This is one of a series of entries about my trip to Europe in August.
Travel:Flying –
Martinair flight 820, which was originally scheduled to depart Vancouver at 7:45 pm Aug 11, finally left at 2:15 am. Arrived
Schiphol airport at approximately 8:30 pm (not too sure about the time, was still half-asleep) on Aug 12.
Trains –
Nederlandse Spoorwegen. Schiphol to Apeldoorn to Zutphen to Lochem, a 2-hour trip with 2 connections.
Sleeping and Accommodations:
Aug 11-12: Seat 16A (window) forward of the wing. I actually managed to sleep almost the entire flight due to paying for an upgrade to Martinair’s Comfort class to secure a window seat, being really tired (2:15 am departure time), darkness (pulled down window shade and put a blanket over my head), quiet (earplugs) and two
Melatonin.
Observations - 1:The Martinair flight attendants wear uniforms with a retro look right out of the 1960’s.
Observations - 2:
Umbrellas are highly recommended in Amsterdam. My brother, whose flight arrived about 8 hours before mine, decided to venture forth into Amsterdam instead of spending the entire time at the airport waiting for me. It rained. He got wet. By the time I emerged from the baggage collection area and met him, he was looking bedraggled, sleep deprived and slightly lost. His Eurail pass had also gone for a swim in a puddle but we managed to separate and dry out the pages before they all glued themselves together.
Observations - 3:
The
ticket machines for trains out of Schiphol airport accept several different forms of payment. A normal traveler from Canada with a wallet full of credit cards, debit cards and paper Euros possesses none of those acceptable forms of payment. However, the nice gentleman at the Nederlandse Spoorwegen Information & Services counter was very willing to accept any of the forms of payment in my wallet in return for train tickets. He also printed out what proved to be an extremely useful itinerary with track numbers and train connections for where we wanted to go.
Observations - 4:
Midnight in
Lochem. Stay tuned, someday I may write a story about our adventures after disembarking the
Syntus stoptrein at Lochem Station on our way to
Landgoed Ruighenrode. For now, let’s just say the train station is in the middle of nowhere, it was dark, not all telephones operate as expected, my suitcase has very annoying noisy wheels when dragged over cobblestones, happy drunks can not be relied upon to give good directions, and church steeples make brilliant landmarks.
