Similar to the Berlin trip I took back in 2016, I'm tagging along with a friend/coworker on a conference trip. It's even the same conference, in fact, but it's with Munroe this time.
I flew out of Newark on Sunday night, taking the redeye to Schiphol via Reykjavik. My colleagues took an earlier flight, via a different route, to make it to the start of their conference on Monday.
It was 2019 when I last flew Icelandair. I'd almost forgotten what a beautiful language Icelandic is, especially in subtitle form.
It's been almost 4 years since I was there, so I forgot that Keflavik airport passengers deplane at a remote jetway, and take a shuttle bus to the terminal. A full-blown blizzard had recently started when we landed; thankfully we were about an hour early (landed just after 5 AM local), thanks to a tailwind for the entire trip.
Other than not being prepared to step out into the snow as the bus approached, I didn't think much of it, assuming they were used to and/or prepared for snow at this airport. (Checking the next day, though, I see that the same flight I took was canceled on the next night. I had overheard some random people in the airport discussing the impending weather, which was apparently bad enough to cause some people to shift their flights a day earlier.)
The extra time allowed me to grab a nap in a random airport chair. It was a bit bumpy but otherwise uneventful on the next flight, landing outside Amsterdam just before noon (6 AM back home).
The 2nd flight was completely full, so I had gate-checked my carry-on bag... which initially appeared lost, as it didn't show up in baggage claim (along with 3 or 4 others). After some interaction with Swissport, in which a helpful woman made a phone call to send someone back to the plane to "check for more bags", the crisis was averted.
Having done passport control already in Iceland (hooray for the Schengen Area), it was quick and painless
Schiphol airport is lovely, once you get out of the baggage hall. I chuckled when I saw that there are shops to buy tulips and bulbs in the airport. Because of course there are.
The "I want to go to Amsterdam" shortcut elicited another chuckle. I didn't quite have a plan for how to get where I was going, and couldn't be bothered to look up any station names, so I paid the tourist tax and used this easy button (resulting in a "good for any train to any station in the city" ticket).
Munroe had already checked into the hotel, thankfully, so the first step of any plan was to find him and get a room key. I managed to find an intercity train that dropped me close to the convention center, then took the subway one stop and walked the last bit.
We managed to coordinate the exchange of pleasantries and a hotel keycard between Cisco talks, then I continued to the hotel.
It was a beautiful day and not a long walk, so I took a stroll with my luggage towards the hotel.
This large heron remained so still as I passed, my first thought was "why is there a fake bird on the roof of that van?"
Apparently this is a whole thing. An old lady passing the other way also stopped to admire the heron with me, jokingly gesturing that I should shoo it off the roof (that's my best guess based on hand gestures and not understanding Dutch, anyway).
It felt good to stretch my legs after spending about 8 hours on planes and several more sitting in airports, so I savored the stroll along the canal.
I unloaded, refreshed, and spend the next few hours doing some work while trying to stay awake.
Not wanting to lose that fight, I moved to a nearby refreshment establishment to finish what I was working on. The trappist cheese platter was unbelievable.
It was so much cheese, I had to summon help to finish it.
After beer and cheese with my two colleagues, we wandered around a bit to find some dinner, headed back to the hotel and tried to stay awake until 10 PM.
Tomorrow, the weather looks clear but a bit colder. I'm probably going to roam the city for a few hours in the morning, and do so more work after lunch.
Sunrise isn't until ~8:15 AM, and nothing here opens before 9 or 10 AM, so hopefully I can sleep in.
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