Travels: BGO to AMS
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2 April 2021 -
Flesland
14:50 I still don't know if I can check my bags through to New York. If I can, then I think I don't have to leave the airport at Schiphol. Again, no one can give me a sure answer on this. Delta, who I booked my flight through, didn't know when I called. KLM, whose plane I'm flying on to Amsterdam, didn't know when I called. The guy giving the antigen coronatests at the airport didn't know. Apparently only when I check my bags and see what the bag tag says will I know. The people who do this will arrive some time in the next half hour. In the mean time I'm sitting with a bunch of Poles waiting. The only other flights this evening are to Oslo and three cities in Poland. We can't get coffee or snacks because none of the shops outside of security are open. The next 30-40 hours of my life are going to be about waiting I guess. Fortunately I brought a book.
16:00 Through security and waiting in the terminal. Best possible scenario. My bag is checked through to the US and I don't have to leave Schiphol tonight - I've reserved a room at a hotel inside the airport. Unfortunately there only thing open in the airport is the Narvesen convenience store. I knew there would be no alcohol because of Norway's ban on serving alcohol in restaurants, but I didn't know that it would be so crazy that nothing was open.
17:10 Weirdly the duty free shop on the way to the gate was open. So I can buy alcohol there, but not a decent meal. Unless one counts candy as a decent meal. Government regulations are so ridiculous sometimes. I'll have to survive on the roastbeef sandwich I got at Narvesen, because unless the flight is on time I will miss the 20:00 closing time of restaurants in Schiphol listed on the website. But who can trust websites for open hours these days. The Netherlands has an alcohol ban after 20:00 and and a curfew after 21:45, so I guess I'll be turning in early. I have a coupon for this great steak place in Amsterdam that I stopped at on my way to Firenze in 2019 that I thought I'd use on my next long layover there, but that just isn't going to happen this trip.
Side note - StackOverflow has the best April Fool's joke.
17:44 A view of Flesland from the air:
19:30 We actually landed in Schiphol 15 minutes early thanks to tailwinds and almost no other air traffic. The airport here is actually relatively busy. It's not 2019 again, but many of the shops are open (not Starbucks, however) and the restaurants too. I was able to order a beer and a burger - something I'm not free to do in Norway these days. Het Palais is my usual haunt because it's close to the international terminal. It's strange what parts of Schengen many European countries have deigned to keep. No customs. No verification of corona tests to enter the airport. I guess they trust the airlines. Still, there's one set of rules for coming to the airport and a stricter one for "entering" the Netherlands. I'm curious to see if this extra standard is actually enforced, but of course I don't want to risk going out. Pandemic theater is as opaque as the Soviet Union was, always waiting to see how the many conflicting rules would actually be applied to you. I ate my lunch today from a bowl made in the USSR.
21:00 I had to go through customs to reach my hotel, which I guess is good because I don't have to worry about it in the morning. I forgot to print out my work permit from UDI, so they took me aside while I found the PDF in my email. Always have to remember to bring enough papers for bureaucrats. After checking into my hotel I perused a nice little museum of Dutch paintings there in the airport. photos
