dolphingirl47
In Search of the Tag Fairy
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2007
Day 1
After still having to work an early shift, my colleague Helen kindly dropped me off at the airport. The first leg of the journey was a normal commercial flight on Easyjet from Manchester to Amsterdam. As for some reason commercial flights were crazy expensive this time, I had decided to brave flying standby. There is an early morning flight from Manchester to Amsterdam that does connect to the Amsterdam Los Angeles flight that I had chosen, but this tends to be very busy and a number of my colleagues have got stuck when they tried to get on this. As I am a terrible standby flyer anyway, I decided to play it as safe as I could.
The check in desks for Easyjet are right next to Emirates at Manchester airport. I bumped into a couple of colleagues that I know and had a brief chat. Then I went over to check in for my flight. Even though it was still about half an hour before baggage drop for my flight was supposed to start, I decide to check if I could already drop off my suitcase. There were plenty of check in agents available and hardly any customers. I was in luck. I was able to drop off my suitcase there and then. Packing my suitcase had been precision work. For that part of the trip, I had 20kg to play with and my suitcase was precisely 20kg. It was just as well that I was nice and early as security was very busy and the lines did not seem to move at all. Still, eventually I was through and I still had enough time to have a quick look at the duty free shop and get some dinner. I did not find anything I wanted to buy. I had been at the airport not long before when I flew out to Dubai and there was nothing new since then. I headed over to where the restaurants are to get something to eat.
I had looked at my options a while ago. As I was coming straight from work and due to the time difference between here and Amsterdam, which meant it would be quite late by the time I arrived, I had decided to get my dinner at the airport. I had chosen a restaurant called Giraffe and had a look at the menu a couple of weeks before I was due to fly. I liked the look of the Huevos Rancheros Mexican Breakfast, which they serve all day. However, when it came down to it, I changed my mind. I rather fancied the "Milanese" Chicken Linguine, which consisted of chicken schnitzel, garlic, slow roasted crushed tomatoes, roasted red peppers, white wine & rocket. So I went with this and had a glass of Coke to wash it down. This was amazing. Even though my food came out really quickly, everything tasted fresh and delicious. I am not a fan of rocket so I took this off, but I did not leave a crumb of anything else. Once I finished my meal, I paid and then headed out to find my gate.
When I looked at the screen, there was still no gate listed, even though boarding was supposed to start very shortly. It soon became obvious that there was a delay and I spent some time looking around some of the other shops and then found a seat near a screen and caught up online. The delay was creeping on and on and eventually we started boarding about an hour later than we should have done. Well, I say started boarding. This was a novel experience. Once the gate was announced, everybody went to line up at the gate. They actually opened the gate about 15 minutes later, checked boarding passes and directed people to one of two lines depending on whether they would board via the front or back staircase. That process was smooth and quick, but there was an important element missing. There was no plane. The final boarding call was made and the gate closed and there was still no plane. That arrived shortly afterwards. Apparently there had been an issue with the paperwork on an earlier flight, which then affected the other flights that were scheduled on this particular plane.
I was impressed with how quickly they got the plane turned around and although they would not have had much time to clean it once everybody was off, it was spotless. We soon were allowed to board and this was a smooth and efficient process as well. The flight was eventless and I spent the whole flight reading. There was a further delay when we got to Amsterdam. First of all, air traffic control directed us to the opposite end of the airport from where we should have landed. Shortly afterwards the pilot made an announcement that due to an incident at the other side of the airport, all the ground handling staff were tied up with this and it would be a little while until somebody would be able to get to us. The pilot kept us updated and had a wicked sense of humour. One advantage of us being at the opposite end of the airport was that rather than disembarking via the stairs, we got off via an air bridge. In the end, even though we had made good time in flight, by the time we were allowed to get off the plane, we were about 90 minutes behind schedule.
Although we transited in Amsterdam a few times, this was the first time that I left the airport. I am not overly keen on this airport, as it looks very stark with little by the way of facilities airside and never-ending corridors. My experience when arriving was not much different either just that there are now extensive building works added to the mix. I must have walked for miles and my Fitbit was most certainly happy. It started buzzing at me before I even got to immigration. Speaking of immigration, this seemed to take forever. As I got closer, I realized why. Only two desks were open. Once it was my turn, I was through very quickly. My passport was just given a passing glance and then I was waived through. I was hoping that the baggage hall would be straight after immigration as this is the case with most airports I have been to, but not here. I had to navigate another set of endless corridors that actually looked like a backstage area rather than something that was built with passengers in mind. Eventually I did make it to the baggage hall and of course the carousel on which our baggage was supposed to arrive was the one furthest away. Still, when I got there, I just saw my suitcase heading towards me. I quickly grabbed it and was on my way out.
