Amsterdam 20.4.26
Today was one of those days – with the problems starting on Sunday evening when we discovered messages advising that our KLM flight this morning was not flying. By the time we saw the messages we had also been advised that we would be flying BA a little later than planned. However KLM use T4 and BA uses T5; the parking booking needed changing and we are now heading for pod parking arriving so early inside T5 that security has not yet been unsecured (4:30am for future reference).
BA get us away more or less on time to deliver us into the next hell hole – Amsterdam Schipol. We head towards immigration and after several attempts I manage to register my passport and fingerprints on the new terminals needed to enter Schengen territory. It was so much easier arriving at Hoek of Holland by ferry in 1976. We are then split without any explanation into “Route 1” and “Route 2”. Both routes are placed into holding zones – apparently because one of the two downward escalators is not working so the people flow has to he regulated. After a while the powers that be decided we could not go that way and led across the terminal to another set of stairs which did not really indicate where route 1 or route 2 people should go. Eventually route 1 goes to machines which appear to scan passport (success), take a picture (success) and fingerprints – three attempts and then rejected and put into route 2 in which you get to meet a border guard.
Fill up the queues further along we are advised at high volume. Then all the difficult cases (4) are brought to the officer in the booth for which I am queueing – which for Jackie who managed to get through route 1 means increasing worry as I have disappeared into nothingness. Eventually I reach the officer and I am asked where I am going – well Amsterdam – I am here. I am advised that is not an appropriate answer as I am in transfers and MUST be going somewhere else. Eventually after some explanation that I have been sent this way it is accepted that I can go to Amsterdam! I emerge and find Jackie. However there are only signs for transfers to somewhere else and no indication that there is an exit anywhere. If anyone ever asks – do not fly to Amsterdam.
The tour guide is slowly collecting his flock and one of the last couple through obviously have the same sort of misrouting as I suffered.
Royal Palace Amsterdam 20.4.26
We are then dropped in central Amsterdam and although we have been here before, over 20 years ago I honestly do not recognise it at all. The station looks familiar as we used it a few years ago but the rest is not recognised. We walk a little way to the main square and then find a decent lunch in an adjacent restaurant before returning to the quay and taking a cruise through the canals of Amsterdam – again we have done it before but I do not really remember it. Back to the coach pick up. Only it doesn’t. It is reported that the coach is stuck in a tunnel under the City and cannot move. We sit in a local bar but after two hours I flip out and we decide to catch a train down to The Hague where we have a dinner reservation.
Amsterdam Canal Cruiser 20.4.26
The train takes around 50 minutes – smooth, a number of stops, double decker trains. Not high speed but frequent (every 10 or 15 minutes). Once in The Hague we take a taxi direct to our booked restaurant for an excellent meal before finding our Movenpick hotel – we are now very tired as it has been a very long day.
Service to Den Haag 20.4.26
The rest of the tour party made it to the hotel soon after 7 as the coach had finally been extricated around the time we set off; I just felt that not enough was being done – it seemed that a second coach could not be procured and it was all down to a lack of CCTV in the tunnel – but there are other ways of solving the problem and getting traffic moving.
None of the problems were the fault of Newmarket directly – KLM had a flight cancellation; Schipol clearly cannot cope with the new system, the failure by the local police to keep traffic moving