Two to Travel: Netherlands 2016

Showing posts with label Netherlands 2016. Show all posts

Quitting the Netherlands for Turkey

Tuesday, 26 July 2016
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport — Netherlands
Temps: Hi 74F (23C) / Lo 57F (14C)

On the advice of the desk clerk at Hotel Bastion, we left Dordrecht around 6:00a to beat the Amsterdam-bound traffic. We arrived at Schiphol Airport 1½ hours later … either the clerk’s traffic concerns were overly cautious or we did indeed stay ahead of the vehicles that were predicted to clog the highway by leaving so early.

After returning the rental car, we headed to the terminal where we found a quiet corner and ate the breakfast Mui had prepared from the fixings we bought Sunday. Next we hit the NS counter to get a refund for the money we deposited on our anonymous OV-chipkaarts … we still own the cards, which are good for a number of years, so hopefully we will have a chance to use them at some point.

The Turkish Airlines counter opens three hours prior to departure, so we had a bit of a wait before we could check-in for our noon flight to İstanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport. Once that was completed, we decided to go through security immediately. Turned out to be a good decision as the line to get to the checkpoints was quite long … as was the subsequent line for passport control. That left us with a short wait at the gate. So much so that I barely have time to insert the one photo I took and post this short blurb to the blog.

How the rest of our Europe trip will play out is TBD … I’ll post again when I can.

Netherlands: The Trip That Wasn’t

Monday, 25 July 2016
Hotel Bastion — Dordrecht, Netherlands
Temps: Hi 70F (21C) / Lo 58F (14C)

Woke up rather late to a cool, overcast, drizzly morning … drizzle turning to rain by the time we sat down to a self-catered breakfast.

We weren’t about to let the weather interfere with our sightseeing plans. But first Mui wanted to check in with his mom and sister, so he placed a call to Eskişehir. That’s when our plans for exploring the Netherlands came to a screeching halt. Mui’s 93-year-old mother’s health had gone into a sudden decline. No question but to revise our plans and head to Turkey immediately.

We spent today cancelling existing reservations, rebooking airfare to Turkey, and working on a myriad other details. Our rejiggered plans are now set. We will be flying to İzmir tomorrow, and continuing onto Eskişehir via the overnight train on Wednesday. After that — we have no idea.

A rough map of our Netherlands driving trip,
which was to have culminated with two weeks in Amsterdam.

When and if I will have anything else to post about our Europe 2016 trip remains to be seen.

Hello Netherlands!

Sunday, 24 July 2016
Hotel Bastion — Dordrecht, Netherlands
Temps: Hi 71F (22C) / Lo 58F (14C)

The temperature that welcomed us to the Netherlands today was 26F (14C) cooler than what we’d been enduring in Texas these past weeks … it felt wonderful! It’s currently 8:30p Central European Summer Time. That’s seven hours ahead of Central Daylight Time in Houston. My biological batteries are all but drained. I need to hit the hay, but I am bound and determined to stay up another hour until a more reasonable bedtime to better acclimate to the local time. Returning to this morning to write today’s story will help me to do that.

Intrigued? Continue reading here »

IAH to AMS: Our Travel Day

Saturday, 23 July 2016 (Part II)
Aboard UA20 … En Route to the Netherlands

We were comfortably ensconced at the United Club when we noticed a Boeing 777-200 pulling up to Gate E7 … our ride had arrived. Despite the delayed departure from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (AMS) the aircraft was seven minutes ahead of schedule. I took that as a good omen for an on-time departure. And it was.

Catching up on the journal while we await the arrival of our aircraft in comfort at the United Club.

Intrigued? Continue reading here »

IAH to AMS: Flight Preview

Saturday, 23 July 2016
United Club @ Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport — Houston, Texas
Temps: Hi 98F (37C) / Lo 79F (26C)

At 4:45p today we will be flying across The Pond to Amsterdam, Netherlands …

… and we will be doing it in style. A couple of weeks ago I was alerted to a great deal on the UA website to upgrade our Economy Plus seats to BusinessFirst using a combination of $s and miles. As I am unable to sleep on overnight flights, I decided the upgrade would be worth the splurge. Perhaps I’ll actually get some shuteye this time since the BusinessFirst cabin features lie-flat seats.

We clear the upgrade waitlist 72 hours before the flight and select our BusinessFirst seats.

We’re enjoying the United Club amenities as we wait for our flight to be called. Everything looks to be running smoothly for an on-time departure, but we still have a few hours to go.

The rest of the travel-day story will be in the next post.

Let Europe 2016 Begin

Friday, 22 July 2016
Sheraton North Houston — Houston, Texas
Temps: Hi 97F (36C) / Lo 77F (25C)

We put our ‘home-on-wheels’ to bed this morning, thus marking the beginning of this year’s overseas trip.

Once the putting-in-storage chores were done, the car service we had pre-booked delivered us to the Sheraton North Houston where we are spending the night. Although we arrived hours before 3:00p, the front desk accommodated us with early check-in. Lunch was self-catered in the room; and dinner will be as well since we brought with us the odds and ends in the fridge … didn’t want to just throw them out.

As readers of the blog know, our overseas trips tend to consist of a bunch of smaller ones all strung together. This year is no different. Our Europe 2016 plans have three distinct segments.

First, we will spend nearly a month exploring the Netherlands, which neither of us has been to before. Next, we will do a two-week Scandinavia & Russia cruise … round-trip out of Amsterdam. We’ve spent time in a few of the ports on the itinerary, but most of them will be new-to-us. Finally, we will head over to Turkey for a month for our annual family visit. Somewhere in there, Mui will go to Rome for a week with his mom and sister. I’m still not sure what side trip(s) I’ll be doing with my family … will make those plans once I arrive in İzmir. And then it’s back to the US for the rest of the year.

This year’s trip to Europe comes at a time of increased terrorism threat — domestic or international … doesn’t matter — and turmoil on the continent. Even as I write this, the news channels on TV are covering the most recent attack … this time in Munich, Germany. Our international travel motto is to not let the attacks scare us into staying at home. Rather, we will exercise even more vigilance than we usually do as we go about our travels. We registered our trip with STEP [Smart Traveler Enrollment Program] and are receiving alerts and warnings for the countries we will be visiting … forewarned, as they say, is forearmed.

[For those not familiar with STEP, this is a free program established by the US Department of State that allows “… U.S. citizens and nationals traveling abroad to enroll their trip with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate.”]

We turn on the TV in the room to breaking news from Munich, Germany.

The 24-hour window to check in online for the IAH-AMS flight tomorrow is about to open. Time to post this blog entry and fire up the United app on the phone to complete the formalities. Later, we’ll go down to the lobby where the Sheraton has set up a computer/printer specifically to print boarding passes … never a bad idea to have paper to back up technology ;-)

Happy trails to one and all … enjoy what’s left of the summer. Personally, I am keeping my fingers crossed for cooler temps in northern Europe.

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