Woken by the “Lachie alarm clock” at 5:40. Gave him
breakfast. Amelia got Sarah up a little bit later. I ate breakfast, then
checked my phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My flight had been cancelled due to electrical outage at
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. They had re booked me on an earlier flight, but we
couldn’t make it in time. So for the next two hours both Susan and I were
online and phone trying to get a new seat, preferably today. KLM was not
answering phone/ computer.Finally we decided to just go to the airport and make
contact with someone, even if I had to sit for hours.
Great run to the airport. Dropped off at 9:40 and made my
way through to the KLM desktop to wait in the queue for an hour and a half. I
was 7th in the queue. Most of the time there was only one girl on
the desk and on average it was taking 20-30 minutes to help each person. When I
eventually got served she was lovely and I was processed in 5 minutes. The
others had required connecting flights. The man on the check-in desk told me
even if I had got here for the earlier flight the queue was enormous and many
still missed that flight. Bag checked in and next was security.
Manchester Airport security was right up there with the most
rigorous I’ve ever encountered.
Boots, scarf, vest, jacket, watch off. Camera out of case,
lipstick in plastic bag, computer out of case and obviously backpack and
handbag in tray. “Wanded”, after body scan for bra. Then they go through every
section of your bags regardless of the X-ray. Finally everyone’s luggage is
scanned for drugs and explosives.
Finally in another queue for a cup of tea. Found GF packaged
little mini cakes and not much more that was GF. Drank my tea, ate my little
cakes and relaxed for the next hour until they posted the gate. I made my way
to the gate to sit for the next 30 minutes and then we boarded. Yippee. However
before I could get too carried away we had to sit and wait in the plane for 25
minutes before we could get in the take-off queue. The outage had really mucked
up everyone’s timetables. A very short 55 minute flight with a serving of sandwiches-
nothing else and nothing for the GF, but you did get a cup of tea.
Landed at Schiphol Airport in the rain. Another huge
airport. Down the steps to the bus to the terminal and a long walk to exits via
the toilets and the baggage carousel. My bag was naturally not the first one
out, but it was there. From here to the passport control. Mine was easily done
then to customs- even easier. From here I had to find my way to Exit 4 and the
shuttle bus service.
I arrived at the ApolloMuseum Hotel about 5:30 new time
(gained an hour somewhere) I checked in, got my room key and up I went. Dumped
my things and went downstairs to get a map and directions to some cafes. It was
raining steadily with gusts of wind and both the map and directions were
problematic. The map was so small it is difficult to read. I just wandered in
the general direction until found Zadelhoff Café. Very nice wait staff. I
ordered a gf burger on GF bread and they specially substituted a salad for the
fries. Delicious but €18 ($32) There is
NOTHING cheap in Europe.
Ambled back to the hotel, had an early shower and caught up
on emails and finished my diary. Too tired now to do any more except sleep. My
bed is “interesting”: basically looks like a sofa because that is the only
thing that would fit in here. The very small room has a desk, jug (most
important for a tea drinker), tea/ coffee supplies, a tv on the wall that you
would need to be a contortionist to see, and a tiny, but adequate ensuite
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