We arrived safe and sound to Amsterdam on Sunday morning after a 7 hour flight from Toronto. We had about an hour delay in Toronto as they announced there was a “technical” problem with the plane that had to be corrected before we could take off. Don’t you just hate it when they make announcements like that – gives you an uneasy feeling. A technician or maintenance person from KLM kept going back and forth to the cockpit and then they made an announcement that in order to fix the problem, the plane would essentially have to be shut off completely! So we all had to open the blinds on the windows so when the power went out, we would have light in the cabin. It feels rather weird to be sitting on a plane with it completely shut down. After a 5 minute wait, they powered it all up again and apparently that fixed the problem and we did make it safely to Amsterdam – so that was a good thing. We upgraded again this time and went Business Class and they certainly do treat you well and we had “flat beds” so at least we could try to get a few hours sleep before landing.
They give you a nice drink when you sit down and a goody-bag of socks and toiletries and noise-reducing headphones plus larger TVs and of course the meals were quite good although we didn’t eat the breakfast as we only had supper 3 hours before.
We arrive in Amsterdam at 7:00 a.m. and catch the train to Amsterdam Central; the train station is right in the airport, so it was nice and easy to travel that way instead of getting a cab. Took us 15 minutes to arrive at Amsterdam Central and then a short walk to our hotel which was right next door. Unfortunately, the hotel was packed due to King’s day celebration on the Monday; so we were told we couldn’t get our room until 3:00 p.m. We were hoping to catch a couple of hours sleep if we could have got our room so that went out the window pretty fast. We had made arrangements to meet a friend at 1:30, so we hung out at the hotel until Joan met up with us. We wandered around Amsterdam with Joan and then went out for lunch.
The young couple sitting beside us were from Turkey and were very interesting to talk to. They spoke English very well.
Joan walked us back to the hotel and we said our goodbyes and then we were able to get our room and catch a couple hours sleep. We slept until 8:00 p.m. and then wandered around Amsterdam for the rest of the evening. Of course, there was a lot of partying going on in preparation for King’s Day. King’s day is a very popular day where everyone celebrates in Amsterdam and all the roads are closed as they party. We didn’t partake in that celebration on the Monday as the Scenic Tour Bus picked us up Monday morning to take us to the ship.
Brian in front of the ship.
Janet trying out the bike!!
We had a welcoming supper and our ship stayed in Amsterdam as we have an excursion to Zannse Schans on Tuesday morning. So far so good!!!
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