“Bam!”—the sound of lightning slapping our 787. I know I have been on airplanes experiencing lightning strikes before, but this was a loud one. “No worries” announced the flight attendant in her pleasant Dutch accent, so I don’t. The Boeing’s doors remain attached and we are at 37,000 feet and heading to Amsterdam.
Our destination should have been Abu Dhabi, but the mullahs had other plans for the Middle East. So it’s to be two short cruises in the Low Countries and on the Seine River respectively instead. The territory isn’t new to us, of course, but there will be several new sites we’ve not visited before and a repeat of several destinations always worth revisiting. After all, the tulips are blooming in Holland and spargel is in season.
Even the fact that our KLM aircraft took off an hour late is of no concern to us. It’s a nonstop flight and we’ll be getting into Amsterdam too early for a hotel room regardless.
So what is the plan? Two nights in Amsterdam to start with, followed by eight days on the Monarch Express, visiting sites in Holland and Belgium. We’ll be river and canal cruising courtesy of Gate1 Travel, a company we last patronized nearly two decades ago. We’ll then be bused to Paris, with a mid-day stop in Brussels. Our five nights in Paris will be split between two hotels, for reasons I’ll explain when we finally get there. Then it’ll be eight days on the Scenic Gem, traveling to Normandy and back. For this portion of the trip we’ll be joined by Brian and Karen McKenna. Then it’ll be two flights home as we’re still waiting for the promised nonstop route between Austin and Paris. If we’re lucky, we’ll return in time to see the bluebirds fledge from our backyard’s birdhouse and discover how many of the tomatoes have been eaten by the deer. They’ve already munched our newly planted front porch shrubs nearly to the ground. Maybe there will be a new fawn or two around to compensate.
By the way, KLM’s menu for the flight was promising. The reality as delivered? Let’s just say that the Rice Chex we were once offered on a domestic flight would have been an acceptable alternative—for both the supper and breakfast meals. Our inevitable weight gain while traveling will have to wait for the spargel.
It took us a good two and a half hours to get out of Schiphol Airport. Most of it was waiting to get through passport control. At times there but one official handling a line of hundreds of us. (Friend Brian is laughing as he reads this. With their Irish passports, Brian and Karen would have skipped through the EU portal in minutes—but then would have had to wait the several hours for the rest of us to catch up for our group transport to the hotel.)
Our lodging, the Hotel Jakarta, is interesting in its design and layout—a “v”-shaped structure of eight or nine floors, surrounding an impressive atrium/arboretum with trees and vines to the ceiling. The décor is wood and Scandinavian minimalist, with rooms both efficient and sub-optimal in some practical amenities, such as sufficient towel bars and hooks and nearly unusable drawers. There is nothing in or near the shower, for instance, on which to hang one’s towel or bathrobe. But I complain too easily. It’s comfortable and the coffee machine works, if you run it enough times to get a decently sized cup of coffee.
Consistent with the hotel’s name, the main restaurant features Indonesian dishes. We selected and shared several for dinner. It was quite good. We (OK, I) asked for a side order of white asparagus (the above mentioned “spargel”). This dish was attractive to look at but, alas, didn’t live up to our expectations. We’ll try again some other occasion. I should add the breakfast offerings were excellent, from the salmon eggs benedict to the croissants.
For many of our fellow guests, that first afternoon was spent exploring Amsterdam. As both Frances and I struggle with recovering from long flights, we rested up instead. The next morning we toured outer Amsterdam by bus and followed that up with a barge trip through some of the inner-city canals. I say “some” as historic Amsterdam has more canals than streets. These tours were all part of our Gate1 pre-cruise itinerary.
Meanwhile, we’ve made reservations at a restaurant a healthy walk from the hotel. Most of the less distant recommended eateries are closed Mondays. We’ll decide on Uber or a walking return after we eat. — We’re now back from the walk. It was worth the walk, in both directions I’d like to point out. The restaurant, “Fosco”, is a “comfy” bar and diner with the ambience of a place for locals. Many of the patrons and the staff seemed to know each other. The food was good and the wait staff friendly. For sure we were the only Americans and, perhaps, the only non-locals.
For the next post, I promise more pictures and fewer words, although I assume all my readers have come to tolerate my logic-defining blend of the past, present and even future tense, sometimes in one sentence. We came, we are seeing, and we will conquer (our jet lag)—if we get enough rest.
