Amsterdamned

The first leg of my flight back from Sweden had worked without any kind of problem, so I had time to do some shopping at Amsterdam airport (some fragrance for my queen). I walked to the gate and spent the usual waiting time before I suddenly realized that my connecting flight to Strasbourg had been cancelled ("Geannuleerd") due to technical problems with the plane.

Well, these things happen, no problem. But the way KLM was dealing with the issue led me to believe that KLM never had a flight cancelled before in their company's history. We were told to go to area T2, where we found a state of chaos that you do not want to see at an airport. One sole flight officer dealing with a plane full of frustrated passengers coming from all over the world (in fact some of them flying in from China) kissing their evening plans good-bye. Instead of putting up a sign explaining the next steps KLM had their poor officer checking connections for each and every one of the passengers (with the same result for each of them), then handing out numbers for queueing up at the next counter for handing out hotel vouchers. As most of the people obviously did not understand that (un-explained) concept they stood in line at the counter without a number just to be briskly rejected when they finally thought it was their turn. In the meantime the officer had lost his temper and started screaming at the dozens of customers trying to get some information from him. Really not funny...

Anyway, after a couple of line-ups (officer, then counter, then another counter, then a hotel counter) I finally found a home for the night at an ibis airport hotel where I had a very short night just to get up at 4:20 next morning to catch the first plane to... Brussels! Luckily I had time to buy some Belgian chocolate (yummy!) before I finally caught a plane to Strasbourg. I had made the acquaintance of two teachers living in the vicinity of our hometown, and they had a pick-up arranged which they kindly shared with me. At noon I arrived at home, and after getting the washing machine working, fell into two hours of sound sleep. What a way to spend an unplanned day of vacation...