The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Sunday, September 11, 2022

Made it back to Amsterdam

Writing this at Amsterdam airport waiting for our flight to London, England.

When we originally booked these flights back in mid March, we had no idea what we were doing or where we were going upon our return to Europe, so making our way back to Amsterdam left us with a lot of choices. You can get to just about anywhere from Amsterdam. Then of course, we decided to head to England for a few weeks, and needed a little puddle jumper flight from Amsterdam to London, a forty five minute flight.

Yesterday afternoon our friend Kim (thanks Kim!) drove us from Ottawa to Montreal airport which was almost a two hour drive. It was super busy when we arrived at YUL. There was actually a lineup driving up to the departure areas.

And once inside, it took us about 45 minutes to get through security. We were there fairly early, so we decided to use another couple of the lounge passes supplied to us as a benefit through our Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card. We got to the lounge, and there was a lineup to get in the lounge.

While standing in the lineup, we got to talking to the couple behind us. They were in a bit of a rush and they didn't have nearly as much time as us, so when it came our turn we let them go first. Good deed for the day. As it was, we had waited another 45 minutes to get in the lounge.

So then it was our turn next, and they almost didn't let us in! You're only allowed three hours maximum in this particular lounge, so they won't normally let you in until three hours before your boarding time. But we promised to leave before three hours were up, and the girl went and checked with her supervisor and got approval for us to go ahead in.

Having a glass of wine and doing some computer work.

I've said it before... these premium airport lounges are definitely the way to waste some time in the airport! This one had premium drinks as well. Not a huge food selection, but suitable enough for a meal. We each had a nice plate of butter chicken curry and rice. I had two plates!

When we left the lounge, we made our way to the Air Transat departure gates and found these comfortable chairs.

Our flight was uneventful, as you want it to be! Departed and arrived pretty much on time. Air Transat isn't a very high end airline though. As with our flight in August, the meal service is uninspiring. I had a hard time trying to sleep, and in fact neither one of us got much sleep. I think we each managed an hour or an hour and a half out of the seven hour flight.

Arrived Amsterdam at 11:30am local time. No need to go through Schengen zone immigration because our flight to London departs from the same terminal at 6:15pm. That leaves us about five hours to waste, so we might as well go into the lounge here as well.

Amsterdam airport.

Back in the lounge at Amsterdam airport.

So, out of the eight flights we had scheduled since August 5th, seven of them have gone pretty much without a hitch. One left to go. 

Next post from Jolly Ole England!

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2 comments:

  1. I seem to remember that Amsterdam's Schiphol airport was voted the best in the world at one point. Did you notice that it seemed particularly good?

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    1. I can't see where it was the best in the world but it has been voted the best in Europe at one point and in 2020 it was rated as the 9th best in the world. We would definitely say it was right up there near the top. It was very clean, pretty organised, it had lots of seating and lots of places to sleep even, with great lounge chairs, we even saw a few pillows and blankets lying around. It is also very stylish and had lots of things to keep people busy, The WiFi was good and plenty of working outlets and USB chargers. We honestly don't know hat else they could do to make it better. It is also called a "silent" airport, which means they don't make boarding announcements or all those other loud announcements that you normally hear over and over in airports. You have to check the departure boards for your flight to see the gate number and time of boarding and it is up to you to be their on time.

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