Aiming for Amsterdam

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We awoke in the wee hours of the morning to bright flashes flooding our bedroom, and after a bit I just had to go see if we were indeed in the midst of a desert downpour and thunderstorm. Mother Nature was indeed putting on quite a spectacular light and sound show. Our chance at a 75% solar eclipse was done in by rain; now, I only hoped that our flight from the desert wouldn’t be impeded by the weather (or more likely, our plane prevented from arriving. We had an early afternoon flight, so I had some comfort in that.

Sharon didn’t want to venture out for breakfast; but, she sort of promised me IHOP and a chance to try their “Doughnut French Toast” featured this month. When I reminded her, she dismissed the idea with “Oh, we were supposed to do that yesterday!” I had to remind her that I has suggested the day before; but, it was she that had scheduled it for today. I offered to go bring back breakfast from Farmer Boys; but, she was busy finishing up some projects before leaving. I wasn’t keen on getting drenched, and Farmer Boys has a drive thru so it seemed perfect. By the time I had gotten the our version of Restaurant Alley, the rain had subsided so I wound up across the street at IHOP. Yes, this is the IHOP that we couldn’t find when Sharon’s mom Shirley had visited us shortly after we moved in. Okay, so maybe my car GPS was putting the IHOP in the middle of Home Depot across the street. We did finally spot this hidden restaurant from the freeway one day. The French Toast made with a Bavarian Cream Doughnut was actually quite tasty (much more than I might have imagined that it might be). And wouldn’t you know, when it was time to leave, the rain had returned. I waited a bit, and got to the car without getting too wet. But I did forget to request the discount for seniors when I paid the bill.

I decided to retire “The Red Hat”, at least for this trip. I may bring it out of retirement the next time we travel with Sharon’s sister Erin though. It’s looking a bit decrepit. I settled on a Prudhoe Bay hat and an older Alaska Hat. Our neighbors Chuck and Marcie graciously offered to take us to the airport, and we really appreciated the lift. The rain had stopped by 10AM when they picked us up. We breezed through the PSA-preCheck line. Sharon remarked how long the regular line was, and she wondered when we would need to renew that perk. I think we’re good for another three years.

We got something to eat at Chili’s. I got the spicy shrimp tacos, which were quite good. Sharon had the chicken nuggets, which was much more than she could eat; although, she said they were quite good as well. Our flight got us to Minneapolis-St. Paul without much ado; but, we had to get from our C-Gate to the G-Gates. They were mentioned almost as an afterthought on the posted signage, which seemed to indicate that the only way to get there was to walk. And so we started walking, making use of the many people mover sidewalks that did help some. As we were getting off one long moving sidewalk a very nice lady pulled up beside us in one of those courtesy airport shuttle carts, and asked where we were headed. When we mentioned G-6 she told us it was still a long way and to hop on. She helped us with our carry-on, and then began what I can only convey to you through the imagery associated with “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”. She expertly weaved through people and their luggage, wheel chair passengers, and many engrossed with their cell phones that they weren’t particularly paying attention to the 6-passenger monstrosity hurtling their way. Our driver/escort has evidently done this before, or as they say in Vegas: “This wasn’t her first rodeo.” We were amazed that from where she picked us up we had only come about one third of the way. We gave her a nice tip, and we made our way to the gate. We had still a couple hours to kill before our 10PM flight, and decided to grab a bite in the less than adequate food court. They did have state of the art ordering with a tablet for me to order a “Steak Burger”. Sharon only wanted some of my fries. We both got a fountain drink and were looking forward to using one of the four Coca-Cola machines that dispenses whatever combination of soda or flavoring that you want. One machine was not working at all. Two of them were ON, but all of the sodas were shown without color (e.g. they were in black logos) which I found out means that they are out of that particular soda choice. I found this out when I tried to pick “Dr. Pepper”. The last machine did have “Coca-Cola” in Red and White. So that is what I got. The soda was mostly fizzy water with very little Coca-Cola syrup, and I imagine that that Red and White Coca-Cola logo will probably be Black and White very soon. Sharon said her Cherry Gingerale was really flat.

