When we woke at 7, it was overcast again. That seemed fitting. It was, after all, the way it was our first day in Amsterdam. Our daughter J came to get us at 8 and we went down to the terrific spread that Mövenpick puts out for breakfast. After breakfast, we went to the shop on the first floor for J and my husband K to buy chocolate for gifts. Then it was back upstairs to get her stuff.
We went downstairs with her to see her off at 9:20, when she got on the shuttle van to the airport. I know I will see her again in late July, but it is still hard to say good-bye to her. Plus, she is a terrific travel companion!
K went to find the computer to print our boarding passes, since KLM, which is checking us in rather than Delta for some reason, insisted we bring boarding passes. When I came back from the restroom, he was still fighting to get it printed. He solicited the help of the Holland America agent, who was in the lobby and she told him to send it via email to the front desk for them to print. At the desk, the guy there said it would print from the other computer and went over and made it happen. That handled, we went back to our room to kill time at 9:50.
We went down for good at 10:50 to check out, as our departure time was 11. However, there was already a van there, so, rather than wait for ours, the HA rep put us in this one and we were on the road at 10:53. The driver was friendly and doing his dream job, he said. We had a good chat with him, which was a great way to get our Holland questions answered.
He had us to Schipol Airport by 11:17, and it was such a pleasant trip that we tipped him 4 Euros.
The KLM line was long, but they opened another and shunted us off to that one, which got us to a counter faster. My suitcase was right about the max, but my husband's was over, so we had to pull things out and stuff them in the extra carry on. At least we didn't get charged any extra and the bags were on their way at 11:30. It took only 2 minutes to reach the security line. While we were in line, I saw signs about liquids and taking out electronics. This concerned me a bit, so, when we reached the guy telling people which line to get into, I asked him, if he knew what a CPAP machine was. He did and told me not to take it out. That made things easier. However, the larger of the two carry on bags required extra security. They even wiped it. Very odd, but they didn't take anything out and we were finished there and through passport control at 11:52.
J was flying KLM, so she'd been in the same area of the airport. There was free WiFi, so she texted with a lunch recommendation. It was a little early for lunch, so we did a little shopping in a toy shop. They had the cute little Dutch bunny, Miffy, that we'd been seeing around town. I could not resist a small one dressed as Santa for my Santa collection. I texted J a picture of the last remaining one that was for a baby and rattled. After a moment, she decided that I should indeed buy it and she would give it to her friend for her coming baby. We then checked out what was for sale in the Amsterdam store, because we come back here in July. (Our destination will be Belgium and the ClarinetFest, but it was easier to get tickets through here and then take trains.)
At 12:35, we took J's suggestion and went to the Amsterdam Bread Company for lunch. Once we managed to find a table, we took turns holding the fort, while the other bought a lunch. I got Farmer's Ham sandwich for 6,20 and Sea Salt Crisps for 2,50, the latter to share. My large Coke Zero cost 3,55. K got a Chicken, Avocado and Bacon sandwich for 6,75 and a medium Coke Zero for 3,25. I really liked my sandwich, as did he. Signs showed the care that went into the flour and baking and the bread showed it.
Our boarding passes told us to go to one gate and the overhead board said another. We decided to follow the sign, which sent us to D1 for extra screening for the US at an actual Delta section of the terminal at 1:20. They put a purple/pink sticker on the passports and sent us to E8, when they finished with us at 1:30.
We then checked out what was for sale in the Amsterdam store, because we come back here in July. (Our destination will be Belgium and the ClarinetFest, but it was easier to get tickets through here and then take trains.)
We were at E8 at 1:50 to wait. The plane was originally to leave at 2:40, but now it was 3:20. So, we sat and read. When I went to the restroom as boarding time approached, they made an announcement at the desk, which including telling people to wait until called. Folks did not and started getting in the lines for boarding. This upset the agent at the desk, who started ordering them back.
After doing my usual wipe down of everything with hand sanitizer, I started looking at entertainment options. I was already watching The Man Who Invented Christmas (quite good, by the way), when the plane pushed back form the terminal at 3:25. We had to do a heck of a lot of taxiing, which was scenic, out to the farthest end of the airport. We took off at 3:50.
The attendants brought around headphones and menus. Before bringing around the food carts, they brought us hot towels to wipe our hands, which I really like. For "dinner" around 5, I chose Chicken Piccata and Spinach Mushroom Risotto and K chose Cappelletti with Four-Cheese Stuffing and Pesto Genovese. The dessert with both was Black Forest Mousse. It was a pretty good meal.
I long ago developed the ability to watch TV and do counted cross stitch at the same time. On a plane, it's just a matter of it being a movie instead of TV. After my first movie, I saw The Hitman's Bodyguard (funny!), then Bad Moms (also funny). They brought around a snack box and we had ice cream and pizza twist.
The flight was relatively smooth. There were only a couple of times, that they had to put on the seatbelt signs. Coming into Orlando, the view out the window was pretty.
The Border Patrol agent asked us if we had any food and I mentioned the chocolate and jam. That was it and he stamped the passports. I asked if I could ask a question and when he indicated I could, I brought up the cheese we'd seen in the Amsterdam store in the airport. "You can bring that back," he said before I could ask. It's only runny cheese that you can't bring back. So, I'm taking advantage of that on the way home next week.
We waited an awfully long time for the luggage. I wound up in conversation with a young man, who was a government contractor in Afghanistan. He'd already been a Marine there and didn't look old enough to be a contractor now.
At 7:55, we finally had the luggage and K texted his friend who was picking us up. I caught this lovely sunset that was welcoming us home. We were in the car at 8:11 and home before 9 pm.
Fantastic trip!!
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