Sat, 15 Nov 2003

author Tim	location Hornchurch, Essex, England
posted 12:41 GMT 18/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Netherlands/Netherlands 4 ( all photos )

Mad Rush of a Morning ( No photos )
We had left plenty of time to get ourselves organised, but it never seems to be enough in situations like this.
Things which somehow managed to get worked out were chucking out lots of rubbish, more clothes to the clothing bin, a final check of every cupboard and nook and cranny in Rosie, and then signing a contract for the sale on consignment to her next owner after repair.
Once we had all our bags attached to our bodies, the scale of the task ahead of us became apparent. The walk to Utrecht Centraal to catch the train to the airport was probably the hardest either of us have ever done. Both our bodies were shaking, our hands were red and swollen and we were very worn out. The worst part was over by this stage, but we still had a long way to go.
We had just missed the train we wanted, but they were running well and frequently so the next one wasn't far away. It rattled us to Duivendrecht where we had to change for a very full train to the airport. With that much gear there's not much point finding a seat, so we just waited in the vestibule areas all day.
When it came time to put my pack on, a nice Dutch lady helped me get the strap onto my shoulder - obviously not jealous of all we had to carry and wanted to help us out.
At Schiphol station (I just love the idea of combined airport and station, makes so things so easy for travellers), we stumbled straight into a luggage cart! Needless to say, we dumped our bags onto it quick as a flash and took stock of how most of our muscles in our bodies no longer wanted to behave themselves.
Next target was the check-in desk, where the line was short and the girl at the end confirmed that our reading of the fine-print had been correct and we could bring three bags between us, as long as the combined weight was less than 40kg. Infact, we had been carrying 36kg between us just in hold baggage, and I'm quite glad that she chose not to bother us about the weight of our cabin baggage as I think it would have topped another 20kg, double the allowance.
We were glad that all this had gone so well, and with boarding cards in hand and big bags gone, we wandered off to find our gate in the huge airport. This done, the nearest café supplied us with a slice of pizza and huge coke, which we complimented in true backpacker style with some peanut butter sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs!
There was about six euros left in coins in our wallet, which I let Liz go off and wander to spend since banks won't change them at the other end. Not too suprisingly (it is what she does on pretty much every international journey), she returned with a giant Toblerone! The rest of the change made it to a donations box (which, out of interest, seemed to contain more currencies than we have ever seen in any one place), then we packed up and went to wait for our plane.
It was delayed about fourty-five minutes, but eventually it came, we all filed on (quite orderly considering there are no allocated seats, it's just first-in-best-dressed) and went through the standard pre-flight checks. The crew on EasyJet are always so relaxed, easy going and play jokes over the intercoms regularly. Makes for a fun trip.
The flight was just fine, nice and smooth as we headed once again for England, waving goodbye to "proper joined-on Europe".

author Tim	location Hornchurch, Essex, England
posted 12:21 GMT 18/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 4 ( all photos )

Back off the Continent ( No photos )
(Continued from The Netherlands 4)
Back into British airspace, we encountered something that on previous flights in and out of the place we hadn't - the weather actually looked better than it had in The Netherlands!
The ridiculously short flight was at an end with a safe touchdown at London Luton, and we all filed off the plane, once again thinking that EasyJet might be a cut-price airline, but they do everything very well. Not one whinge out of us.
After a quick look back at the plane, we filed into the terminal building. Immigration gave me no problems, and once we had passed through customs it dawned on us that that meant we had everything back into the country!
Once again a luggage trolley assisted us carrying our way-too-much luggage, and we purchased train tickets through to Romford. There was lots of track work going on, which wasn't that much of a suprise, but perhaps our journey would work out ok. The shuttle bus took us to the station, past places we remembered from when we last used this airport on our way to Amsterdam back in April.
Despite having to use three different trains and hence lug our bags on and off them, the trip went ok. People stared at us funny as we had so many things to lug around, but it didn't bother us - this will probably have been the last time we need to move things like this!
From Romford we took a cab to Les and Pearl's place, bringing our total number of means of transport for the day to nine - a Walk to Utrecht Centraal, train to Duivendrecht, train to Schiphol Airport, plane to London Luton, bus to Luton Airport Parkway, train to West Hampstead, train to Stratford, train to Romford, then cab to Les and Pearl's!!
We arrived there about 4pm, and not too suprisingly all we wanted was to dump our things and have a shower. Pearl cooked us a great English meal of fish and chips, and we watched a bit of TV and chatted before it was time to collapse exhausted into bed.

(customised)