May
2
2009
In the morning I took the bus back to the airport and met up with Peter who was nice enough to let me tag along with him to do some plane spotting at Schiphol. Early on we were able to catch a plenty of departures from Polderbaan east spot. It is located half way down the runway so the birds rotated right in front of us. Once again I wished I had a better camera especially with another two dozen people around me with telescopic lenses. Plane spotting is really big there, there were a few families out with kids and lawn chairs just enjoying the weather and watching airplanes.
After the morning departure rush we decided to go to another spot at Kaagbaan to catch some arrivals but by the time we got there, they switched the runway configuration once again and there were no more birds coming that way. Disappointed, Peter took me to the Aviation Megastore model store near by. And megastore it was - pretty much an entire warehouse filled with tons of models, aviation books, magazines, pilot supplies and so on.
We cooled down at the model store and went out to the east corner of the airport to watch the arrivals but once again they switched the configuration a few minutes after we got there. The planes were still pretty high at that point so I did not get any good pictures there. Soon we were heading over to a spot right next to the taxiway that goes to Polderbaan. There we were pretty much right next to the birds so the most of my good pictures came out of there. We spent a good chunk of time there shooting everything that came in - from Fokker 50s to a number of 747s. What really got me thou was that pretty much all the pilots taxiing by had their windows open and waving to the crowds taking the pictures or just watching there. I thought that was a really nice touch.
It was time to leave afterward Peter dropped me off at the terminal and I took the bus back to my hostel. I went out and shopped for some souvenirs and then met up with Gertjan, another couchsurfer. We had a quick dinner and unfortunately I could not join them for a party afterward since I was starting to feel pretty sick. I went back to the hostel and packed up. It was going to be a long day tomorrow.
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no comments | posted in Amsterdam, Amsterdam Schiphol, Couchsurfing, Holland
Apr
21
2009
That took a while! I did not pack until the last moment, so I only had a couple hours of sleep the night before. My flight was not leaving until after 10, but I could only get a ride to the airport before 8 so I spent a couple of hours there and then I had another five hour wait at Detroit. My flight to Amsterdam was on a Northwest 747 and I was hoping it would be the newly painted bird in Delta colors (see the youtube video of the paint procees). I did see it at a gate, unfortunately it was going to Tokyo. To add insult to injury, it actually just came back from Amsterdam! Oh well, I went to the gate area and tried to catch some naps. An hour before boarding, I got up and walked around from one end of Concourse A to the other end and back so get some exercise before the eight hour flight.
Once we boarded the plane, the captain came on and told us he had good and bad news. Oh-oh… The good news was that we would have a strong tailwind getting there sooner. The bad news was that Schiphol had a curfew so we could not get in early. We ended up sitting on the ground in Detroit for about an hour before pushing back. This was my first time on a 747 and the take-off roll seemed to take forever, followed by a very shallow (what it seemed) climb out. Thankfully, I was able to get a seat by the exit door so it was pretty comfortable less the galley right next to me. I had some wine with my dinner and soon dozed off for a little bit.
The approach to Amsterdam was pretty cool, flying over a wind power generator farm off the coast and then all the fields and canals. Normally on smaller airplanes you can feel the configuration changes when they lower the flaps or dump the landing gear. Not so on this bird - everything was so smooth and unnoticable up until the touchdown and roll out. When we were deplaning, I went upstairs to get a picture with the flight deck for my first 747 flight. The crew was very nice and was telling me how these are “small hops” for them (normally 747 go to Asia).
I had a two hour layover in Amsterdam, and it took me almost all that time to make it through the customs, get the ticket for my next flight, and make my way around the airport. My first impression of Schiphol was that it was kind of confusing, but I made it where I needed to be and boarded the Air France flight to Paris. It was an A321 in their international configuration (with middle seat seatbacks folded down to create a sort of a table in the first dozen of rows or so… weird). There were probably 50 people at most and I got a full row all to myself. We were served breakfast made of a couple of croissants and tea (no OJ!). The flight was uneventfull and I just could not stop thinking how can they afford to have five or six flight attendants on board, in addition to having two people at each gate in Amsterdam, even if it was a long time before the flight. Here in US you are luck if you can find the gate agent half an hour before boarding…
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no comments | posted in Amsterdam Schiphol, Detroit Wayne County, Paris Charles de Gaulle
