After completing the night shift we decamped at around 5am trying to keep quiet for the remaining sleepers.
We went in search of a cafe for some breakfast of something other than bread and cheese. We found a nice little bistro serving from 6am. It was lucky that we arrived when we did, as after placing our order of scrambled eggs on toast, fresh orange juice and coffee, there was a huddle in the kitchen consisting of men in suites and waiters. We were then advised that after our order was produced the kitchen would be closing down as the bistro would have to shut due to insufficient customers. The airport now had a McDonalds and a sandwich bar open...... we had to get out of here.
We took our time over our hot breakfast and then went to sit down in another lounge where we had spied some outlet plugs, WITH adapters to convert our 3 pin plugs, these seats were the holy grail of seats and we were up early enough to nab them. We were circled a few times by hopeful laptop owners, thinking that they would pressure us to move on, but we stood our be ground, only one plucky man had the nerve to ask if we would be long, but when we said yes we would be ages, he reluctantly moved on, just popping back every now and again to see if we had changed our minds.
We watched a couple of comedy programmes on the BBC iplayer until a more civilized time of day. After chatting to a lady who had asked us to watch her bags whilst she went to queue for her hand out roll, we discovered that a group of security men were going around asking people what there situation was, could they afford a hotel, etc,etc, with a view to taking this information to the mayor of Schipol who was considering shelling out for accommodation. As unlikely as this may sound to you, in the real world, this information sent Della off searching for said posse,to make sure we would be given a sticker to say we had been surveyed.
She didn't find them, but did get a rare opportunity to see the information desk actually manned and with no queue. Not wanting to pass up such an opportunity she asked the desk if we would be allowed to leave the airport and, more importantly, get back in. The answer was definitely "Yes" We would not be able to have our suitcases, these would be sent on to Bristol.
We booked an hotel with a free shuttle bus to the airport and checked in about 2pm. We then came back to the airport, we did not want to be too far away from the source of knowledge. We bought some toothpaste,toothbrushes and other essentials as well as some new pants and socks.
We visited the train ticket office, (there was no queue here so we thought it would be novel), to find out where the trains from Amsterdam went, and were advised that we could get to Paris from here. Excellent, we thought..... only to be told for international tickets we would need to join the huge queue on our right. As the desk was closing in an hour and the queue was 5 deep and out of the terminal doors, we decided to come back bright and early tomorrow. The desk opened at 6.30am.
Back at our hotel we enjoyed a hot meal and a comfy bed.
She didn't find them, but did get a rare opportunity to see the information desk actually manned and with no queue. Not wanting to pass up such an opportunity she asked the desk if we would be allowed to leave the airport and, more importantly, get back in. The answer was definitely "Yes" We would not be able to have our suitcases, these would be sent on to Bristol.
We booked an hotel with a free shuttle bus to the airport and checked in about 2pm. We then came back to the airport, we did not want to be too far away from the source of knowledge. We bought some toothpaste,toothbrushes and other essentials as well as some new pants and socks.
We visited the train ticket office, (there was no queue here so we thought it would be novel), to find out where the trains from Amsterdam went, and were advised that we could get to Paris from here. Excellent, we thought..... only to be told for international tickets we would need to join the huge queue on our right. As the desk was closing in an hour and the queue was 5 deep and out of the terminal doors, we decided to come back bright and early tomorrow. The desk opened at 6.30am.
Back at our hotel we enjoyed a hot meal and a comfy bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment