July 29 - Almost Home

(Gene) Well, with maybe 4 hrs of sleep we are off on our way back home. It was very hot & muggy last evening. Therefore, we had all of our room windows opened. This helped somewhat. But, it also allowed all the noises from the street level to come into our room as well as the outside air.

As John has previously mentioned, Amsterdam is densly populated. Therefore , all the various city noises continue throughout the wee hours of the morning.

After an easy walk this morning to the Central train station and a quick train trip, we arrived at Schipol airport. It is huge. It is laid out well and we had no troubles maneuvering around.

There were lots of security stops. I liked them. We must have had at least 10 people check our boarding pass and passport before we got to our seat on an Airbus 320. Having the extra security stops did not seem to slow the process down. I did not feel any inconvenience with the entire procedure.

Once onboard, I noticed that the British Midlands plane was only about 70% full. Therefore, John and I moved so that we both had window seats with no other folks in either of our rows. I was very surprised that for a 45 minute flight we were served not only a beverage but a light breakfast too. It was pannini bread with an egg omlette inside. I had mushroom and egg. John had ham, cheese ang egg. It was just what I needed.

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We have made it to our gate at London's Heathrow airport. I thought Schipol was big! Heathrow is much bigger with 425,000 flights a year. It is quite a maze of terminals, passageways, etc. Luckily, it is very well marked. Even though it seemed to take a long time to move about the airport, my travel motto has always been "pack your patience." People traveling through Heathrow need to include 2 hours just for moving about and checking in. We were fortunate since we were not leaving the airport. If we had, that would have added more time as it would have required a trip through Customs and Immigration too. Now we sit and wait for our 777 to arrive. Then we are off to Chicago!!!
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I actually slept a bit on the plane. I have never been able to before. It was not a lot of time. But, I feel somewhat refreshed.

We were served lunch. I had a tastey chicken dish and John chose beef. I understand that before we land we will have a light snack. Overall, I have been very pleased of the food onboard American Airlines. I am sure I would have enjoyed Business Class even more. Oh well. Maybe on the next trip.

Seattle, here we come.