Landside looked a lot more inviting. This was bright, airy and modern with a lot of shops, coffee shops and restaurants. I did not stop to have a closer look as at that stage; I just wanted to get to the hotel. I was encouraged by the fact that my hotel was signposted as soon as I came out of the baggage hall and according to a map that I spotted; it is really as close as they advertise. So I made my way there. It was raining pretty heavily when I got out of the airport, but the walkway that links the airport with the hotel has a sunroof over it all the way, which did a great job at keeping the rain off me.
The hotel was a bit of a find. I was looking for a hotel that is close to the airport and did not break the bank. I was originally looking at our crew hotel in Amsterdam, but when I was looking to find out a bit more information about this online, something else caught my eye. CitizenM can only be described as quirky. It is very modern and bright. The rooms looked compact, but have a huge bed and an equally big picture window. The whole concept just appealed to me.
I was not disappointed. When I approached the hotel, it was very red. There were red lights in the entrance area, which made me smile. Straight across from the entrance were the self-service check in desks. This was all very easy until I came to the payment options. There it gave me the option of either paying my credit card, which incurred an additional fee or a type of card I had never heard of. Fortunately a member of staff came to my rescue. The mystery card is a Dutch debit card and after she had a look at my card, she advised me to select this option and it would recognize my UK visa debit card, which it did. Once I paid for the room, it gave me the choice between a city view and an airport view and I went with the airport view. The last step was to take a key card and touch it against a reader to program and activate it. This all worked out pretty well and I was soon on the way to my room. In passing I saw the bar, the restaurant and the living area with loads of different seating options. I had every intention to come back down to explore and take some photos, but this never happened.
My room was pretty close to the lift, but not so close that the noise would have carried. The room was a good size and the bed was absolutely massive. This was right by the window overlooking the runway. The rest of the room was pretty much taken by two pods: one with the toilet and one with the shower. While this open plan arrangement worked perfectly well for me, I don't think it would have worked as well if Graham had been with me.
I took some photos and checked out how everything works. Everything in the room is controlled by an iPad mini, which appealed to me. I played around with the mood lighting for a bit and then I made myself comfortable on the bed and caught up with things online. All the stress suddenly fell off me and I felt completely calm. I did not understand this happy change at first, but then I realized that the room very much had the look and feel of a cruise ship cabin. It was that association that calmed me down.
Around midnight I decided that I better get some sleep. I set my alarm for the next morning, but my gadgets on charge and got ready for bed. It did not take long at all until I was fast asleep.
After still having to work an early shift, my colleague Helen kindly dropped me off at the airport. The first leg of the journey was a normal commercial flight on Easyjet from Manchester to Amsterdam. As for some reason commercial flights were crazy expensive this time, I had decided to brave flying standby. There is an early morning flight from Manchester to Amsterdam that does connect to the Amsterdam Los Angeles flight that I had chosen, but this tends to be very busy and a number of my colleagues have got stuck when they tried to get on this. As I am a terrible standby flyer anyway, I decided to play it as safe as I could.
The check in desks for Easyjet are right next to Emirates at Manchester airport. I bumped into a couple of colleagues that I know and had a brief chat. Then I went over to check in for my flight. Even though it was still about half an hour before baggage drop for my flight was supposed to start, I decide to check if I could already drop off my suitcase. There were plenty of check in agents available and hardly any customers. I was in luck. I was able to drop off my suitcase there and then. Packing my suitcase had been precision work. For that part of the trip, I had 20kg to play with and my suitcase was precisely 20kg. It was just as well that I was nice and early as security was very busy and the lines did not seem to move at all. Still, eventually I was through and I still had enough time to have a quick look at the duty free shop and get some dinner. I did not find anything I wanted to buy. I had been at the airport not long before when I flew out to Dubai and there was nothing new since then. I headed over to where the restaurants are to get something to eat.
I had looked at my options a while ago. As I was coming straight from work and due to the time difference between here and Amsterdam, which meant it would be quite late by the time I arrived, I had decided to get my dinner at the airport. I had chosen a restaurant called Giraffe and had a look at the menu a couple of weeks before I was due to fly. I liked the look of the Huevos Rancheros Mexican Breakfast, which they serve all day. However, when it came down to it, I changed my mind. I rather fancied the "Milanese" Chicken Linguine, which consisted of chicken schnitzel, garlic, slow roasted crushed tomatoes, roasted red peppers, white wine & rocket. So I went with this and had a glass of Coke to wash it down. This was amazing. Even though my food came out really quickly, everything tasted fresh and delicious. I am not a fan of rocket so I took this off, but I did not leave a crumb of anything else. Once I finished my meal, I paid and then headed out to find my gate.
