Moving hotels

So, yesterday I moved from a hotel in Düsseldorf to a hotel in Köln. In the morning, we dropped off our baggage in the hotel lobby in Düsseldorf and went to work. Our luggage was to be routed to our respective hotels in Köln while we were at work. In the evening, I left work and headed for Köln. When I got to the hotel, I had a reservation, but no bags. So, I called around to the different hotels that I knew HP was using, and tried to get them to look for my bag, all in very poor German and decent English. No luck. So I then called one of the logistics people for HP, and she called around as well, with better results.

One hotel found my bags and told me that they would send a taxi over to me with the bags in 10 to 20 minutes, and I would just have to pay the driver. So I headed downstairs to wait for the taxi. After 40 minutes, I was sure that the taxi wasn't coming. A lot of taxis did come without my bags, each of which I talked to, only to discover that we shared no common language other than mime.

I decided that I would head back up to my room to try to call the other hotel. I stopped by the front desk to ask if they could get me the number of the other hotel, which they did, but when I mentioned my name, he told me that the bags had already arrived and were in my room. Apparently, the driver came in, and a porter brought the bags up while I was on my way down. My hotel put the taxi bill on my tab.

So I ended up with my bags after all. But it was stressful, knowing that I only had one set of clothes. But, alas, Schmidt, my red soccer ball, was lost. It was in a white plastic bag, so if you see it, let me know.

But, hey, I'm pretty happy considering.