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Friday: September 27
Boston to Amsterdam, A Late Start
I’m sitting in the terminal in the usual “waiting to board” period.
The van arrived almost a half hour early, catching us by surprise, but the driver kept reassuring us, “I know we’re early. Don’t rush. Take your time.” The drive in was uneventful. We seem to be among the people that the van company services that are closest to the airport. We’re (as in today) the last to board on the way to the airport, and we’re often the first to be dropped off on our return.
This is my first time in the new Terminal E (International), and not surprisingly it is much nicer than the old Terminal E.
We stood through a line to get to one of the three working kiosks (to avoid the long line waiting for a person), but then there was no place to drop off our tagged baggage. That line seemed closed, meaning that after waiting in line for the kiosk, we would then also have to wait in line for a person. Amy went up to check with a staff person, and maybe as a result, or maybe coincidentally, they opened up a tagged bag line, so we could zoom in and drop off our tagged bags.
We have TSA-pre, and we told Viking about it, but apparently it didn’t get to the airline, because our boarding passes were not so marked. As a result, we had to go through the normal line, take our shoes off, take the iPad out, etc. Still, it wasn’t a huge hassle.
We have about an hour and a quarter before boarding starts. I’m not looking forward to this flight. The saving grace is that it is a straight shot to Amsterdam, so we don’t need to worry about a connecting flight. Still, it is going to be the normal red-eye case of scarfing down whatever dinner we hopefully get, and then trying to find a way to semi-sleep in the cramped seats for 3-4 hours, and then landing at a time when your body thinks it is 4am.
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Is it a bad sign when you get on the plane and finish your first movie before the plane leaves the gate???
Apparently there was some mechanical problem with “communications equipment”. Finally, that got fixed, but then we had to wait for new routing and take on more fuel. Then just when I thought we were set to go, the pilot came on the PA and said that when they started up the engines, one of them was giving some funny readings, so we had to wait a bit longer for the maintenance crew to check it out. We finally got the green light and were able to take off. I was really glad that we had a direct flight and didn’t have to worry about tight or missed connections. (Also, because we didn’t have to worry about sitting in an airport for a couple of hours after almost no sleep, waiting for the next flight.)
We left about two hours late. I was mildly wondering if the plane was airworthy, but of course it was. Eventually, they served a meal. A short time after finishing, I visited the restroom, and then I took out my sleep mask and ear plugs and settled myself to try to sleep. I normally sleep on my side, which isn’t that easy in a seat, but I tried my best.
To my surprise, I was actually able to get some sleep including dreaming. Just before they came around for breakfast, I was dreaming that the plane had landed and was in the process of dropping us off at the hotel before continuing on to the airport.
I opted to sleep (or at least try to) through breakfast. I think that was the right call.
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