When I looked at the screen, there was still no gate listed, even though boarding was supposed to start very shortly. It soon became obvious that there was a delay and I spent some time looking around some of the other shops and then found a seat near a screen and caught up online. The delay was creeping on and on and eventually we started boarding about an hour later than we should have done. Well, I say started boarding. This was a novel experience. Once the gate was announced, everybody went to line up at the gate. They actually opened the gate about 15 minutes later, checked boarding passes and directed people to one of two lines depending on whether they would board via the front or back staircase. That process was smooth and quick, but there was an important element missing. There was no plane. The final boarding call was made and the gate closed and there was still no plane. That arrived shortly afterwards. Apparently there had been an issue with the paperwork on an earlier flight, which then affected the other flights that were scheduled on this particular plane.
I was impressed with how quickly they got the plane turned around and although they would not have had much time to clean it once everybody was off, it was spotless. We soon were allowed to board and this was a smooth and efficient process as well. The flight was eventless and I spent the whole flight reading. There was a further delay when we got to Amsterdam. First of all, air traffic control directed us to the opposite end of the airport from where we should have landed. Shortly afterwards the pilot made an announcement that due to an incident at the other side of the airport, all the ground handling staff were tied up with this and it would be a little while until somebody would be able to get to us. The pilot kept us updated and had a wicked sense of humour. One advantage of us being at the opposite end of the airport was that rather than disembarking via the stairs, we got off via an air bridge. In the end, even though we had made good time in flight, by the time we were allowed to get off the plane, we were about 90 minutes behind schedule.
Although we transited in Amsterdam a few times, this was the first time that I left the airport. I am not overly keen on this airport, as it looks very stark with little by the way of facilities airside and never-ending corridors. My experience when arriving was not much different either just that there are now extensive building works added to the mix. I must have walked for miles and my Fitbit was most certainly happy. It started buzzing at me before I even got to immigration. Speaking of immigration, this seemed to take forever. As I got closer, I realized why. Only two desks were open. Once it was my turn, I was through very quickly. My passport was just given a passing glance and then I was waived through. I was hoping that the baggage hall would be straight after immigration as this is the case with most airports I have been to, but not here. I had to navigate another set of endless corridors that actually looked like a backstage area rather than something that was built with passengers in mind. Eventually I did make it to the baggage hall and of course the carousel on which our baggage was supposed to arrive was the one furthest away. Still, when I got there, I just saw my suitcase heading towards me. I quickly grabbed it and was on my way out.
Landside looked a lot more inviting. This was bright, airy and modern with a lot of shops, coffee shops and restaurants. I did not stop to have a closer look as at that stage; I just wanted to get to the hotel. I was encouraged by the fact that my hotel was signposted as soon as I came out of the baggage hall and according to a map that I spotted; it is really as close as they advertise. So I made my way there. It was raining pretty heavily when I got out of the airport, but the walkway that links the airport with the hotel has a sunroof over it all the way, which did a great job at keeping the rain off me.
The hotel was a bit of a find. I was looking for a hotel that is close to the airport and did not break the bank. I was originally looking at our crew hotel in Amsterdam, but when I was looking to find out a bit more information about this online, something else caught my eye. CitizenM can only be described as quirky. It is very modern and bright. The rooms looked compact, but have a huge bed and an equally big picture window. The whole concept just appealed to me.
I was not disappointed. When I approached the hotel, it was very red. There were red lights in the entrance area, which made me smile. Straight across from the entrance were the self-service check in desks. This was all very easy until I came to the payment options. There it gave me the option of either paying my credit card, which incurred an additional fee or a type of card I had never heard of. Fortunately a member of staff came to my rescue. The mystery card is a Dutch debit card and after she had a look at my card, she advised me to select this option and it would recognize my UK visa debit card, which it did. Once I paid for the room, it gave me the choice between a city view and an airport view and I went with the airport view. The last step was to take a key card and touch it against a reader to program and activate it. This all worked out pretty well and I was soon on the way to my room. In passing I saw the bar, the restaurant and the living area with loads of different seating options. I had every intention to come back down to explore and take some photos, but this never happened.
My room was pretty close to the lift, but not so close that the noise would have carried. The room was a good size and the bed was absolutely massive. This was right by the window overlooking the runway. The rest of the room was pretty much taken by two pods: one with the toilet and one with the shower. While this open plan arrangement worked perfectly well for me, I don't think it would have worked as well if Graham had been with me.
I took some photos and checked out how everything works. Everything in the room is controlled by an iPad mini, which appealed to me. I played around with the mood lighting for a bit and then I made myself comfortable on the bed and caught up with things online. All the stress suddenly fell off me and I felt completely calm. I did not understand this happy change at first, but then I realized that the room very much had the look and feel of a cruise ship cabin. It was that association that calmed me down.
Around midnight I decided that I better get some sleep. I set my alarm for the next morning, but my gadgets on charge and got ready for bed. It did not take long at all until I was fast asleep.