The queue had already built up and we took our places, resigned to the wait. The airport staff were kind enough to bring a trolley around intermittently with tea,coffee and biscuits. Tracy joined the queue and Della enjoyed the freedom of being able to escape the queue and run errands for people.
We got to chat with our fellow queuees, swapping stories of how we got to this point in the volcano adventure. One lady in the queue was trying to make her way to the North Pole! Travellers who had been touring Europe and wanted to get back to the US and Canada were trying to get trains to other parts of Europe to make the journey quicker than waiting at Amsterdam.
Some enterprising young people hired a minibus and were going around with signs trying to fill the bus. Whilst in the queue someone told us that they were now releasing suitcases and directed me to a door back into the airport terminal our passports and luggage tickets. I went through a door into an office where our passports and tickets were checked, I was then directed into the baggage claim area of the airport. After describing our cases, I was given a reference and told to return in 2 hours, hopefully by then our bags would have been found! Another tincy wincy step forward.
Della rejoined the queue with Tracy waiting for the train tickets and in 2 hours went back to see if the cases were there. They were and it was with great delight that she wheeled them out of the empty customs area to rejoin the train queue. This caused a mass exodus to the baggage claim area. We had finally done something before everyone else and got ahead of the game for once.
We managed to get two train tickets and after an hour wait in the sun, eating our lunch amongst the tulips,
we boarded the train with all of our luggage and sat down to enjoy the journey to Paris. We had made it out of Amsterdam and were in control of our destiny once again.
Some enterprising young people hired a minibus and were going around with signs trying to fill the bus. Whilst in the queue someone told us that they were now releasing suitcases and directed me to a door back into the airport terminal our passports and luggage tickets. I went through a door into an office where our passports and tickets were checked, I was then directed into the baggage claim area of the airport. After describing our cases, I was given a reference and told to return in 2 hours, hopefully by then our bags would have been found! Another tincy wincy step forward.
Della rejoined the queue with Tracy waiting for the train tickets and in 2 hours went back to see if the cases were there. They were and it was with great delight that she wheeled them out of the empty customs area to rejoin the train queue. This caused a mass exodus to the baggage claim area. We had finally done something before everyone else and got ahead of the game for once.
We managed to get two train tickets and after an hour wait in the sun, eating our lunch amongst the tulips,
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