Welcome to our 2023 vacation series of blogs. This year, we flew to Europe and took an amazing Viking RIver Cruise that began in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and ended up in Basel, Switzerland (though we never got to actually tour it... you'll learn why at the end of the series about 50 plus blogs from now). Today's blog is about the "fun" of air travel to Amsterdam from Baltimore, Maryland.
FLIGHTS - Viking arranged the flights for us, and they were included in the cost of the cruise, which was nice. We just upgraded to Premium Economy, so we had legroom and the ability to sleep if we could (we couldn't).
FLIGHT #1 - Our flight from Baltimore to JFK Airport in NYC was short, and the layover was about 5 Hours. That was tedious.
AIRPORT ENTERTAINMENT - At least we found a Dunkin Donuts for lunch, and we had fun exploring the NYC Lego store which had some pretty cool LEGO displays.
One of the LEGO displays was of the Empire State Building, so we took a picture in front of it. Another was a jungle with a figure of Dr. Jane Goodall, who studied apes in Africa. They were innovative and cool.
(Photos: Tom and Rob in the JFK Lego store)
FLIGHT #2 - This flight was nice, but long. They served food, and we had the ability to either nap (which neither of us could) or watch movies or read. I read comic books I packed, and a novel. I also opted to watch the 1992 movie "Batman Returns" with Michael Keaton as Batman, since he'll reprise his role as the character in this summer's movie "The Flash." - Batman Returns was dark, gloomy and well, awful. Worse than I remembered it.
Tom watched 2 movies (maybe 3) and enjoyed the food. But we were Exhausted beyond belief when we got to our destination. The flight was 6 1/2 hours. It arrived in Amsterdam at around 6 a.m. their time (which was Midnight our time). Customs was easy there. SO unlike Customs in Chicago when we returned (we flew through there), but that's a future blog.
AIRPORT PICK-UP - You can pay to have a driver from Viking to meet you at the airport, which we did. It made it easier. We were both so wasted from almost 20 hours of no sleep.
WHAT TO DO AT 6:30AM on a SUNDAY IN AMSTERDAM? - Nothing! When the driver dropped us at the docked ship, the driver said "You can tour the city, but it's Sunday and it's 6:30am and nothing is open." So we went on the ship and asked about the room. They said it would be ready at 3pm and we could sit in the lounge as the other passengers (from the previous cruise) disembarked. We sat in the lounge, nodding off and on- and finally at 11:30 a.m. someone from the ship told us the room was ready early. We promptly took a nap.
NEXT: Touring Amsterdam Part 1
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