April 6 April 7 April 8 April 9 April 10 April 11 April 12 April 13 April 14 April 15 April 16 April 17 April 18 April 19	Wednesday, April 19, 2017 I had a restless night. I got up about 2 am to look up the map of the Amsterdam airport online. It's a terrible map. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it for practical information. It showed where all the shops and restaurants are, but not check-in counters and such. (Sigh) So, I went back to bed to attempt to sleep a bit. I finally gave up and got up at 5:30. I finished packing and went down for breakfast. After thinking about it part of the night, I had decided to decline the offer of a ride by Kevin and Mike (when they returned the vans) as that would cut the “getting lost” time down too much. I checked out and grabbed the 7:20 am shuttle to the airport - along with Dan, Sharon, and Dianne. The bus was pretty full for that hour of the morning... We got to the airport and, thanks to a hotel clerk the night before and decent directional signs, I soon found the correct departure hall - not the one closest to the shuttle drop off of course. I got checked in and the big bag was checked. The clerk there directed me to Lounge 52, which is KLM’s waiting lounge for those with business class tickets and ultra-high frequent flyer status. After walking back across most of the terminal, I checked in there and took advantage of the much more comfortable seating and much quieter environment. I also got a glass of orange juice. An hour before boarding time, I headed to the departure gate. It's a good thing I did allow that much time as the departure sign pointed me to the general Delta desk for additional check-in checking (which I had already gone through)... Finally I arrived to the correct gate, where Angie was waiting - she had also taken the shuttle rather than wait for a ride with Kevin or Mike. She and I are on the same flight across the Atlantic this morning, since she lives in Minneapolis. Oh, but first, there was the trip through the security scanners... Security at the Amsterdam airport was very interesting. I got a much more invasive pat-down than I've ever had before. I think she was trying to figure out what style bra I was wearing... And up rather high between the legs, too. I also had to take my camera and all electronics out of the carry-on stuff to go through that part of the screening. From what I've since read, this is now normal for flights leaving Europe. At least we were able to carry them on. Rumors are flying that this privilege will soon disappear... So, I was standing at the “out” side of the x-ray screening, where my stuff was in three or four trays, trying to reassemble everything with a wheelchair in front of me and trays piling up behind me. One of the attendants told me I was holding up the line. I pointed to the wheelchair and said I had nowhere to go. She pointed me to the tables behind me and suggested (strongly) that I move my stuff over there so that the rolling line could proceed... Which I did. I hadn't even noticed the tables until she pointed them out. I did thank her. I was soon reassembled and on my way to the next check-point. There was a small delay in boarding our plane as the door to the jetway wouldn’t stay open... Maintenance very quickly got that cleared up. So, boarding started. And about half the people being boarded were selected for additional security screening!!! I was one of them... Open each of my carry-ons (camera bag and briefcase), remove my shoes, once again getting felt down the front and back (again, what style bra was I wearing???), swabbing various surfaces to see if the machine could pick up anything suspicious. Really tight security.... However, I was soon seated on the plane and we took off once everyone was aboard. I had a decent meal on the plane. Then I wound up watching three movies and sampling three others. Rogue One and Fantastic Beasts are definitely winding up in our dvd library. La La Land and Manchester by the Sea are definitely getting dropped from the Netflix queue... Boring!!! While I did rest, I didn’t sleep on that flight, which was 9 hours long... We eventually arrived in Minneapolis in the middle of a driving rain, which made the approach a bit bumpy. Passport Control and Customs were almost a breeze after the multiple security screenings in Amsterdam... Despite taking off everything (except my jeans) that might ping the x-ray machine, I still got a pat-down. However, much less invasive - just the back of a hand down the front and around the waist. The TSA agent was almost apologetic about how invasive this thing was. No, I didn’t tell her about the Amsterdam pat-downs.... I had a two hour layover in Minneapolis and wound up just sitting and waiting for most of it. Once I found my departure gate, I got out my old flip style cell phone and called Carl to let him know that all the indications so far were for an on-time flight. While we were talking, they announced that we had a gate change. I still had an hour til boarding, so we continued to chat. Then I moved to the new gate. We boarded on time. It was a bumpy take-off as it was still raining pretty heavily. The flight was uneventful. Business class domestically just doesn’t seem worth it, except for the extra seat and leg room. I wound up dozing off and on during the 2.5 hour flight. The plane arrived in Denver on time and the gate wasn’t far from the train and the train was near the baggage carousels, so this wound up being the shortest walking distance in an airport all day long! I must have put in close to 5 miles walking today... My bag soon arrived and we were on our way home. At last.