Hey, Higgins!
Well, the trip to Amsterdam did not begin very well. Before we even leave
BWI on Tuesday we are stuck on the tarmac for 2 hours while all the luggage
in the hold is removed because there is a mismatch between the IDs on the
luggage and the people on the plane.
On the flight over on American Airlines we hit some turbulence just south of
Newfoundland and the captain turned the seat belt sign on. Jane was chilly
so I got up to find her an extra blanket. The
bitch-flight-attendant-from-hell marched over to me and rudely ORDERED me to
take my seat and buckle my seat belt. I told her I would as soon as found
my wife a blanket. She told me she would get her a blanket and for me to
sit down immediately. I sat down...we waited...and waited...and the bitch
never returned. So I got up again and started looking through the
over-heads for a blanket. She shows up again with some other dude and
demands my boarding pass, which I hand the dude.
We arrive at Heathrow 3-4 hours later without further incident. Before we
can deplane, the London police come aboard, arrest me, and take me to the
local station. I'm charged with "Disobeying a direct order from the flight
crew," thrown in a cell without running water, food or outside contact for
10 hours before I'm released on bail. The following day we spend all day in
a magistrate's court in Uxbridge where, against the advise of my solicitor I
plead guilty under protest (if I fight it, I have to post a bond and return
to the UK sometime in the future) and am fined �300 (about US$450) and have
to pay the solicitor another �150. Now I go through the administrative BS
to get my bail money back and, because my passport has not accompanied the
money, have to return all the way back to Heathrow for it.
So at the end of my second day in London we are making a frantic race to
Victoria station through the London Underground to get the last train to
Dover. The Tube is very confusing, we get on the wrong line, and in the
confusion I leave our carry-on bag on one of the lines containing, among
other things, all our flight, train, ferry, and hotel reservations info.
We finally get to Dover in time for the last ferry to Calais-Ville but by
the time we get to Calais, all trains have stopped running and we have to
wait until the next day (Friday) around noon. When we finally get to
Amsterdam after about 8 hours on and off trains late Friday night, I can't
the name of our hotel but remember where it appeared to be on the map on its
website (I was wrong). So we walk through the streets (mainly the Red Light
district) of Amsterdam for 3 hours searching for a hotel which name includes
"van Cleve" (the only thing I can remember).
We give up after realizing we have been walking (hiking, with heavy
backpacks) in circles and go back to Centraal Station and the VVV. There, a
VVV agent recognizes the name of the hotel and informs us it is only 3
blocks away and that we have been searching on the wrong ("Old") side of the
city.
So we finally get to the hotel, but because we are 2 days late, our
reservations have been cancelled and the hotel is, of course, fully booked).
After about another hour, we obtain lodging at the Swiss�tel right off the
Dam, and, predictably, it takes us another hour to find it because we get
lost again. We finally get to our room around midnight, dirty and soaked in
sweat from hiking all over the city with our backpacks.
The next morning (Saturday) we decided the last thing in the world we wanted
to do was to get on another train and haul those backpacks up to Caspicum.
So found a smoking coffee shop and ... well ... relaxed. Sorry we missed
Dutch Nash Hash, but we kinda had our own "hash" ;-).
And we never did get the damn blanket.
Other than that, we had a GREAT time...more on that later - gotta do some
Struts stuff.
On!On!
ad (Mark)
-----Original Message-----
From: Pierre-Marc LEFEBVRE [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 9:42 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Missing in action ?
HHHi AD/FP,
Did you ever made it to Europe this month ?
You missed a great Dutch NH.
On Out
Higgins
--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
