Stranded at Amsterdam Airport - Day 2

By 4am we were in the 'zone of all knowledge' T6 being confronted with a queue of people waiting for the desk to open, apparently at 6am, when they had been told, the staff would be helping them to book new flights.

So we joined the queue. 6am came and went and when the staff did appear we were told that nothing would be happening until 2pm when they may have more information.

Today no vouchers would be forthcoming, there was some bottled water to he had, and we would not be allowed to have our suitcases back, they would be sent, whenever the time came, on to our final destination, Bristol Airport, not Heaven presumably.

We took our trolleys and wandered around, luckily bumping into some friendly KLM staff issuing water and cheese rolls, also disposable nappies, which we declined for the time being.

We managed to secure a couple of recliner type chairs where we parked ourselves and whilst Della snoozed happily, Tracy managed to book us 9hrs in the transit hotel area from 12 noon until 9pm.
This meant we could have a shower and a bed, albeit a single, for a much needed rest.

She also went out to forage some toothpaste, brushes and a deodorant. We too would be one of the few here that gave off a nice smell when they walked past.

Della snoozed on and Tracy managed to book us a room in an hotel, outside of the airport, for tomorrow night, what bliss. This means we can have a look around Amsterdam tomorrow and pretend we are tourists after sleeping properly.

We will even be able to buy some clean socks, mine ran off down the corridor the minute I took them off, and other items of undergarments.

After our lovely sleep, and a shower, we left the little cell like room to see what had been happening whilst we were away.

It was 9pm and the bedding down routine, now much more organised was in progress. Proper warm blankets and pillows had been issued, big cheese rolls and water bottles had been dished out, and everyone looked more relaxed. All European airports were closed until at least 1am Saturday.

The rest of the airport was almost deserted, when I went off to find a coffee shop I felt like a survivor of a devastating world event, and when I did see someone else, scuffing along, with a glazed look in their eye, I felt like rushing up to them, but I resisted.

Our body clocks are still on Pacific time (GMT-8hrs) so we were able to handle the night shift with ease. We had the seating areas pretty much to ourselves so we were able to plug in our lap tops (plugs are a scarce resource during the day) and catch up on the blog also speak to everyone on Skpe etc.

We are becoming worryingly like bag ladies with our trolleys of treasures. We have bottles of water and hoard them whenever the opportunity arises, we also do the same with blankets and free cheese roll handouts. We know where the drop off points are for handouts and we are not ashamed to ask anyone in a KLM uniform if they've "got any change mister" !!

After hogging the power points for a brazen amount of time, we gave into the manacing computer nerds hovering ever closer and found a couple of recliner chairs, with power point as luck would have it.

Tracy didn't get as much sleep as me in our cosy cell, so she has dropped off with the other refugees whilst I am wide awake and catching up with the blog.

It is amazing how many styles of snoring there are and very strange to be so close to total strangers whilst they are asleep.

It is 5am, in a totally quiet airport, with just a few people wandering around. Very strange.

It is most inconvenient to us but there are people who are trying to get to weddings, holidays, disabled and elderly people lying on uncomfortable beds, people with young children. Everyone seems to have resigned themselves to the fact that we are stuck for the time being.