Arrived

I arrived without incident on Wednesday at noon local time. The flight, though long and mostly sleepless, was enjoyable. Thanks to it being paid for by my husbands company, I was flying first class.

Complaint:
How come people can't follow directions? When the flight staff called for first class, those in rows 1 - 7, about 100 people gathered around the line. I was thinking, this can't all be the first class people. She repeatedly turned people away saying rows 1-7 only. She kept shouting, rows 1-7 only. After about the 5th time she said this, I heard someone say, "Not the Elite status?." No, rows 1 - 7 only. How difficult is that.

They feed you a 5 course meal over the first 2 hours of the flight. We started with something to drink when we were taking our seats, I got a sprite. A pillow, blanket, and headphones lay in the seats already. They passed out ammenities kits and menus while we were getting situated. The kits had everything from earplugs to toothpast and a toothbrush. I chose the pasta dish as my entree. When we got in the air, they came around with a steamed washcloth to wash our hands and face before dinner. Then dinner started with appetizers: a grilled shrimp on a skewer, a beef pastry with mustard sauce, and a small cup of mushroom soup. All delicious. Then they brought around the salad. I also tried a bordeaux red wine with the meal. It was good, but I've not yet aquired a taste for wine, so I only managed about half a dozen sips before returning to my water. The entree I chose was cheese tortelini with marinara sauce. After dinner the cheese and wine cart came around. Then the desert was 3 different small pastries, and a ice cream sundae. I skipped the sundae because I was already full. The meal was very enjoyable experience, and the staff was very courteous.

We had our own tv monitors to watch the assortment of channels playing the movies and tv programs. I watched a movie during dinner, and then switched to my ipod to try to get some sleep. I only slept for a few hours, and then returned to watching movies. I think I was just too anxious to get here.

Breakfast was served an hour before the end of the 10 hour flight. When we landed I was the first off the plane, as I was closest to the exit. The signs all had pictures of baggage, bathrooms, trains...so it was very simple to find my way out of the airport. Customs was simple. They only looked at my passport and stamped it, they didn't even ask me any questions.

I went to the train ticket counter and paid 22 Euros for a ticket to Hengelo where Barry was picking me up. The train was easy to find, but managing the baggage on the train was another story. You step up into the train into an outer compartment which I managed just fine. Then there was a very narrow doorway into the compartment where the seats were. So I had to lift my 26" suitcase sideways through that door, also carrying my 21" suitcase through the door behind me. And the door is like on an elevator, it keeps trying to shut automatically unless you hold it back.

The conductor told me that I had to change cars in about 1/2 hour in order to go to my destination. Apparently, the train would split in 2. So I had to again heft my luggage off the train and back on.

About 15 minutes from my destination, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. They made an announcement, and I asked some students sitting by me if they could translate. It was a problem with the brakes. Some of the students sitting in the opposite seats started playing their mp3 players (one was a pink ipod nano) out loud, and it was songs I was very familiar with from the states. They were singing along in perfect English too.

One of the young men helped me by carrying my large suitcase off the train, since he was disembarking as well. Barry was there, waiting for me. Our first stop was in an electronics store on our way to the parking lot, where I bought a hair dryer. It's easier to just buy a cheap one here, because the plugs are different. We do have an adapter that we use for the laptop and other items we charge.

The apartment is 2 bedroom 2 bath, and about the size of a small dorm room apartment. One of the rooms has 2 twin beds that are separated, and the other has 2 twin beds pushed together. The kitchenette in the living room has a sink, microwave, burners, small refrigerator, and cabinets with dishes. There's a small table with chairs, small tv, chair, and sofa. The balcony window is floor to ceiling across the entire wall, with dark blue curtains.

Barry says it looks like they bought everything from Ikea...of which there's a huge store about 10 minutes away. (Ikea is Swedish)

More later on my impressions of Nederland. All in all it was a good trip.