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April 6
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Friday, April 7, 2017 At what seemed like the middle of the night, they served a decent breakfast and the plane started waking up. As we neared Amsterdam, I could see large rectangles of various colors among the green below us - field after field of tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils!!! The plane landed in Amsterdam a little after 8 am. I was surprised to find that we didn't pull up to a gate. Instead, they rolled a stairway up to the plane and we walked down to waiting buses for the ride to the terminal. Interestingly, the buses were "solar powered". I hadn't seen that before. Then it was up some stairs to the terminal level and more chaos.... I finally worked my way down to passport control, almost a mile from the gate area, or so it seemed - Schiphol Airport is very sprawling. The official part of this was a breeze. Then I needed to walk almost another mile to get to the right baggage claim carrousel. Well, it may not have been a mile either time, but, when one is tired, it sure seems like it. My suitcase soon arrived and I started following the signs to the hotel shuttles, as instructed. There must have been half a dozen oriental groups arriving at the same time I did, each consisting of 40-50 people (about the number of people that normally fit on a typical tour bus for each group). All heading to their tour buses. In a large group. A large swarm of moving people and suitcases. With no sense of personal space or of courtesy to other travelers. Each group was color coded... Each was lead by someone wearing a specific color of hat (red, green, blue, yellow, purple, etc) holding aloft a small flag of the same color. The hoard following each was wearing the same color windbreaker and had the same color strap around their suitcases - color coded!!! I had seen my shuttle leave the area while fighting this mob and knew that the next one should be by in about 40 minutes, so I just stepped out of the stream and waited until they had ALL passed by. A good thing, too, as they had started to push my suitcase along with them at a rate of speed faster than I was walking! Once the torrent had passed, I made my way out to the curb and sat in the welcome sunshine waiting for the next shuttle, which arrived at the expected time. Soon I was on my way to the hotel. The good thing about having to wait like that was that, by the time I got to the hotel, my room was ready and I could go ahead and check in – a little after 10 am. Side note: normally, I like to learn at least some basic expressions used in the country I'm visiting - like hello or good morning, please, thank you, and whatever they call restrooms. I hadn't done that with this trip as the guidebooks I had were rather stingy with this information. While the words were spelled out and a type of phonetic spelling accompanied each, I didn't have a clue as to pronunciation... They did assure me that the Dutch did speak English rather well. That may be, but I've noticed before that people are more patient and polite if you at least make an effort to learn a few words in their language. The books were correct for this trip - as soon as I opened my mouth, whoever I was attempting to talk with slid immediately into flawless English! However, I did master some of these basics. While the expression for please (which doubled for you're welcome) completely eluded me and the guttural "g" that starts good morning is beyond my abilities, I did master hello (hallo - sounds like "hollow"), thank you (pronounced dank u vel), and restroom (toilet). In fact, my thank yous would elicit startled expressions on various faces which responded with a very gracious you're welcome. I was told that I nailed that one!!! After settling things a little in the room, I laid down and took a nap.... it felt good. I woke up about 2 and went for a short walk around the area. Since this is an airport hotel, there's not really a lot to see, but I got some exercise anyway. Before my nap, I had plugged in my little alarm clock that I usually travel with into the international power strip I also travel with. I got the time set and all looked well. But, when I woke up, it had died. Guess it didn't like the arrangement... I'll have to find a substitute or rely on hotel wake up calls. Dinner was at the hotel restaurant. I had a nice piece of salmon with a lobster sauce, two kinds of potatoes, cheesy cauliflower, and a nice glass of cabernet. Then back to the room for a decent night's sleep. |