The two hours we had until our overseas flight began to board actually passed quite quickly. We actually arrived at our gate just moments before an earlier flight left for Amsterdam; which, we “could” have made, but not with our luggage. There was ample seating and also plenty of workstations for people to use pre-furnished with tablets connected to the internet. We initially sat down at some of the “regular seating” which had both AC outlets and USB charging stations; alas, neither of them were working. I took the opportunity to slip into the conveniently located restroom to change my undershirt and put on a long-sleeved casual shirt for the nighttime flight. And then I sat down and began working on this blog entry. Then I hear the gate agent announce, “This flight may be overbooked.” I’m thinking, “This can’t be good.” I’m recalling the guy that was forced to give up his seat a few months back. The agent continued, “We’re offering two hundred dollar travel credit on Delta for anyone who will give up their seat with a guaranteed seat tomorrow.” I hold up two fingers and get Sharon’s attention; but, she just shakes her head. A few minutes later, “We need nine seats. We’re offering three hundred dollars if you can travel tomorrow.” Sharon shakes this offer off too. The agent sweetens the deal, “We’re now offering Four Hundred Dollars, on a Pre-paid Visa card to anyone who will give up their seat… And we’ll put you up in a hotel overnight.” Sharon waves off my four fingers. The agent got up to nine fingers before she’d filled her nine seats with the overbooked passengers. The couple sitting next to me had joked about the offer at $200 telling each other they’d need $10,000 but when the offer got to $900 they jumped up and ran to the desk. I think they ended up getting it since we didn’t see them again but the woman that sat next to Sharon on the plane had put her name on the list earlier and didn’t get bumped. Perhaps something to keep in mind the next time travelling to Europe on the last flight of the day. Perhaps pad the trip with an extra day just in case you can take advantage of such an offer.

Our flight was largely uneventful; except, that Sharon and I had only been able to wrangle a couple of aisle seats that were sort of across from each other near the rear of the plane. Though they were a bit further away since my row had 3 middle seats behind a row that had 4 so there was space behind the end seat. They fed us dinner shortly after take-off, and I went with the “Pasta Option”. I didn’t hear the “Vegetarian Pasta Option” part of the description; but, it had noodles, cheese and a decent sauce so I guess I can’t complain. Now, someone who can complain was Sharon who wasn’t too pleased with the “Chicken Option”. The only other choice was the “Shrimp Salad Option”.

Sharon watched movies and listened to music while I played a little bit with the Game Console built into each seat, and eventually realized that their Sudoku game application was a complete joke. It had three levels, Easy, Medium, Hard. I had tinkered with the Hard puzzle on the previous flight, and been unable to solve it. For starters, you can only fill in the final answer for a cell, there is no way to annotate the “possible answers”. On this flight I tried the Medium Puzzle, and realized that was a wasted effort since it started with about three-quarters of the numbers already given. I went back to the Hard puzzle and eventually worked it to the point where I had two adjacent columns, and each having adjacent cells missing the same two numbers. For example, the first pair was either (1-3 or 3-1), the second pair was either (1-6 or 6-1) and the final pair was either (3-6 or 6-3). That’s when I realized that these were not legitimate Sudoku puzzles because they have multiple solutions. The only way they can be solved is by guessing. But this at least had distracted me until we were somewhere over Labrador. I then managed to nap a bit before I started to catch a somewhat groggy second wind as we were approaching Iceland. They served us a snack shortly before landing, and Sharon didn’t even bother to take a box. The only think I ate was the slice of cheese and the orange juice.

