Day in Luxembourg
The Saarburg festival provides a direct bus service from the Luxembourg Findel airport to the festival. Saarburg is pretty small, but it DOES actually have a train station. Last year, since Dr. Parker-Harley knew how to navigate the bus and train system, we took a bus and then the train to Saarburg ... but we had an hour layover wait at a very deserted train stop. This year, I opted for the bus, even though it was a little pricier, because it was a 30-minute ride directly to Saarburg and they could drop us off directly at our hotel. It was so convenient.
For the return trip, there were supposed to be 2 buses: an afternoon bus and a morning bus, but since there were only five of us signed up for the afternoon bus, we all decided to take the morning bus to the airport. A handful of people didn't fly out until the next morning, and were going to wander around Luxembourg for the day. Since my flight didn't leave til 6:30 pm, I decided to join them. We walked around part of the historic district of Luxembourg City, where I took enough pictures to make up for the fact that I took zero pictures the entire week. It was so nice to get out and walk before being cooped up in aeroplanes for so long.
LUX --> AMS 6:30 pm
AMS --> DTW 8:15 am
We landed around 7:20 pm, so I settled in for the long layover...
Layover in Amsterdam
It turns out I don't particularly mind overnight layovers, if it's here in Amsterdam or another airport that has in-terminal Hotels for not very expensive. I stayed in a place called Yotel, which is very compact and efficient. I think is is probably more cost effective if you only stay there for a nap, but it sure was nice to have a semblance of shower and rest time. I took my shoes off and napped on and off for a few hours, which was glorious. The best part was the fact that it was AFTER you go through security in the airport, so I didn't have to leave the airport to be able to sleep. From now on, overnight layover/in-terminal hotel will be a definite consideration of booking flights.
4:33 am
After a few 1-hour segments of sleep since I was worried about oversleeping my alarm, the alarm went off, during the time, of course, when I really was finally enjoying being asleep instead of fitfully napping.
4:45 am: Breakfast, delivered to the room
Breakfast consisted of very well-done (read: dry and crispy but warm) croissants and pastries, some orange juice, and a cup of coffee. It could have been better, but it could have been much worse! It was also nice that they brought it to my room -- I'd never had room service before! It was also very nice not to have to make decisions that early in the morning, since I had ordered it when I checked in.
5:15 am
I left a little too early from the hotel room -- I didnt' know how long it would be to walk through the terminal, so I gave myself almost an hour and a half before boarding to leave. Turns out, it only took 10 minutes to walk, because I didn't have to go through security again -- that will be after they call us for our seats, I think.
I was walking here to this section of the airport, and kind of got to watch the airport wake up. It turns out I started walking even before the flight crews and workers arrived, because I think all of them passed me on the moving sidewalks as I walked here.
Right when I got here, the last few workers were arriving. Most of them, when they passed me, were talking amongst themselves, in what I presume is Dutch. One particular gentleman, however, told me good morning, then proceeded to ask if I had a parachute in my backpack! It was quite amusing. I replied, "No, though I suppose it's big enough for that, isn't it?" His next question, "Are you in the Army?" I told him no...this is just what I prefer to use, since the smaller backpack could connect to the bigger one. He kinda laughed, "Wow, so it can be an even BIGGER backpack?!" I said, "Yes! It's silly." He replied, "See you soon!"
I sat in one of the closer rows of seats, and watched the workers set up the somewhat random-looking customs checkpoint. It was basically a square with podiums in different places, then farther back, the beginning of the line for the security screening. The plane wasn't even here yet at that point, so I took pictures of it rolling up. It wasn't until they called for people to come up and go through security screening that I figured out just how well the system would work. They had a "gate monitor" -- basically the person's only job was to get the next person in line and tell them which customs agent to see. Then, the customs agent pointed you in the next direction, to the security screening line. It looked a little chaotic from the outside, but from the inside worked great.
Amsterdam also didn't make us take off our shoes. The first time I flew through there -- on the way to Luxembourg this year -- I took off my shoes and the security screening guy goes, "Why do you do that? They aren't metal, only metal objects you take off." Haha. Good to know!
This plane was the A330, I do believe, which is similar to the MD11 in size and passenger capacity. Very comfortable, which was a good thing since we would be in our seats for a very long time. Partway through the flight, one of the flight attendants started having a medical emergency of some kind. They called for a doctor or nurse to come to the back of the aircraft at one point, then about 20-30 minutes later, called for the same person to come to the front of the plane. We ended up having to land in Iceland so the lady could go to the hospital. Hopefully she is ok -- I talked to one lady who was a nurse and had seen her, and while she didn't mention what she thought was the problem, she did say that she thought the lady would be ok, but that she definitely had needed a hospital to treat the problem. At any rate, it was an...interesting experience which hopefully helped the lady become healthy again.
approximately 11:45 am, EST
The landing in Iceland only put us one hour late landing. This was fine, since I had a 4-hour layover. Lots of customs lines to go through, so by the time I navigated everything, I had one whole hour to wait. That was just the perfect amount of time to tell all interested parties about my safe arrival in the U.S, and it was off to the last flight. (Hmm...looking back on this, it doesn't seem correct, but I don't remember the actual times anymore. So, we will go with this.)
approximately 4:35 pm, EST
It was SO nice to be back...or at least not on airplanes any more! Whew.
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