to home. Or maybe we head to Africa again?