We landed right on time, got quickly through the airport, picked up of bags and then only needed to find the “Meeting Place”. We almost didn’t notice going through passport control (there was a short line for U.S. citizens). Customs was a door, one for with things to declare, one for those without things to declare. I think both emptied into bustling airport hall. There was clear signage to find everything, including the “Meeting Place”. We kept following the sign until “Meeting Place” disappeared from the signs with arrows directing us some where. Sharon spotted a sign placard titled “Meeting Place” with advertisements taped beneath. We walked around a small booth adjacent to the meeting place, and Sharon spotted our driver with a tablet seeking “Sharon G”. He helped us push the luggage trolley with all of our bags upstairs to where he was parked. I was worried when he took a double take at our luggage and was hoping he hadn’t come to fetch us in a Volkswagen bug. No, he was driving a massive Mercedes van that would have dwarfed the Mercedes that we’d been chauffeured around Rome just a couple of years ago. He assured us that we would be having pleasant weather, perfect around 72 degrees Fahrenheit (he did the conversion for us on his phone app). He made a comment about bicycles that made me think of Sharon’s sister Erin. One of her favorite sayings is that where she lives there are more moose than people. And Sharon and I just visited a place where there were more caribou than people. And now we’re staying a couple of nights where there are more bicycles than people. Our driver’s biggest beef with bicycles is that they have no rules (or if there are rules for how they drive they seem to ignore them). I saw more than one bicycle just cut in front of our car, which is amazing because he was just about as aggressive as the trolley car driver we’d had in Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. With the density of the bicyclists and then the pedestrians too, if you did pause to let them go safely, you’d never get started again. Our driver had to give a brief tap on his horn to one driver in front of us that seemed to be losing his nerve. He got us to the “Swiss Hotel of Amsterdam”. We did have to cross a bustling street with pedestrians, bicyclists, trolley cars and a few automobiles. We just went with the flow of traffic. There did seem to be a pedestrian crossing light; but it looks like the lights burned out years ago and it’s likely nobody was paying attention to it anyway.

We checked in and our room was very nice, Floor One which is up one level from the lobby and overlooking the street. Oh my, look! There is a Burger King across the street. Sharon noticed it first. I told here that we didn’t travel to Amsterdam to eat at a Burger King. Okay, so maybe we did travel to Santiago and wound up eating at a Ruby Tuesdays. So there is a precedent here! We napped for a couple hours… I know, on overseas travel you’re supposed to stay up as late as you can to get a full night’s sleep and awake time adjusted to your new time zone the next morning. Well, Sharon wasn’t having any of that argument, and I wasn’t up to arguing with her. We walked around the block, passed perhaps half a dozen bakery/pastry places, three cheese shops, several cafes, and quite a few ice cream places. Other than McDonalds (next to the Burger King) and a KFC there wasn’t much to find in the way of dining. Down a side street we found a bar/pub, but it didn’t look to be promising in the menu department. There was an Asian restaurant and an Italian pizzeria. We decided to go try the place next to the Hotel. It had a modest dinner menu, I found Lasagna with a Bourganois cream sauce and Sharon found a 200g burger that she ordered plain. I ordered us some bread with butter and oil to start, and also selected the soup of the day “Sweet Potato Soup”. We each got a 250ml soda served in a bottle and a glass with one small ice cube. I knew this wasn’t going to get me through dinner. My soup was excellent, and when a finished I ordered a bottle of water, I asked for a big bottle, and when the waiter asked “Fizzy water?” I nodded yes. The bottle came and it was 750ml and I didn’t bother correcting the waiter when he brought two glasses. Sharon’s burger came; but, it was loaded. They graciously took it back and then came out and asked if she needed it recooked, or if they could reserve the burger on a new bun. They assured her nothing would be on the burger, at most a speck or two of bacon. Sharon agreed, and the burger was fine. It was almost half a pound, very plump, because the diameter wasn’t that wide. Well cooked and delicious and Sharon felt guilty about not eating the whole thing. My lasagna was quite good; but, I’d eaten so much I couldn’t finish my dinner either. We came back to the room to unwind, and Sharon has already crawled back into bed and it’s not even 9PM!

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