A series of unfortunate events brought me to my lunch in Amsterdam. I left Utah under clouds and heavy sleet - we were delayed about 30 minutes to have the plane de-iced before take off. In Portland, the girl sitting next to me in the middle seat ended up moving, so it looked like I would at least not be so cramped on the 9+ hour flight. It is highly possible I would have missed my connection anyway with only an hour scheduled to go through customs and to walk the extremely elongated terminals in Amsterdam. As it turned out, a 3 hour delay on the tarmac in Portland gave me the chance to sit for an extra 3 hours at the airport and to enjoy a Dutch B.L.T (pretty much the same as in the US, but the bacon was not crispy) and some Schweppes Bitter Lemon (I got hooked on this stuff in Russia). of course, I would rather be delayed 3 hours in Portland to wait for a valve to be replaced and the "light to go off" on the pilot's control panel than to have a mechanical failure mid air resulting in certain death. Just a few "lemons" at the beginning to make the rest even sweeter.
I didn't check any bags, just a backpack with wheels and my trusty Salt Lake 2002 bag stuffed to the gills. Much nicer to have everything with me for the layover. I am always amazed how much stuff I can get into these bags!
I can't recall which comments I made on facebook, but I'm rereading the trip today, and loving it. I love the photo of the Dutch shoes- great colors.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ailene! It seems like forever since I saw all those wooden shoes :)
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