Holland Part One

My trip to Holland with my Mother in law, Marlene, started off with a lot of stress because of an issue with my plane ticket. Nathan had booked my ticket under my maiden name, but quickly called KLM (airline) to fix it and they said they did. When I got an email to sign in, my name was Sanderse, when I tried to check in at the kiosk, it was Sanderse, but after waiting nearly an hour in the KLM customer service line, they told me that the official ticket was still Sanderse. A manager was able to come over and fix the boarding pass (although the delay in checking in meant that we lost our paid for, reserved seats and that Marlene and I wouldn't be able to sit together) and assured me that it was fixed so that I wouldn't have this same issue on my return trip (SPOILER ALERT: The manager was wrong).

I am a nervous flyer and this was my first time in a nearly 500 passenger plane. It was so big and I was really nervous but the flight was smooth an uneventful. There was one steward who was really rude to the elderly lady sitting beside me who was hard of hearing and after nearly shouting and swearing at her (for not understanding him, "What ____ planet are you from?!?") but that was the only bump on the plane.

Our plane left at 5:30pm on Sunday from Toronto and after a 7.5 hour flight, we arrived at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands at 6am. We weren't able to sleep on the plane because there were two meals served, plus people moving around and lights were on, so we lost an entire night of sleep.

On a positive note, the food and drinks on the plane were really good.

We quickly got our luggage when the plane landed and then put in it lockers at the airport so that we could take a bus directly from the airport to Keukenhof, the acclaimed tulip gardens in the Netherlands. The early spring had caused an early bloom and so we decided (last minute) to move the tulips to the beginning of our trip instead of the end. We arrived nearly two hours before the first bus arrived so we picked up a coffee at Starbucks, bought train passes and a cell phone chip, then got in line for the gardens.

It was cloudy but it only began to drizzle as we were preparing to leave. The grounds were lovely and it wasn't too busy so we could take our time. Tulips are my favorite type of flowers and I loved seeing the different varieties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had soup and a sandwich at one of the restaurants on the grounds and then wandered through the indoor exhibits before getting back on the bus to the airport. We picked up our suitcases and then caught the train (from the airport) to Kampen (with a train switch in Zwolle). Our hotel was about a mile from the train station, so we had to pull our suitcases through the town, on cobblestone streets, to our destination.

Kampen was the location of our first hotel/ B and B, located at 36 Graafschap Street. The first thing I noticed on this trip was how houses come right up to the sidewalk and everyone has their blinds open. It's very strange how close everything is together.

 

Here is our room at the hotel. It had a bathroom and small kitchenette with a microwave, toaster, mini-fridge, and coffeemaker.


We arrived before all the stores close for the day (5pm) so we were able to go to the grocery store and pick up items to get us through our four days in Kampen. We had simple dinner, and then decided that since we'd been up for over 30 hours, we needed to get to bed since we had a big day ahead of us. We were in our beds and asleep by 8pm. Thank goodness for black out curtains!