Eastern Europe Research Trip — Flight Day
The first day of our trip, Neil and I leave home at noon, and on our way to the airport we stop at our local Main Street Cafe to have lunch. An easy beginning!
Then we drive a short 12 miles to our local airport, Chippewa International and board the flight to Detroit Metro Airport:
(Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport/ Photo Attribution:Aaron Headly from Ann Arbor, Michigan, licensed under the Creative Commons 2.0 Generic License.)
We have a short layover, and then we board Delta Flight 134 for Amsterdam. The great thing about flying to Europe from Michigan is the overnight red eye flight. I know most people don’t like red eye flights, but I’m a fan. Here’s why:
1. Food service isn’t limited to soda pop and pretzels. Even though we fly economy, they serve a supper shortly after we get on the plane.
2. Larger planes have plug-ins at each seat so I can read my ebook to my heart’s content and not run down my battery.
3. On oversea flights Delta offers a wide selection of free movies with screens located on the back of each seat. (Being short, I can’t see those movies that are projected on an above-the-aisle screens.)
4. They shut down the lights at about 9 p.m. What better way to shorten a long flight than to sleep through it!
About eight hours later we land at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, 8 a.m. their time. (I’ve heard the name pronounced skip-hole and ship-hole. I’m not sure which is correct.) Schiphol is one of my favorite airports in the world. They even have a public library there!
Attribution: Vysotsky (Wikimedia)
However, this stay was not quite so sweet when we discovered that a computer back home had printed out a receipt for the final leg of our journey rather than a boarding pass for me, and I couldn’t get on the plane to our destination city — Budapest, Hungary. Yikes!
The great news is that my husband is pilot and pretty savvy about airports and airplane flights! While he tackled the red tape folks, I practiced my stiff upper lip speech, “You go on without me, Honey. I’ll live for ten days at the Schiphole Airport. I’ll eat donuts, drink coffee, and read the Duty Free shopping guides…
A half hour later, back he comes with my boarding pass to Budapest in his hand. Hooray!! We’re on our way!
Tomorrow I’ll meet you in Budapest!
Happy Traveling,
Sue
Thank you, Ans!!!
Not the type of adventure you were looking for, but looks like it all turned out ok. Have a fun, safe trip. Looking forward to reading further posts.
Dear travelers,
I love the way you let us go with you on this journey. The conversation about schiphol made me grin…. just the way I would have explain it to you.
Lucky your husband has some influence and gained you a proper boarding pass. You must be very tired right now.
Save travels and enjoy yourself, Ans
So there you have it, Jackie!! According to my DNA test I’m 11% Irish, so that must be what it is. We can’t say the Dutch g so we say k instead!! 😉
your welcome Sue… skipple is how my Irish pronounce Schiphol …. every time he tries to pronounce the ch I giggle…. :)))
Hooray!! Thank you for the pronunciation help!! So as an English speaker, I would probably say “skipple,” which wouldn’t be exactly right, but closer than I was. And I like plane food, too!! 🙂
hahahahaha…. I can totally imagine the whole scene Sue!….
I also love all the plane things you describe, I even love plane food 🙂
In holland we pronounce ‘ch’ as a Dutch ‘g’ … which is totally natural to me but to you and all the other non-Dutch speakers; it is a harsh guttural sound. a bit like the ‘g’ in gggggrrrrrrrrrrrr (like a tiger). The ‘i’ is like the ‘i’ in with. pol sounds like the end of the word apple, just without the a.
I hope that makes sense.