Haarlemmertrekvaart

There is a saying that all good things must come to an end, and today we reached that moment in our trip to Amsterdam. We got an email from Easyjet last night telling us that they expected security at Schiphol to be very busy and advised arriving 3 hours prior to our flight, which was due to depart at 1310. We had decided for peace of mind to get a taxi to the airport, although it was expensive (€45), it was worth it. We had packed most of our stuff the night before, so we got up at a reasonable time, and had another excellent breakfast in the hotel dining room, finished packing and then went downstairs to wait for our taxi which the hotel staff had booked for us. The taxi was on time and the driver asked which airline we were travelling with and was able to tell us which terminal we would be at. It has 3 Terminals with another two due to open next year. The traffic going in to the airport was very busy indeed.

We couldn't quite work out where we were supposed to go for security but there are plenty of super-helpful staff to ask, which we did. It was very busy but also very efficient, and we were through security from start to finish in about 20 minutes, 15 of which were actually in the queue before security.

Since we now had plenty of time (thank you Easyjet), we made a beeline for a cafe and sat for a while experiencing that calm that you only get once you are through security and still have about 2 hours before the departure gate closes. we wandered round to the gate and found seats where we could see the departures information board. I went to get some water...the most expensive water I have ever bought, €4 for a 500ml bottle, seemed excessive even for an airport.

A short time later, the departures board showed our flight 20 mins delayed....then 40 minutes, then the gate changed. Some other passengers heard me tell Barbara that the gate number had changed so, after a few minutes of directing folk to the new gate we settled down once again. Eventually, the Easyjet app notified us that our flight was delayed and that the gate had changed, like about an hour after we had all moved to the new gate. As it turned out the flight was actually 2 hours late in leaving. it seems that for unspecified reasons they had to change aircraft and had pinched one from somewhere else. Good news/bad news was that it had 30 fewer seats and so 30 folk were left behind, so in the end I was sort of glad we had turned up early.

The flight was uneventful, before we took off the girl that was due to sit next to me asked if I would move so her sister could sit beside her, which I did of course, then we sat on the tarmac for about 20 minutes and then took another 20 minutes to taxi to the runway 2 miles away. It's only about 1 hour flying time so we were hardly up in the air when we began our descent into Edinburgh where our good friends Allan and Frances were waiting to pick up up and take us home.

Our trip to Amsterdam was short but great, I ticked off a few bucket list items, had a good walk, the hotel was terrific, and every person we met was friendly and helpful, but all good things....until next time.Read more