German Train ticket purchased at Munich Airport.
When we were waiting to board the plane in Portland a loud buzzer went off. The guy who was taking the tickets closed the door to the gate and turned around and said, "Sorry. The flight is already full."
Then he smiled and everybody laughed. It was funny mostly because I don't often see airline personnel that playful.
He opened the door and started boarding again. Maybe there's an alarm if the door is open a certain amount of time? And as it turned out, the flight was only about 90% full and the service amazing.
72 hours of metro use in Amsterdam. You pass this ticket in front of a thingey when you board and exit and it beeps.
On the Düsseldorf to Munich flight half the passengers were hopeless amateurs. A lady was seated in the row ahead of us when we boarded. A passenger came to claim the seat and embarrassed, she moved to the row in front. A passenger came to claim that seat and embarrassed again, she moved back to the row in front of us. By this time the person who claimed the seat in the row in front of us had discovered he was wrong and moved. Then a woman and two daughters from a country we never figured out arrived to claim the row ahead of us.
The woman seated said: This row is D - B - F
Because that makes sense.
Finally there is more seat switching until she found her correct place in seat B, strangely placed between seats A and C across the aisle.
Air Berlin had, what seemed to me, to be extremely small seats. This coming from a person who my husband insists has no ass. I had to yank on the seatbelt to get it to click shut.
The flight was only 50 minutes but they did beverage service. The snack choice was wasabe chips or a chocolate-wafery bar thing. Bob waffled when offered a choice and the young lady whispered: You can have both.
On the drop down screens they showed fake views out of a fake cockpit.
Train ticket from the train station by the hotel to the airport.
When I was a girl they were called Madonnabes. And I think there was a time when No Doubt was huge and they were called Stefanabees. Now what are they called? Gagabes? I saw flocks of them in Düsseldorf. There's probably a more clever word than "flocks" but I can't think of it right ow.
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In Bad Kissingen I thanked Tante Hilla (in her 80's, she would flog me for mentioning it) for being so generous with us.
She says: Pam, you can't take it with you. The last nightdress has no pockets.
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Our train passes were for first class. There were a couple of times when we didn't know where the first class cars were so we sat in 2nd which is still pretty nice.
On the way out of Bad Kissingen we found the 1st class section which was about 8 seats in the front of the train with a clear view to the conductor and the front window of the train. It was spectacular.
My last dinner on vacation Zeppos
I usually don't like to ask the hotel or touristy places about restaurants because I assume they're going to send you to some generic craphole. That did not happen on this trip.
In Düsseldorf the hotel guy sent us into the Altstadt and told us there were tons of great places but he gave us two names as well. We found one of the places he mentioned and it was perfect plus they set a beer in front of me before I even asked. If I could marry a Düsseldorf restaurant (click on that link, it's awesome), this would be it.
In the Amsterdam history museum Bob asked the adorable ticket desk clerk for some suggestions telling her it was our last night in town and we didn't want anything touristy.
It took us awhile to find the place but Zeppos was really fantastic. We had fries with three different sauces and my entree was something with shrimp that was great.
The place had a bar that looked like an after work drink spot. It was a great way to end the trip.
Here are more of Bob's adventures after I left. Even if you don't have time to read, there are great photos:
Haarlem Highlights.
Some dork Atomium thing
Clare and the Reasons
A Few More Haarlem Notes.
