Day 1 and 2

Some random thoughts about our last day, or is it two days?

Hurry up and wait! Okay, when you travel by air, you need to be at the airport in plenty of time. So we were. And then the flight was about an hour late...

Airplane food really is not good, although they try. In many ways, it reminds me of hospital food. Trays of warmed up food, some of which is identifiable, some not.

It was impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep during the 9 hour flight. I may have dozed, but crying babies, people talking, constant aisle traffic and the time change were all working against me. On the upside, I actually watched a couple of movies; on the downside, they weren't very good. The selection was not great.

It was weird hearing German being spoken as the first language. I didn't mind, though and tried to figure out what they were saying, which was usually confirmed or corrected for me in the next announcement which was in English. I was very impressed with our flight attendants who switched between the two languages with great ease.

Frankfurt airport is huge, but it seemed illogical. We arrived at one wing and then had to make our way, our very long way, by foot, train and moving sidewalks to our other gate. On the way we went through security and customs again. It probably took us an hour to make it to the other gate, which was in good time for our connecting flight. As we went down the hallway expecting to be boarded onto the plane, we actually had to get on a bus, which in our mixed up, sleep-deprived brains, seemed to bring us back, after a 10 minute ride, to the area where we debarked from our first flight. Weird.

While we were in Frankfurt we met some more of our group who had come in on different flights. One couple almost didn't make it, and if it weren't for us saying we were expecting them and being very reluctant to begin boarding, we may very well have left them behind. What a relief it was to see then running down the moving sidewalk towards us. We were the last ones on the bus to go to our plane.

First impressions of Amsterday: it's wet and grey, something we are very used to on the west coast, but now that we were leaving sunshine and record warmth in BC, disappointing. But not a big deal. Amsterdam is flat and green, reminding me of southern Manitoba where I grew up. The lucious grain fields were a welcome sight for this prairie girl. What is different from the prairies is the presence of canals everywhere that are filled with water. A number of times it was obvious how land is below the sea level. Our first stop was at a restored historical village, complete with windmills and wooden shoes. It was informative and beautiful. The wet sea air is refreshing.

We are traveling in a large tour bus and all wear name tags. So now we are one of them that we can spot a mile away when we are at home. The restaurant where we ate last night was very gracious in accommodating us. The hotel complex is attached to a bird sanctuary, so if the jetlag hadn't woken me up early this morning, the birds definitely would have. I want to wander in the park a little more this morning, as I forgot to take pictures last night. It's beautiful.

Okay, time to shower away the jetlagged feeling. Have a good day!